Mated To The Ice Prince

C-30

Raelyn helped Darian on top of the bed, before walking outside to get breakfast for him.

She returned shortly with a cup of tea and a few slices of bread. "Here you go" she placed the food on top of the table. "Do you want me to feed you?" She asked in a smile as she looked at him.

"I'm not hungry Raelyn" was his response.

"But... You've being here for three whole days without food and water," Raelyn was worried for his health. "Don't you know it's bad to starve oneself?" She sat beside him with the cup of tea in her hands.

"Will you be my teacher, My Princess?" He asked her in a small smile.

"Just have a drink, and put some clothes on" she told him

"I said I'm not hungry." He remained adamant about eating. "Those marks looks hideous don't they?" He turned to look at her.

Raelyn took a closer look at his stomach, the mark wasn't so large, it looked like a normal birth mark caused by the pigmentation of one's skin, but this has the shape of a fire, and it was located at the right side of his stomach.

"It's kinda cool" she responded. "Can I touch it?"

"You don't need my permission"

"Ah! You need to eat something first, otherwise, I'll force you" she suddenly remembered that he was yet to eat anything.

Darian chuckled. "Force me?"

"Uh huh" she brought the cup closer to his mouth. "Like how one does to a baby" she said.

"How are you gonna do that?" He rolled his eyes. "It's not like I'm a child Raelyn"

She scoffed playfully. "I'll force you"

Raelyn took a sip of the tea in her mouth without swallowing it, then she grabbed his chin and took her mouth closer to his lips.

Darian didn't know when he opened his mouth, he just realized that he really did swallowed the warm liquid.

"Are you gonna eat now?" She looked at him. "Or you still want..."

"Fine you win" he sighed. "I'll eat"

"Much better!" She handed him the cup.

While he took the tea, Raelyn couldn't help but stare at the mark in his stomach.

Millions of questions burned her mind.

'Why does he have a red birthmark? Why was it glowing just now? Why were his eyes and hair red? What really happened?'

"Do you wanna know?" Darian's voice woke her up from her thoughts.

"W...what?" She was quite startled.

"About what you're thinking" he dropped the cup on top of the table.

"Oh!" She recalled that he could hear thoughts. "Stop listening to my thoughts! They're private!" She sounded annoyed.

Darian laughed. "They're sweet to listen to. I love your thoughts more than your words"

"Fine"

"I was born with the marks" he began. "I was told that the mark only glowed the moment I stepped into the world, but it instantly stopped glowing. As I was growing up, I noticed that it'd only glow whenever I was..." He paused, not knowing which word to use. "Should I say in pain? Or whenever I was feeling very... I really dunno how to explain it"

"Woah!" Raelyn was amused.

"The first time it glowed was the day a certain young girl died because of me. It was that day I learned that not only would a lady dies if she sees me, but I'll also suffer hardly for a whole month" he continued sadly.

"Suffer?" She was astonished. "Why do you have to? Isn't the death of that person enough? Didn't you visit any powerful person? Wasn't they anything they could do? I'm sorry... I'm asking too many questions" Raelyn remembered that these were privates, she shouldn't force him to say them to her.

Darian smiled as he patted her back. "It's fine"

"I was fifteen years old when I tasted the first tortures of my own powers. Ever since my birth, my parents had done everything they could to make me a normal boy, but nothing worked" he narrated. "And as for me, I was tired and sick of wearing a mask around the entire palace, I was in total solitariness, and I felt hurt and lonely. I felt more sad after that girl's death, I was rumored to be the monster who eats female body parts"

"Woah!" Raelyn exclaimed. "That's... horrible"

"I overheard a magician telling my mother that I'd be a..." He paused... "A threat and a danger to her life. He instructed my mother to take me away from the palace and keep me far away, otherwise, I'll be the one to kill her when I grow up"

Raelyn was stunned as she heard that, her heart was beating inside her chest.

"My mother never told me, neither did she believed the magician's words, I never acted like I heard the conversation either, I just tried my best in staying away from her" he continued. "When I locked myself up in my chambers for a whole week, my mother almost went out of her mind, she stood in front of my door crying everyday. I told her I didn't want to be a dangerous son, I told her that I was trying to protect her. But my mother never listened, she opted to spend the entire day with me in my chambers" he looked at Raelyn before continuing. "I felt very bad. I hated myself since then on, I pitied my mother a lot because she had spent and sacrifice a lot to make me get better but everything proved futile"

From his tone, Raelyn knew that this prince surely loved his mother, even if Darian tried to isolate himself from everyone.

"That night when I saw the girl's corpse, I didn't know when I fainted, and how long I fainted for" he continued. "What I remembered hearing first the moment I woke up was a the sob of my mother, and the voice of my father who was trying to console her" Darian sighed.

He took both of Raelyn's hands and massaged them while looking into her eyes.

"Raelyn," he called softly.

"Yes"

"Please forgive my mother for everything she ever did to you for the sake of the love your mother had for you"