Chapter 58

58 Chapter 58: I’ll sleep on the couch

Adam lay Ella down on the soft bed in the small inn where they had managed to secure some rooms. He looked at her small petit face and reached out to touch her cheek, he really couldn’t believe she was sleeping right there in front of him, it felt like eons since he had been this close to her.

After he had first recognized her at the knighting ceremony, a lot of memories had flooded back. He could remember his life with her, how he had a huge crush on her when they were kids, how he admired her skills with a bow and and arrow, and her crazy dressing that he absolutely loved. It was a simple life but because she was with him, it was a good one.

In fact, memories of a lot of his other lives had flooded back to him as well, and in all of them she was always there, a woman he’d loved but never gotten the courage to admit it to her. In every lifetime she always seemed to somehow slip away, and before he could get the chance to meet her, there he was in another lifetime, a knew name, in a new place.

He remembered in one of his lives in a town called Mirine, he first spotted her when she was dragging a dead dear through the town with her bare hands, she was about fifteen at the time, and her name was Aria then. She was an amazing hunter and soldier even though she was a woman, everyone, even him, was intimidated by her. But gosh he was so in love with her it was insane.

The day he had finally decided to talk to her in hopes of building a friendship with her and maybe something more in the future, he was told that she had been involved in freak accident with a wagon and had died. He was so heartbroken, and before he knew it, he was reborn as Jillian and got the chance to meet her again.

Adam smiled as he leaned back and watched her sleep peacefully, he didn’t know nor understand why any of this was happening to him, or to her. But what he knew was that there was a reason Ella was always there in every lifetime he experienced, maybe it was destiny.

The dark haired prince got up and walked towards the door after hearing a soft knock, it was Beric. “I’m taking first watch,” Beric spoke, “someone has to keep an eye out just in case we’re being followed, also it will make it easier for Roland and Zander to find us.”

He watched Adam nod in agreement and then peeked over the prince’s shoulder, “is she awake?”

“Not yet, the events of today were overwhelming for all of us,” Adam responded calmly, “we all need to rest.”

.....

Overwhelming was an understatement, a lot had happed at that wedding and the memories of it were seared permanently into everyone’s mind.

“What happened to Julia?” Adam questioned Beric, he remembered that he had put him and Odran in charge of keeping an eye on her.

“She was captured your grace, she stabbed queen Juliet Aldos in the throat.”

Adam winced at the thought, he had heard the commotion about the queen getting stabbed when they were escaping, but he had no idea it was Julia who had done it. He wasn’t particularly fond of the green eyed woman but he didn’t like the idea of her being locked up and tortured by Nathaniel. But what could he do?

“Also I spotted some more Gavarian soldiers among the wedding guests,” Beric added on, a worried look on his face, “the king must have sent reinforcements.”

“So going back home is definitely not an option,” Adam mattered, speaking more to himself than to Beric.

“Your grace..” Beric’s eyes trailed back to the sleeping woman, “Why is everyone after her? And Julia said something about her casting a spell on you-”

“Julia is delusional,” Adam interrupted his friend, “I’m under no spell I can assure you that. She’s not a witch if that’s what you’re trying to ask.”

“I see... and the wolf?”

Adam pursed his lips and shook his head, he too had no idea where that monster had come from, but somehow it seemed so familiar to him. That feral unbridled rage and anger, it reminded him of that bastard Nathan. “I don’t know either, maybe the prince’s guard dog?”

Beric was feeling uneasy about this whole thing, he felt like there was more to this than Adam was mentioning. There was something about Ella, Nathan, Julia and Adam himself that Beric couldn’t put his finger on. “Well, I should get going, Roland and Zander might come this way any second. Good night your grace.”

“Good night Beric.”

When Adam closed the door and turned around, he was surprised to see Ella sitting up and watching him. “Guine- err Ella..” he walked rushly towards her and settled down on the sofa that was located next to the bed, “how are you feeling?”

Ella looked up at him and tugged her lips up in beautiful smile, “I’m fine now,” she responded.

