Alexandria: The Lost Princess

Chapter 15 - Part 3

Twirling around endlessly, my arms pulling against Wilfrids, connected like children in our chaotic dance. The walls blurring behind him, his blonde curls flowing to the side, a broad smile etched into his face. With loud laughter and heavy clapping from Estella, our evening flows to life. Joy flutters through the room, filling it with laughter.

A figure moves into the doorway, and I whip around laughing. Steadying myself with a hand on Wilfrid's shoulder, my subconscious expectant to see Kalen leaning against the doorframe with an amused smile. I freeze, my smile instantly dropping. Wilfrid grips my elbow, holding me upright while he bows. Estella gasps, her knees smashing against the floor in a sudden deep bow.

King Thaddeus smiles, indescribable longing. "Your mother used to love dancing." Noticing my shoes, his lip twitches with sadness. "With enough practice, she twirled beautifully across the floor during our wedding." Thaddeus reaches out to me. "Come, I want to show you something."

Hesitantly, linking arms with him, I'm guided into the hall. My legs tremble in a threat of falling. Clinging to the king, I glance back at Wilfrid, my silent protector. Crossing the balcony in the foyer, we enter another wing of the castle.

The same feeling I had towards the shoes, swirls into my lungs and I gasp for air. My heart pounds under each step I take towards the doors at the end of the hall. She had been here. Before Thaddeus opens the door, I read: Library. The door clicks behind me, separating us from Wilfrid.

Orange glow fills the room with dust specks fluttering around, each a single memory of my mother's swirling with life. A ghost of a woman forms within my imagination, wavy brown hair and green eyes from the portrait. She twirls across the floor lifting the dust into the air with a spin of her dress. Aisles of shelves fill the one side of the room, cluttered with books and dust. A dark shadow swallows up the light, this is where books went to rest.

The King lifts a strand of my hair and twirls it with a finger. "Our first dance was in this library," his voice thick with memory, "I can almost hear the harp still playing."

Nervously, stepping back, my hair falls from his fingers. "She loved this place?"

He sighs, his hand gliding against the couch. "Very much." I nod in understanding, though he would never know for he disappeared into a past memory. "She struggled to adjust to my life, this was her sanctuary." His eyes swirl with desire, and he approaches me, his hand lifting. I stumble back, the air in my lungs thickening. "I never thought I'd see her again, then you came." Cupping my jaw bone tenderly, a shiver rips through his touch and down my back. "You came back to me, my flower." A pulse sends my heart into a nervous flutter, and I stumble out of his reach. His hand drops, clenching into a fist at his side. "Why?"

"I didn't come here," my voice stutters under the weight of my words, "you took me." My mind swirls into a daze, my mother the Captured Queen lived my same life. Stripped from her family, she was taken here for the king's pleasures. Lifting my hand, I caress my trembling lower lip. "Just like you took her," I whisper.

Steps of thunder pound against the floor in a deafening threat. My head thrusts to the side, a wicked slam echoes through the air along with my scream. My hand trembles, touching the sting of my cheek. "She had more sense in her," Thaddeus screams. His eyes flare with disgust, burning through me. Stumbling back, I slam into the shelves behind me.

Wilfrid busts into the room, the door flies open crashing into the wall. Wilfrid walks in cautiously, uncertain of the situation. I quiver before the king, his chest heaving with anger. "Princess," the edge in Wilfrid's voice is a warning.

Thaddeus' hand runs down my inflamed cheek. "Tell me, child, is it Octavius that corrupted you? She always had a soft spot for that traitor."

Corrupted? This man taunts me with tales of my mother and abuses me. Octavius merely warned me and sheltered me from Thaddeus's darkness. He is a good man, nothing like the monster before me. Anger shakes inside me. Octavius is only a traitor because he tried to rescue my mother! My anger bubbles up from my lungs, and I scream, "He raised me with the truth!"