Queen of Rosewood Forest (On Hold)

Chapter 43

I jump at the lamp shattering and Aaden takes a deep breath to calm down. "Sorry," he mutters as he tries to focus on his breathing. I don't move, not because I'm scared of Aaden. A part of me knows that he wouldn't hurt me, but also I'm trying to calm down the storm inside me. What Aaden said about the flowers registered in my mind so now I need to calm down to stop it.

Once I get my heart to slow down, I manage to turn and see that the walls are covered in azaleas and the door was obviously forced open due to the growths around it. I turn back to see Aaden slowly bending down to grab the book. "Neven gave this to you?"

"Yes. I think he knows."

"Know what?" His voice sounds eerily cautious.

I gulp and clutch my dress as my nerves start to spiral again. "History shrouded, stars forgotten," the fragment is all that comes to my lips as the thoughts spin in my head. Aaden freezes but I am too distracted to read him. "I think I know where my family came from."

Aaden sighs and sits next to me. He takes my fingers and intertwines them with his. "Your father was the prince." he says as if he's known for a while which throws me off. I look at him in shock.

"You know?"

"When you told me about the azaleas and how you were found I pieced it together," he says calmly and I just look at him like he's grown two heads. My thoughts and feelings are so jumbled now that I don't think I could tell you which way was up if someone asked me.

"So you know the history in the library is fake?"

"Yeah," he nods, "the guys and I were told when we took on our roles in the government. It's considered a state secret, but when we took control we were gonna talk about revealing the truth."

"That means Alun and Neven knew when they met me."

"Yeah," he admits, "that's probably why he told you not to say anything. That bastard."

"How could you not tell me the truth about myself?" I ask, suddenly feeling angry. I yank my hand out of his and stand. I start pacing as everything spins and overwhelms me. "You knew and you didn't tell me! You knew how I felt about him lying and hiding from me and yet you did the same thing! Aaden, YOU–"

"We did it to try to protect you!" He shouted trying to explain it but I was too overwhelmed to really listen to his excuse. "Our families have been trying to find any trace of the prince since he escaped. They seem to have calmed down about it but that's why no one is allowed in the castle. Most of the citizens think that the royal family all died when a plague hit the castle. No one but us and our grandparents know the truth." He walks over to me but all I can focus on is the fact that he hid the truth from me just like Neven. His words replay in my head.

Realizations start to hit me left and right. "The elders murdered my grandfather" I gasp. "They tried to kill my father when he was a child." It all comes so fast that I have no time to process anything. My chest tightens as I try to bring in more air but it's not working. "You let me stay here knowing my life is in danger. Neven and Alun brought me here knowing all of this." The weight of it all feels like it is crushing me as my gasps get shorter and faster. Tears start to pour down my cheek and he takes a step towards me but I step away, not wanting him anywhere near me at the moment.

"We knew you needed help with your powers. We never had any intention of letting harm come to you," he tries to reason with me. "Please Evette, you need to listen."

"Is that the only reason I'm here? So you can sleep at night? So you can feel like you've fixed the problems of the secrets you keep?"

He looks like I just slapped him across the face. "No, of course not. We want the people to know the truth, but we had to make them trust us first. We wanted to make sure we wouldn't be silenced." I scoff and take another step away from him.

"How do people not already know? It hasn't even been a hundred years, how are there not people who remember the old monarchy?"

"Most people in the village are younger than the elders. We weren't told how they did it but the people who were children at the time of the uprising were taught the fake version of events. Alun suspects anyone older was bribed or threatened to keep quiet. There weren't many people left at that time. Some of them we have no trace of what happened to them, they just disappeared."

"So your grandparents completely erased the history of what came before? And people just let it happen?" The anger in me somehow get me to switch my gasps of panic into breaths of fury. I clenched my fingers into fists.

He nodded, "Yeah."

"Were you ever going to fix it?" I glare at him. "I know you said that once you and the others were in charge the story would be fixed but what about all of the people here who were told lies their entire lives?"

"Eben suggested a vote amongst the people to see if we should stay in power. Alun said we would reveal things slowly so as not to provoke outrage. Neven said we should come right out and say it. In the end we could never agree on how to do it."

"So what now?" I ask as tears still pour down my face while the rage continues to face through me. "Obviously Alun and Neven know about me, does Eben? Is he in on lying to my face about my family too?"

Aaden sighs, "Evie please."

I turn my fury on him, "DO NOT call me that right now."