The Prince's Songbird Slave ✔️

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Thoughts around time of publishing - Is it sad that I've had everyone's Christmas presents sorted for a week already? (published 24th October)

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I sat there, kneeling on the hard pool tiles, my clothes and hair wet and cold, but now that the adrenaline that has filed my actions earlier was gone I couldn't seem to move.

I knew that sometimes in life bad things happened for no reason other than bad luck, but this seemed like too much to be a coincidence. Things like this only ever seemed to happen to Evelyn when we came to the Gaithering, and I felt my jaw tighten. It would be ridiculous to think this was some random chance of fate.

And if someone had indeed orchestrated this, then there was only one person I could think of. I got to my feet, only for my legs give way and I found myself falling.

A strong hand grabbed me under my arm and kept me upright. I turned to say thank you, then I saw who it was. Brand.

Freya's boy toy was calmly observing me with his green eyes, and I could see a hint of pity hidden away behind his arrogant façade.

"You'd better go," he said softly. "Nearly everyone else has left already."

I looked around, and realized her was right. Clearly the near deaths of two people and the arrival of emergency paramedics was enough to kill the party mood, the only people who were still here were the ones who were too intoxicated to leave, everyone else had scarpered. I wasn't at all surprised to find that Freya was nowhere to be seen.

Brand seemed to sense what I was thinking.

"She has gone to see the Elders," he told me smoothly. "As one of the organisers of tonight's event she went to inform them of what happened."

I snorted, "how convenient."

Brand sighed, but didn't say anything more in defense. He released my arm and started to walk off.

"Hey!" I shouted after him, "wait!"

He stopped, and turned his head slightly, looking haughtily at me over his shoulder.

"Yes?"

"Why did you come to find me?" I asked him, recalling how he had appeared with no explanation and dragged me to where I was needed.

"Evelyn was in trouble," he replied, his eyebrows furrowing.

I shook my head, and tried to get to the heart of the matter.

"Did you see it happening?" I asked, before I realized something else that left my feeling cold again. "It would have been far quicker for you to get her out of the water, rather than running to me and dragging me back. Why did you waste all that time?" It seemed some sort of bipolar game he was playing with me – one minute I was thinking he was actually an ok guy trying to help out in a bad situation, then the next second my opinion of him changed completely.

He looked back at me, seeming to struggle to find the right words to explain. "I... couldn't. I wouldn't have been able to stop it. And when I went to get you she wasn't in the water yet, I'd hoped to get you there before that had happened. Sadly I failed."

"What exactly did happen?" I challenged him.

He sighed.

"A drunken fool who had no concept of safety did something only a drunk fool would." He said somewhat cryptically.

I was about to ask him what the hell that actually meant when another voice spoke. Abby it seemed had held back and not left with the rest of the partygoers.

"You know Theo's older brother, he has this recording?" she said, and I nodded. She held out her phone to me, on it was a video of the party.

I took the phone, and Abby flinched away from me as I did so.

I started the film, it was too loud and hearing what was being said was impossible, but I could see what was happening from an angled distance.

A group of people were drinking and messing about, a girl tried to shove one of the guys in, and failed, he shoved her into the pool as revenge. She got out giggling, and then Evelyn walked into frame, carrying our drinks in her arms.

She had to walk past the noisy group, and she sped up as she tried to pass them, but the guy who'd shoved the other girl in earlier heckled her, he stood in her way and prevented her from getting past him. Everyone else seemed to be laughing at what he was saying, and he seemed to be making a gesture about Evelyn being short. Then he picked her up, shouting something to his mates that probably went along the lines of "should I jump in the water?", and people cheered drunkenly in agreement. People seemed to be ignoring Evelyn who was trying to struggle out of his grip, people started cheering and he took a little run up to the pool before jumping in. The two of them disappeared beneath the water, and the video stopped shortly after, the phone dropping out of angle.

I held the phone out to her feeling sick once again, and Abby took it back from me gingerly.

The only small relief was that Freya hadn't pushed her in and hadn't been anywhere in the background of the film. I don't know if I coul marry a monster like that.

But it doesn't mean she didn't arrange it, a small voice whispered to me, and I ran my hand through my hair.

"I have to go," Brand told me and started to walk away again.

Abby didn't seem to like the idea of being alone with me, and hurried after him, leaving me behind.

I walked slowly back to the lodge, taking my time – it's not like there was anything I wanted to hurry back there for.

When I finally arrived I could hear raised voices inside, my parents seemed to be having a rare, but very heated argument. I was too tired to deal with it, so I just walked in, and they stopped shouting at each other when I entered.

My mother flew at me and enveloped me in one of her hugs.

"Thank god you're ok!" she said, stroking my hair, "we'd heard there'd been an accident at the party," her breath caught. "They said that Evelyn and another young man had been involved, and I thought I might have lost you both..." she trailed off, and tried to compose herself.

"Evelyn is staying in some specialized facilities inside the main building," she told me after a few seconds. "They say she'll be fine, she just needs some rest. The incident seemed to have triggered one of her fits so she'll be asleep for a little while..." She trailed off again, realizing that I was unresponsive. She held me at arm's length. "You're soaked dear," she said, "let's get you dried off."

She tried to lead me towards my room, but I shook myself out of her grasp.

"Nate!" she called after me as I walked silently away from her.

My father put a hand on her shoulder, "he needs time," he said, and for once I felt relived by his interruption. I just couldn't deal with all the questions at the moment.

There seemed to be one my mother hadn't voiced, and it was going round and round in my head.

Why was I so useless?

I knew without doubt that I would do anything for Evelyn – I would not hesitate to give my life to save hers.

Yet I was unable to do so. Every time we were together I seemed to let her get hurt, . Dispute making promises to myself I was forever unable to do anything, my convictions were useless when I was unable to act on them, and that hurt me. Just thinking of her getting hurt cut me up inside. The thought of her as she must be now, lying in a hospital-like bed frail and weak, destroyed me.

There were ways to make other people stay away from her, ways that would stop them from hurting her, lest they offend me, but would messing with her life be something I had the right to do?

Would it be an act of kindness, or was it a purely selfish act of cruelty to do so?

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I have more time tomorrow, so I'll try and get two chapters done! I apologize for this one :/

Any thoughts? Will Evelyn wake up?