Something shakes me awake and I open my eyes to find Dae's sleeping face close to mine. I can't help but smile and tighten my arms around her, feeling her soft warm body beside mine.
I feel my eyes closing again heavy with sleep, not sure what woke me but wanting to enjoy this time alone with Dae.
Another shake on my shoulder and my eyes snap open and I turn over seeing two wide brown eyes staring at me.
A young servant girl stands with a lantern in her hands and a terrified look on her face.
"I'm so sorry to wake you Your Highness, but you must come quickly." She whispers, looking over my shoulder to Dae.
"What is it?" I whisper trying to shift my arm without waking Dae.
"It's the King and Queen Your Highness, they...they are both dead." She whimpers, squeezing her eyes together she steps back.
I stare in shock, then blink. My body moves into action, arm sliding out from under Dae, she stirs, still half asleep.
"Alvaryn, what is it?" She asks, voice rough with sleep.
"Nothing, just stay here." I whisper, kissing her temple I hurry out of bed and through the door. The servant follows me, my bare feet sprint down the corridors as I make my way to my parents wing.
Dead. Dead. They can't be dead. This is just a nightmare. I will wake up any moment now.
Guards stand at attention, their expressions just as fearful as the servants as I near my father's room first.
My hand falters as I reach out towards the door, my heart stuttering as I try and prepare myself.
I step into the room and see the blood first.
Bright red words have been painted onto the wall above my fathers bed.
Time's up.
"Alvaryn, I'm so sorry, there was nothing I could do." I hear Oenus somewhere close to me as I look down at my father's bed.
He lies on his back, eyes closed and throat slit as blood spills out soaking the sheets. Beside him is my mother, she is slumped on her side, her arms in front of her as blood pools around her.
"What happened?" I hear myself ask, voice cold and distant.
Varis clears his throat, stepping closer to me as I stand stuck here, unable to move or look away.
"It appears The Queen," He pauses. "She slit the King's throat before committing suicide by cutting her own wrists."
I stare at the wall, the bright red letters glaring at me.
Time's up.
Time's up.
Time's up.
"This is ridiculous!" Aeris snaps suddenly. "Mother would never murder her own husband!" He screams turning to me and then to Demwyn. "And what about that!" He demands, finger pointed at the blood on the wall. "Time's up! Why would she write time's up?" He yells.
"This wasn't her." Demwyn says, sounding calmer than I thought he would be. "This wasn't her doing. It was their warning. Ten days." He says quietly, eyes staring at our parents.
"You think this was another attack?" Varis asks.
Demwyn and Aeris turn to him, eyes daring him to deny it.
"Of course it was!" Aeris bites out. "It was their warning, they gave us ten days to surrender and we did not. Now..." He stops, turning away from Varis and back towards the bed.
The room is quiet and still I am stuck waiting for this nightmare to end, waiting to wake up beside Dae in her bed.
"We need to do something!" Aeris says darkly. "We need to find Callin and Arden and make them suffer for what they have done."
"Of course we will do something Aeris, but we can't go marching into their Kingdom and demand their heads. They already have an army larger than ours waiting for us. We need to go ahead with our plan, we will meet them on the battlefield and destroy their army." Demwyn replies firmly.
"Well, that decision is now yours to make." Varis says stepping forward and looking at Demwyn in a different light.
Aeris looks at me, then Varis, then to Demwyn.
"Now that your Father," he stops himself, looking away from my father's bloody corpse. "Now that Harwyn is dead you are now King of Wyndelle, we will need to hold a coronation of course to make it official, but under the laws of our Kingdom you now rule, Your Majesty." He bows towards my brother just as he used to do to my father.
I look at Demwyn and find him staring at Varis with wide eyes.
Demwyn is now King.
I look back at the bed, mind strangely quiet as dark thoughts linger in the background. Still I don't move, don't speak. What was there to say?
My parents lie dead in their bed.
Murdered in the safety of their own palace walls while we all slept.
For all that we are, all the strength and power and magic we possess, we couldn't do a thing to stop it from happening.
Now they are dead.
Demwyn is King.
There is no going back.
Our future is changed forever and I'm not quite sure how to move towards it. I don't want to move towards it.
"Alvaryn," Someone says my name and I blink. "Alvaryn," A hand at my shoulder and I turn, finding Aeris beside me with his hand on my shoulder.
"Where is Daella?" He asks, making me focus on his words, on his question.
"I left her in her rooms, she was sleeping." I answer.
"Is this really the time to think about her?" Demwyn asks bitterly.
"Don't you start!" Aeris snaps back, finger pointed at our brother in warning.
"Our parents are lying dead in their beds and you're asking about a woman?! Where are your priorities Aeris? They should be here, right here, nowhere else!" He snaps back, moving closer to Aeris, body rigid with anger.
"I know our parents are dead!" Aeris screams. "But Daella is still alive! I cannot bring them back from the dead Demwyn, but I can make sure Daella is safe and the same thing doesn't happen to her!"
"The same thing." I say softly and with that I turn and start running. I throw myself around the corners as I race down the corridors towards the chosen's wing.
I burst into Dae's room and find her sitting up in bed, wide eyed and terrified.
"Alvaryn, what is it? What's happened?" She asks, leaning up onto her knees.
I collapse onto my knees, one side of my heart filled with relief that she is safe and alive, the other being torn apart as reality settles in place.
"Alvaryn," She calls rushing out of bed and in front of me, her hands on my face, her eyes searching mine. "What is it?" She asks, voice desperate as she searches for some king of injury or reason for my behaviour.
"They're dead." I say softly, feeling the walls I had built shudder and cracks begin to form.
"Dead, who is dead?" She asks, hands smoothing my hair away from my face.
"My parents, they are both dead."
A small gasp is all I hear and then she is wrapping her arms around me and I bury my face against her chest.
"Aeris?" She looks up. "Aeris are you alright?"
I look over my shoulder, seeing him standing in the doorway.
"Just stay here, okay? Don't leave your rooms, stay with Alvaryn." He says before turning and leaving.
"Wait!" She calls out but doesn't get up to follow him.
"What happened?" She whispers close to my ear.
I lean back, her bright blue eyes finding mine as her small hands hold my face.
"My mother killed my father while he slept before killing herself." I tell her, voice cold, removed, not my own, because surely I couldn't be speaking the truth.
And yet, I couldn't lie.
Where is the pain? Where is that grating against my mind at the sound of a lie? Why can't I feel those razor like claws trying to shred the truth from my mind?
"What?" She whispers in disbelief.
"It was their plan all along." I tell her, staring at the neck of her nightgown as I see the blood on the walls, and their lifeless bodies. "They offered peace and we let them into our home. Now my parents are dead and those responsible are out there somewhere, free to revel in their victory."
"Prince Arden did this?"
I nod, vision growing blurry as I feel the pressure behind my eyes. The wall was breaking, there was no lie, it was no nightmare.
They are dead.
A sob escapes my lips as my head falls into her chest and I feel the tears escape, trailing down my cheeks.
Dae's arms wrap around me, holding me tightly.
Don't let go. Please don't let go.
I don'thave the energy to say the words. The wall I had built has come crashing downand now everything is pain and darkness and all I can do is sit and hold ontoDae and hope she doesn't let go.