Missing Heart

Missing Heart- Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-four



    Two royal guards opened the door to the King’s chambers when Marcus arrived fully attired in his coat and his emblem of his house, the Earl of VonChante. The King had requested him to meet in his royal chambers privately. Well, it was supposed to be him and Diana together, but that wasn’t going to happen now was it?

    The King had his back to Marcus. His lounge coat draped over his shoulders and opened in a comfortable and easy going manner. The King was at ease and didn’t want to look too formal just yet. The night had just started.

    The King’s hair pulled back neatly and braided with a small leather strap binding the end. His royal band set to the side for later. He didn’t want to feel his status right now. He even wore simple jeans and a shirt under his coat.

    The King turned around with a glass of blood wine in his hand. He raised an eyebrow when he saw just Marcus before him. “I thought I request you and your lady.”

    “Forgive me your grace, but she needed more rest. The trip here was not easy for her.” Marcus could see her as he woke in his mind. It tore at his heart to see his beloved like that.

    “Is she alright?” Concern thick in the King’s voice.

    Marcus closed his eyes and swallowed hard. “Her dreams were nightmares. Dreadful and terrible nightmares on the way here. I had to ask for your majesty’s physician to sedate her to ease her back into her sleep.” He hated waking abruptly to feeling her thrash next to him on the ride. When he fell asleep, he had no idea that she kept waking and not getting any rest. His heart hurt when he woke as they drew close to the palace to find her looking out the window looking so exhausted. There were bags under her eyes and she trembled.

    “Come. Sit.” Marcus sat in the wing chair that his majesty indicated next to the large ornate fireplace. “So she is real and live. Does she fully remember then?”

    “Yes your grace.” Marcus’ voice shook at the weight of that statement. Her nightmares last night were that of her family’s death. It pained him that she was hurting and there was nothing he could do but be there for her. She needed time to grieve too. This was the first she has had a chance to grieve. It had hit her so quickly because she had been trying to not think of that night just yet. Her mind had other plans.

    “Tell me everything. How did you find her? What happened? Everything.” The King looked so eager to hear of the precious half breed they all mourned yet secretly lived.

    And so Marcus told their story. What Diana went through. How she ended up as his mistress. How he realized who she was. Everything. Even what he did before he knew who she was. The King understood his reaction with the guards and gave his consent that it was a just death for those criminals.

    “There is something that has me puzzled. Why did the investigation not show she made it out?”

    The King took a sip of his wine that was nearly gone now. “I do not know. I’ve gone back through it over the years looking for a sign that there was a possibility she lived. We had full remains for both her parents as well as some of the humans, but not her. I should have seen that as a clue.”

    Marcus looked at the King with a thought. “Could it be possible that she jumped when she got pinned by the beam? She did it for small distances before and still can. She could have been so scared that she just pop into the woods before she forgot who she was.”

    The King stroked his chin with his slender fingers. “That is possible. Especially for her. The investigators stopped at the tree line. Maybe they should have looked farther inside the woods.”