Ember of Hope

He was a king – The great King Alexander Christopher Vasilis. He’d fought in wars and turned the odds in his people’s favor so many times. He was a master strategist who’d singlehandedly made other kings bow down before the greatness of his kingdom. And yet… and yet the thought of going back and facing his people and their possible disdain was enough to make him sick to his core. He’d failed them all. It was his fault they were suffering at the hands of mate. And he was so afraid to see hatred in the eyes of those who’d once loved him like their own.

But he had to go back. He had to free his people from the curse Katherine had put upon them. Now that he knew what had happened to his kingdom; every moment was a lifetime… a lifetime that his brothers spent under that curse. The thought brought a fresh wave of unbridled anger towards her. Even though the thought made his soul hurt; he would have to present her to the court and leave her at their mercy. He’d decided to not even try to persuade them in her favor. Neither Katherine nor he deserved any kind of leniency. But his heart still hoped for clemency from the court for them both.

“Alex” Katie called from the kitchen, “come on, dinner is ready”.

As if he had any appetite left. “You go ahead and eat Katherine, I’m not hungry” these days he only communicated with his mate when necessary. “I’m going out for a bit”.

He didn’t bother grabbing a jacket or his phone or anything. All he needed was a good run to try and clear his head.

After two hours of aimless running down the streets; Alex was still nowhere near calm enough. He was jittery… his nerves were shot… he was going out of his mind. All he wanted was to run far away to a place where his mind would just shut up for a while. Finding a dark and secluded corner of a street he looked around to make sure all the windows were shut and their curtains drawn and he scaled the side of a house on silent feet. Once on the roof; he once again checked the perimeter for any witnesses and finding no one; he shifted. Instantaneously cloaking himself he opened his wings wide and launched in the sky.

Immediately the wind on his face made him feel lighter. Tomorrow he’d be going back home. Breathing in the fresh air of his city, his first look upon the magnificence of the fortress, meeting all of his old friends… He could only imagine what that would be like. But what Tamara had told him about her exile; would they even let him in? Along with two witches… but oh they’d want to get their hands on one of those witches when they realized who he’d brought with him.

He remembered the look on Tamara’s face when he’d told her that they were going back home. She couldn’t believe him at first then her eyes filled with a shine of happiness which quickly transformed into fear and then uncertainty. Fifty years she’d stayed away from her home, her family and now all of a sudden she had a possibility of going back. Yeah, he could understand her fear of a dream shattering once again. How many nights she’d spent dreaming about being back in her husband’s arms or kissing her son’s forehead again?

If Katherine was someone else, if she wasn’t his mate - the love of his life; she’d be dead the moment he found out about her treachery. But he was weak. He couldn’t even bring himself to think about it. But he wouldn’t deny his people their vengeance either. He had been their king after all. They were under his protection and he’d failed them. Damn Katherine.

……………

The day of return came for Alex with a feeling of dread deep in the pit of his stomach; spreading its venomous tendrils to the rest of his body. Alex tried folding his clothes but his hands shook so badly, he had to give it up. In the end he ended up throwing a few of his belongings in a bag and zipping it up with shaky fingers.

Alex and Katie travelled to Tamara’s house in complete silence. Katherine had given up on her tries to talk to him sometime in the last hour. She wanted to just take his mind off for a moment but that was impossible. With each passing mile her own doom neared. Because whatever the council decided wasn’t going to be pretty. Her heart was already shattered by the hands of her mate and rightly so. Whatever came next would be fun compared to the pain of seeing hatred in Alex’s eyes.

After Alex rang the bell, they didn’t have to wait for long. As soon as Tamara opened the door a tentative smile graced her lips as she greeted Alex. He moved a bit and her eyes landed on Katherine; she froze for a moment. Tamara’s eyes narrowed a fraction and everything happened so fast after that he couldn’t have done anything even if he wanted to. He saw Tamara’s eyes burn with fire, her hand came up, and her fingers twitched… next thing he saw was Katherine’s body sailing through the living room and crashing against the far wall; leaving cracks in the drywall.

She charged inside and before Katherine could even right herself, Tamara pounced upon her. Wrapping her hand around Katie’s throat she hauled her up. An invisible force pulled Katie’s arms wide and pinned them to the wall. Tamara reared her free hand back and landed a punch on Katie’s nose. Blood gushed out of her nose and still Tamara’s anger flared bright. She was squeezing Katie’s throat so hard that her face turned purple. Alex could sense that Katie wasn’t fighting back on purpose and she was letting Tamara do to her whatever she wanted. Alex kept calling out to Tamara to stop but it seemed as if she couldn’t even hear him.

Alex stepped forward and shook Tamara’s shoulder hard, “Tamara let go” he tried again but when she didn’t immediately listen he grabbed her wrist and applied some pressure to gain her attention.

“Tamara” he said in a hard tone, “the council will decide her fate. You can’t take all the revenge in your hands and rob our people of their right. Let her go. Now”.

Tamara let go of Katherine and she collapsed on the floor; coughing and retching. Alex reached a hand instinctively to help her up but withdrew as soon as he realized what he was doing. Looking at her bloody face squeezed at his heart and he almost ran out of the room towards the kitchen to fetch her a glass of water. Handing her the glass he dipped the washcloth in the basin of hot water that he’d brought along and started cleaning her blood silently.

Tamara had stormed off upstairs, probably to her room and he thought it best to give her some time to cool off.

This was going to be a very long journey.

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