And her name is…

WULFRIC

From the moment I picked her out during Kheliq’s meet and greet, I couldn’t stop looking for her. Her face held similarities, but I had to remind myself it was her. It wasn’t until she was dancing with the man she had coerced into calling her his wife did she notice I had spotted her. She looked momentarily terrified or.. sad, but she recovered quickly. She wasn’t supposed to be in this room. She was never supposed to be seen let alone be twirling around the ballroom with a half-dozen glammers about her. Still, I longed to go to her and whisk her away.

I had seen the woman’s lips tighten when Kheliq started for them before I knew it was her. Even under the bold red paint, she couldn’t hide those lips from me. Once I knew, I could pick up subtle notes of her own smell that slipped through whatever she’d masked herself with. She looked pretty, but she wasn’t my Theo. Kheliq didn’t suspect a thing, never thinking a woman with a man could be a threat.

Soon after I spotted her she tried to dodge me and ducked out a side door. I couldn’t help looking after her, with smirk on my mind but off my face, as I kept along with Kheliq through his greetings.

“She’s not here,” Kheliq mutters when we finishs the lap. “That rat Helion said she would be here.”

“You still trust him?” I return lowly.

He turns to me and raises an eyebrow. “You don’t?”

“Not as far as I could throw him.”

“Is my General not as strong as he makes out he is?” Kheliq eyes me, a smug look on his face.

“I think my measure for trust is just greater than you believe it to be,” I return, not looking at him as I look around the room.

One of the men I had posted on the inner wall runs in to the door nearest us and waits for Kheliq to let him speak. “There’s a problem, the outer wall has been breached. It looks like they have the blight.”

I see the anger and panic in Kheliq face before he commands me to remain and keep the party under control while he goes to figure out what’s happening. The blight shouldn’t have reached us and it being out this far doesn’t make any sense. I want to believe there’s been a mistake but no one would mistake the blight for anything else, and if they brought it to Kheliq during this event they would have been sure the report was real.

A group of girls slowly starts coming over to me, all of them looking incredibly nervous. Each one of them pushes a different one forward until they’re right in front of me and have no room left to switch around. I can hear all their hearts racing and I’m almost certain they’re going to ask me to dance. They’re all telling the girl up at the front to get it over with. I raise my eyebrow and wait for them to start, slightly enjoying how uncomfortable they are with being straight forward with it.

The poor girl takes a deep breath before whispering, “we know about you and Chel.”

That was not what I was expecting her to say and my eyes open wide. “I beg your pardon?”

“We met Chel, King Helion’s fiancé, we helped her put on makeup in the bathroom. She didn’t have the veil then,” the woman adds hesitantly.

“She loves you,” another girl whispers suddenly and they all shoot her a look. “I’m sorry, this is taking so long, if she comes back and sees us talking to him she said she’dfindus.”

I chuckle lightly, that would be my Theo. Even at a party with so much at steak, she would threaten a bunch of the ladies in the powder room. They catch me chuckling and relax a little though I’m not sure why. Even I couldn’t stop her if she has a goal in her mind.

“What exactly do you think is going on between me and Helion’s lady?” I ask.

“We guessed that she knew you, and from her response it was clear she cares about you but can’t be with you because of the arranged marriage,” the first woman whispers.

I frown. She wouldn’t have said that. She hates telling blatant lies and avoids any lies when she can phrase things to let you assume what you wanted. Of course she wasn’t wearing the veil, so the name must have slipped when she was forced to make conversation.

“What were her words, exactly,” I encourage.

They begin talking amongst themselves and then turn back to me “that her life is forfeit and you deserve better,” the one in front says confidently.

Forfeit. Forfeit?

“Forfeit!?” I demand and they nod their heads quickly.

Fuck.

She’s planning something. She… doesn’t like to lie. She told me everything I needed to know, but I was too wrapped up in finally getting her for myself. If she’s changed the plan she might not even be in the garden, but she would still be with Kheliq and between Helion and Norythsomeone will know where he went. That bloody garden is basically a maze of hedges and trees, to start there without being one hundred percent sure….

More bells begin to toll and I command my men to close the doors and keep the guests contained. I know where Noryth will be. By now he’s in the room waiting for the shields to drop so Tiago can come get them. It’s a small office just down the hall and I head for it at a brisk pace. When I reach the door I pound on it and call to my brother who opens the door to pull me in quickly.

“What’s wrong? What are you doing here?” He panics.

My anger and panic are fighting a losing battle in my head but ultimately I sound frustrated. “Theodosine changed the plan. I need to know where you last had eyes on Kheliq.”

“What? How did you know?”

“I caught her in the ballroom and… you knew.” I turn to glare at my brother, ignoring the others in the room, manly Kheliq’s wife, Loreisha, her hand maid, and Ealdian. “Did you know she’s Leocidia and Kheliq’s daughter? Her draining him will kill her.”

I heard her aunt gasp in the corner and start to cry, whispering about how she had wanted to protect her from death by her father.

“It’s the only way,” Noryth whispers. “He was planning to start burning everything between here and our home land. He would have killed all our people when the frost clears. This was our last chance.”

“Why didn’t you tell me!”

“You still needed to be with him everyday when I found out, and then we had a plan so I didn’t want to worry you,” he confesses.

“And you knew she would die?! You know what she means to me! Fuck, Noryth! Why didn’t you tell methatat the very least.” I’m angry and his expression of deep remorse isn’t curbing that.

“She told us after Tiago dropped you off with Helion, and she drained us both so we couldn’t go after her or tell you,” he admits. “We haven’t seen her since the morning you left. We looked for her when we got here, but I don’t even know how she got in. She wouldn’t have let any of us stop her if we had stood directly in her way. She has completely resigned herself to this being the way it had to happen.”

“So why her!?” I demand. “I would have dealt with her hating me for putting her in that fucking coffin over losing her!”

He sighs defeatedly. “It could only be her. His affinity is foresight. Only she can act without him figuring it out. Long range won’t work, he’s got at least a hundred years on her, and she’ll never beat him in hand to hand. It was her, or everyone else.”

My hand snaps out so fast he can’t stop me from grabbing him by the throat as I growl, “her. Every time, it will beher. Now where is she?”

“I can already feel Kheliq’s magic shields weakening, it’s too late,” he chokes out

I squeezed harder. “Pray you’re wrong.”

“Garden.”

The word has barely left his mouth before I’ve dropped him and I’m off. She would lead Kheliq to the back to avoid being seen, so I start running around the outside. The air must be crisp at this thing but I can’t feel it, my heart is beating out of my chest and overheating my skin. I can’t see her. I can’t see her anywhere. I hate these fucking hedges and different garden beds and start walking right through them. The scratches from the branches on my skin remind me that she’s hurting. My girl must be in so much pain and I have to stop her. I smell her smell, carrying along with the scent of.. blood.

“I’m coming Theo, hold on. Theodosine!”