Chapter Nineteen
Two years prior…
I didn’t want to leave her side when her condition was deteriorating so rapidly. At the same time, I couldn’t allow Marek to take the children to Regnum unsupervised as he flirts carelessly with Jovan’s wife - the infamous Regina de Durant. He was going to be her little sick puppy dog as Jovan paraded around a child that wasn’t hers. All the while his own wife was severely ill back in Demarcus, from an illness only made possible because she gave him children.
Though, it would be a lie to say it was just to keep an eye on Marek and the children. It would be the first encounter that the souls of Alexius and Belinha would have in nearly five-thousand years. I needed to see what could happen. I needed to know if I could return home with hope for the future.
Elek had shown no signs of remembering his past life, though his talents were undeniably from the connection they shared. Perhaps, if Elek and the daughter of Diana faced one another it would spark something… recognition or perhaps something even more world-shifting. Would the world recognize them for who they were in that moment? Or, my heart sank just thinking about it, perhaps nothing would happen and the world would just go on as if they never existed at all. But, no matter what, I had to witness it.
Before I left, however, I wanted to see Aurora - just in case. She needed to know my love for her at all times, even if I had to leave her side for an extended period of time. Afterall, I was the only one in her life that ever would show up to tell her how important and loved she truly was. I was the only one in her life that would show up to tell her that she was more than a pawn of our father’s and that her worth as a person far outweighed anything he ever told her. I needed her to know. I needed her to feel it.
Stepping into her room I was left with thoughts I wish would stay at the door. But it was hard to fight resentment when her body had become so weakened.
Oh, how much I wished to bring her home and to place her in her own, soft and plush bed with all the stuffed toys I had made her over the years. To sit beside her and look out the window as our mother had done with me and I had done with Aurora so many times. To have the sun creep up over the mountain peaks, sprinkling rays onto the city below, causing the fiery orbs to shimmer and for my little Sun to squeal in delight over the sight of the city coming to life.
Yet, instead of being home, spoiling her, and keeping her close, I was left sitting beside her fatigued body on her firm mattress and looking out a window that was the size of a small portrait. Most of the light came from sconces on the walls, casting shadows over her already sickly pale skin. Almost like long fingers ready to smother her in her sleep and to end it all.
And yet, through it all, she never complained. A part of me filled to the boiling point with anger over it. Never before had I come across anyone as pure-hearted and self-sacrificing as the little Sun I raised. Sure, I raised her to be kind to others, to learn the perspective of those less fortunate or of a different mindset… I put in countless hours tutoring her and educating her on how to be a good leader to our people through kindness and understanding. Seeing her now, in a state of being that couldn’t even lift herself out of bed, I realized that all those lessons had blown up in my face.
She was too kind, too giving, and selfishness never seemed to taint her. But what did it get her? Two children - beautiful, yes, and a loveless marriage. I knew it was irrational for me to have such thoughts. But gods dammit all! It was only MY child who was forced to suffer!
“I think…” her soft tone pulled me up from the dark recesses of my mind. She was so thin, but she continued to smile. Her golden eyes remained optimistically bright and I wanted to punch myself in the gut for thinking with so much negativity around her. A small hand came to rest on the back of mine, with hardly any weight to tell me it was there. “When I come back… maybe I could call you my real parent or maybe… just be anywhere you are.”
Come back? I haven’t even been able to make any progress on that front.
Placing my remaining hand on top of hers, I gave a slight squeeze.
“Things could turn around, Aurora. We could have a cure tomorrow or something else that could help treat you.” But I knew they were just words. I wasn’t able to put my heart in them and I think she knew that as well.
I couldn’t take it anymore. Standing up, I turned to extend a hand to her.
“Indulge me, please. Let’s go out for some ice cream, I’ll be your wings.”
Glittering tears formed at the corners of her eyes but I refrained from wiping them away. She needed to grieve for herself as much I would be forced to grieve for her when she was gone.