“Do you need anything, water? Food?” Adam added on, he was hovering over her like she had nearly faced death when she had just passed out from exhaustion. She didn’t want to trouble him, looking out the window she could see that it was late in the night, after she passed out he must have ridden with her all the way here and carried her to this room.

“I’m fine-” before she could finish her statement her treacherous stomach growled loudly as if demonstrating the majestic calls of a white whale. Ella blushed intensely and looked down at the beddings she had clasped tightly in her hands.

“let me find you something to eat,” Adam spoke with a chuckle, he thought she looked really cute when she was embarrassed like that, gosh he’d missed out on so much.

*

Nathaniel ran his hands though his hair as he paced his chambers, trying to digest all the information that Theo had just told him. “So you knew all this time that I wasn’t human?”

“I did your grace..”

“And you knew about Ella and Adam as well?”

Theo shook his head, “Your parents sent me to watch over you your grace. As for lady Ella, she has her own guardian who just so happened to confirm who, or rather ‘what’ she is after some speculation.”

“And Adam? What makes you sure he’s not human either?” Nathan was trying to connect all this information to what he already knew.

“Other than the faint elven smell I picked up as he galloped away, I’m afraid I don’t have much proof.” Theo got up and stood next to the silver haired prince, “and that maid you have locked up, I sense she’s of dwarven blood.”

“So all these cycles of death and rebirth, they were not curses?” Nathan spoke, “it was some reconnaissance mission forced onto us by our parents?”

“It was a selfish act that’s for sure,” Theo commented, he could only imagine what the young prince had been through, living a seemingly endless vicious cycle of death and rebirth, “but it was for the good of our people, humans took what was ours, what was yours prince Elric. You and the other three chosen ones are the only hope we have of reclaiming everything that we lost.”

“Elric?..”

“Ah yes, that is your birth name,” Theo explained, “given to you by your father, as the the next Alpha of the silver pack.”

Nathan rubbed his temples and slowly shook his head from side to side, this was too much to take in all at once. “Is Ella like me? A Lycan?”

“She is a nosferatu,” Theo responded, Maria had confirmed it with him before the wedding, “or a vampire as they are known to locals.”

Before Nathan could ask any more questions, there was a train of aggressive knocks at the door that echoed throughout the room. “Nathan!”

The silver haired prince sighed heavily when he heard William’s voice calling to him from the outside. He really didn’t have the energy for William’s interrogations right now, but he knew he wouldn’t succeed in hiding from him any longer.

“After the dwarve awakens, a lot of people around you will begin to change my prince,” Theo spoke as he walked towards the door to let William in, “we shall continue our chat some other time, I believe there are matters you need to attend to.”

*

Adam couldn’t stop staring at Ella as she ate the food eagerly. She was really hungry and didn’t mind at all that she didn’t look the least bit ladylike in that moment, the last thing she had to eat was a sip of tea and one crumpet before the wedding, Ella needed this.

After she finished her food she set her plate aside and thanked Adam for the meal. The dark haired prince smiled at her before reaching for the small smuge of soup on the corner of her mouth. He wiped it with his thumb and then licked it, making Ella’s face light up like a stop sign.

“Now that you’re full you should get some sleep,” Adam explained, “we have an early morning tomorrow.”

Ella looked around the room and then back to Adam, “where am I going to sleep?”

The man furrowed his brows at her, “right here of course..”

“And umm.. where will you sleep?” That was a stupid question, he was obviously going to sleep with her right?

“Right here in this couch,” Adam responded.

Ella was surprised at his answer, she remembered how Nathaniel would leap at any opportunity to spend the night in the same bed. Adam was so different.

“Are you sure?” She questioned the man again, as if giving him a chance to change his mind.

“I’ll get an extra blanket and a pillow downstairs and I’ll be fine,” he responded sheepishly, “I’m a man, this isn’t something I can’t handle.”

“Oh okay.” She was somewhat disappointed but the gesture made her respect for him grow immensely. How could she have forgotten, Adam wasn’t a pushy guy, he would never do anything to make her uncomfortable.

He stood up and gave her a kiss on the forehead, “sleep now, let me go check on the others. Good night.”

“Good night Adam.”