Dusk of the Realm

32

He was able to interpret the cries before even making it to the throne room, where the sources of the noise were clearly coming from. The screams of his princess rose above the level of the rest.

"Where is Tarin? Tarin!"

In any other situation, it would make him overjoyed to hear the princess calling his name after she had been withdrawn from him for what felt like so long. However, the noise that he was finding his way toward had a distressed ambience to it, and the princess herself was clearly in pieces.

"Princess, please explain--" someone tried to say, but Serena was having none of it.

"I need Tarin!" she insisted, and Tarin burst into the throne room just as the company of people inside suddenly gave a collective gasp - or maybe some of them shrieked - as the princess collapsed to the ground.

What seemed like a hundred hands reached for her, but Tarin shoved everyone aside in desperation. "Princess," he called out, even before he was on his knees beside her. "Princess, I'm here, I'm here..."

He trailed off when he saw the state she was in. She had more bruises than he did; a few noticeable ones on her left temple and along her opposite jawline, as well as ones on her arms and shoulders caused clearly by someone handling her too roughly. By the way she flinched and groaned softly when moving to find him with her gaze, Tarin could insinuate that she had even worse ones along her ribs, and possibly elsewhere.

His vision flared red, desperate for blood.

"Tarin," she murmured, her lips beginning to tremble upon her eyes meeting his, her hands reaching out to grab his forearms. He barely felt it, though he could see that her nails were digging into and through the leather braces. "She's gone, Tarin. She's gone."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, trying to tune out the sound of everyone speaking above one another around them. "Princess, who did this to you? What happened?"

Serena gasped as if someone struck her and curled in on herself, and while Tarin noticed the tears streaming down her face, she was silent but for her heavy breathing. She squeezed her eyes shut and rocked back and forth as she finally responded, softly enough for only Tarin to hear.

"My mother," she managed to whimper, then gasped again and opened her bleary eyes to him, her entire body trembling.

"Tarin, they killed my mother."

                  _______________

Tarin allowed his mind to remain blank for one...

Two.

Three.

Then: "Birches!" he shouted, lurching to his feet. He felt looped again, though the effect of the drink must have been out of his system by now. "Birches!"

There was a scuffle around him, a blur of faces, a torrent of words. Someone knelt towards Serena, but he whipped around to seethe, "Keep away from her!" before the people who had sprinted out of the room at his initial call came back in with his Wolf in tow. The rest of the Fae who had been surrounding him scattered a bit then, giving him more space as he faced off with Birches. Clearly they had no idea what was going on, but with Tarin in such a thunderous mood, they knew at least that it was nothing good.

"Tell me this isn't true," he stated. It could not be true. It was simply not possible.

Birches appeared to be in shock. "Sir... we were..." He swallowed and tried again: "We were with the two of them as they made their way through the city and the fields, even when they entered the forest, but then--"