Chapter 25 - Expecting someone else?

EMMA

The old pages of the book in my hands rustle beneath my fingertips. Dust rises from the paper and it makes me sneeze. My whole body joins in on the action and the book falls out of my hands. The particles still itch in my nose, as the sound echoes through the fifteen floors of the library in the palace towers. There are millions of books arranged on shelves, row after row. The center of the tower is open and allows me to see all the way to the glass ceiling. And this is only one of the two towers.

“Bless you.” I hear Miles call from three floors down.

Callum and Miles have been following my every move for the past seven days. Especially Callum will not let me out of his sight. I think he believes I will strangle him with my silver necklace or something. Miles however has been overbearingly nice. Not sure what to think about that either.

I’ve been helping Cecile in the kitchen for the past few days, because she’s the only one who’ll let me. The servants look horrified when I do, but I cannot sit around all day and do nothing. I need something to do, a purpose of some sort. Paulina showed me the library three days ago. I know she tries to push me to do other things with my time, than help in the kitchen.

I lean down to pick up the book about the history of Sanguinem. From the corner of my eyes, I spot a thin booklet wedged between two thick encyclopedias. The powder blue booklet is titled ‘The legend of the white moon’. I pry it from the shelf to get a better look.

Footsteps sound behind me. “Are you done already?” Callum asks.

I turn to face him. “What’s your problem? It’s not like you have something better to do.” I pick up the books and hug them against my chest. I get up to my feet and stumble a little as Miles walks up to us.

“Are you okay?” Miles worries.

“Yeah, I just stood up too quickly.” I say and wait for the galaxy of stars in my vision to disappear.

“Are you sure? You’ve been sleeping a lot the past few days.”

Just mentioning sleep makes me suppress a yawn. I’ve been sleeping so much and still wake up tired everyday. I think it might be the stress from the past week finally leaving my body. That’s a good thing right? Means I’m getting used to living in a palace full of bloodthirsty wild animals.

“I’m telling you, I”m f—aargh” A sharp cramb hits me in the stomach and I bend over with the contraction. The pain hits me so hard that tears spring in my eyes.

Miles supports me with a brawny arm. “We’re going to bring you to the healer.”

“That’s not necessary.” I groan and move away from him. His touch intensifies the hollow feeling, like my body is rejecting it.

“You could be pregnant, that could be our future Alpha King in there.” Miles argues.

Callum rolls his eyes and I cannot believe that I share that statement. I straighten when the pain passes and becomes manageable. “Believe me, I’m not.”

I was so relieved when my period started yesterday. Never in my life have I been so happy about bleeding uncontrollably. This cramp though, is unnecessarily brutal.

———

I fall face down on the bed, still dressed in my jeans and sweater. I found them in a drawer of the wardrobe three days ago and I’ve been living in them ever since. Paulina tries to dress me in one of the countless dresses that the tailor has been making. They are more casual than the gowns and the colors are better suited for my light skin. The dresses beautiful and I feel guilty that I’ve not been wearing them, but these are the few things I have from home. Wearing them feels like I’m holding on to who I really am.

Paulina places a bronze tray on the bed. The scent of jasmine wafts through the air. There is a porcelain teapot, two cups and a glass plate with raspberry jam cookies. She always gives me two cups, two plates, makes the bed for two people and suggests that I dress nice for the prince. I turn my gaze at the ceiling and I’m consumed by this hollow feeling in my chest. Being reminded of the prince only makes it worse.

“Lieutenant Miles said you’re not feeling so well, so I made you some jasmine tea. Cecile suggested you just needed to eat more.”

“Thanks.” I ignore the feeling and I pick up one of the books about the history of Sanguinem. I leaf through the pages. I read about how the city was founded on the night of the blood moon nearly one-hundred and eighty years ago.

*The blood moon was the significant moment that gave Alpha Maxius of the Blood Moon pack the advantage to win the civil war against the White Moon pack. The blood moon gave the members of the Blood Moon pack unbelievable strength…*

My eyes start to droop and the words on the pages start to jumble around. I try to read the last sentence again, but my eyes fall close again. Memories of the blood moon replace my vision and bring me into a restless sleep.

———

The sound of a clattering window rouses me from my slumber. The room is dark and the sun has set. I rub the sleep from my eyes. The book still lies open on the bed. I close it and place them on the nightstand. The wind howls in the evening and a gust of cold air circles through the room. A shiver runs over my body and I move off the bed to close the window.

A dark figure sits against the wall beside the open window. His breath is labored. His black hair is disheveled and absorbs the moonlight. His whiskey colored eyes are stern and drops of sweat coat his skin.

“Hadrian?” I rub my eyes to clear my vision from sleep.

“Expecting someone else?” His voice sounds rougher than usual.

My eyes are drawn to his hand placed on his abdomen and the pressure he exerts. His fingers are coated in blood.

“Oh my god, what happened?” I drop down to the floor to see how serious the wound is.

I tug at his wrist, but Hadrian refuses to remove his hand. He’s looking at me with furrowed brows. “Who is your god?”

I blanch. “What? Why does that matter right now?” I nearly shout.

“You humans are so strange.” He catches a lock of my hair between his fingertips. The white ends turn red and then he lets go. “Pretty, but strange.”

The combination of the insult and compliment makes my cheeks burn. Both in anger and something I don’t want to pay attention to. He’s probably delirious from the blood loss. I focus back on the situation at hand. I need to know how bad the injury is.

“You need to let go, Hadrian.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you're bossy?” The grasp on his abdomen loosens and it reveals three gashes. Familiar marks that haunt me in my nightmares. Blood rushes out of the wound and I quickly put the pressure back on his wound. His skin is pale. If the wounds don’t close up soon, then he’ll bleed out.

“Shouldn’t you be healing?” I rake my brain about the knowledge I have about werewolf anatomy. About the things I read in the past few days.

Hadrian shifts on the ground and winches. “I should.”

“I'm going to get Galena.”

I get up from the floor, but Hadrian wraps a hand around my wrist and tugs me back down.

“No.” He says and swallows. His breathing is irregular. “You can’t.”

I search his face for the joke that isn’t coming. “You’ll die.” I explain.

The harsh truth is evident in his eyes. *He knows.*

“If someone finds out that I didn't heal on my own, then I’m dead anyway.” He says.