Beast King | 18+

C H A P T E R T W E N T Y T W O

So, she really misses her beast king.

She stopped to stare at the fire, watching as the flames were almost at a battle with each other as embers popped from one log to another, and she was suddenly brought back to what'd happened.

Adelaide begun to question her supposed plan. She really didn't want to disobey her king, but she was so bored without him to accompany her. But then again, she'd rather suffer in this silence than have Xerxes be angry with her.

She took her hand off the doors' handles, pouting as she turned to try and go back to sleep as Xerxes had told her to do but stopped short in her steps when a tall figure clad in a dark ominous cloak caught her sights. It was facing her, and though she couldn't see its eyes, nor its face, she could feel its gaze burning into her.

Her throat went dry and when she tried to take a cautious step back, her clumsiness had shown itself as she tripped over nothing and fell on her bottom, her attention momentarily leaving the anonymous person, and ultimately giving it a chance to advance towards her.

It was too late for her to scream for help when it'd already grabbed her jaw, eliciting only a small whimper of hurt from the abrupt actions before it took a small vial from its pockets, and drained the contents inside her mouth, forcing her to swallow the bits of sweet liquid that she hadn't spit out.

She coughed violently and leaned heavily on the ground once it released her from its grip. She was growing dizzy with every second that passed by, but not enough that it would actually make her pass out. With great effort, she brought her head up to look for the trespasser, only to find herself alone in the chamber, with no evidence of anyone having been with her.

Adelaide begun to panic as her heart was beating drastically faster than before. She wanted Xerxes, needed Xerxes to make everything better again. She was so close to being a sobbing mess on the floor when she, all of a sudden, felt.. happy. Euphoric, even. And as disoriented as she is right now, she found her footing and left the chambers with a content smile on her face.

And from then on until it led up to her encountering her guardian, was one massive blur.

Norward was concerned for his mistress. She couldn't seem to sit still and was jumping from one corner of the room to another. He didn't know if it was because of Xerxes' absence, or the still unknown concoction that she had consumed from days before, but he was willing to gamble that Adelaide just craved for the king's affections as she'd barely seen him for far longer than what was healthy for both of them.

"Nowy?"

His heart melted at her endearment to him. They've grown closer to each other these past few days, the only good thing that came up of all the ruckus as they rekindled the bond between gift and guardian, and just like when she was a child, she had trouble in pronouncing his name and settled to calling him what she had always used to.

He stood at attention and was quick to be by her side. "Yes, my lady?"

"Does the healer have to come and see me again?" She asked in a soft voice, already dreading the answer as the sun had already begun to set, a reminder for the young woman that the healer was soon to disturb her once again.

"You know that he has to, my lady." He said and gently patted her head. "We still don't know what you've drank, and many unfortunate things could happen if it was toxic to your body."

"But nothing's happened to me so far. I've just been fidgety a-and," she stuttered, "n-needy all the time."

"It'll be over soon, my queen." He assured her to the best of his ability, shushing her when she started to whine as there was a series of knocks and the healer entered the chamber with his trolley in tow.