Chapter 10.

Hyacinth's POV

“Hyacinth, why are you here?” Kael asked, taking a step closer to me, like he hadn't already taken up all the same between us.

I swallowed hard, trying not to break character by showing fear.

“Personal business, Kael.” I responded sassily.

“Your personal business seems to be ruining whatever I have going on, isn't it?” He asked, and I shrugged.

“You do have to get over obstacles when you're set to achieve something, yeah?” I tilted my head to the side , with a gentle shrug.

Kael grabbed me by the neck, making my breath hitch for the second time. His hands were wrapped so that it wasn't so tight, but at the same time, it scared me.

“The next time you're in my way, you might not like what I'd do to you.” Kael growled, pulling me up by my neck. I started choking a little, and he only stopped raising me when I slapped his hand.

“Your Highness, can we come in?” Lady Charlotte's voice disrupted the deadly tension that was beginning to scare me.

He dropped me, releasing a satisfied growl.

“Yes.” He said, as he went to sit.

I was still pinned against the wall, finding it difficult to compose myself. I wasn't sure if I was more annoyed that he touched me like that, or because I lost my words.

I hurriedly turned to focus on the paintings to avoid any suspicions of what had just transpired between us.

I went back to sit, still shaken.

“How are you finding the palace, my Queen?” Lord Thomas asked.

“Not so bad.” I responded with a forced smile.

“I think she mentioned something about wanting to GO BACK.” Kael said, stressing the last two words.

“Err… no.” I said, and Kael's face hardened. “I think I said something about wanting Lady Charlotte to show me around this beautiful mansion.”

“Oh, the pleasure would be mine.” She laughed gently, standing for us to leave.

Kael wanted to object, probably because he knew that lady Charlotte would always be the deciding factor.

“We will be back soon.” I said before he could say anything else.

Lady Charlotte led me out of the house. I winked at Liora who smiled back at me gently.

“Your Highness, there are so many places to show you, but I'd show you the places with the most beautiful, heart wrenching history.” She revealed, and I smiled, walking right by her side.

“I'm pretty sure you know I didn't call you out just because I want to see your beautiful mansion.” I said, breaking the silence that had lasted for almost a minute after we got out.

Lady Charlotte chuckled, nodding her head. “Everything going on tells me the King Regent doesn't want you here.”

“You're a good observant.” I shrugged.

“Or the two of you are just very obvious.” She said, and I chuckled.

“Are you sure you don't hate me like the others?” I asked, but she only shrugged.

“I see a woman struggling to fit in a society that doesn't want her. I'm only inclined to support your wishes.” She said, not looking once at me.

“So, will you? Will you support my wishes and be my backbone?” I asked outrightly.

Lady Charlotte chuckled, stopping in front of a very large building that looked like a priest's abode.

“This place was called The Weeping Home.” Lady Charlotte revealed.

I gasped softly. “The Home of the First Human Queen.”

She nodded, affirming my words.

“And it was called a weeping home because she never stopped crying.” She added. “In reality, she was just weak, and void of allies.”

“She did not have the love of her husband, nor the love of the nobles, so she lost her life, and caused the death of all that dared align with her.” She said, and I saw where she was driving towards.

I refused to say anything, only listen to her.

“I can't do much until you either capture the hearts of the nobles or the King Regent.” She stated, and I scoffed.

“That's pretty much impossible, and you know it.”

“Well, you're going to have to try.” She mumbled , turning to look at me. “Otherwise, you're fighting a battle you can never win.”

I sighed, taking a deep breath. Our tour ended there as she went back in.

I looked back at The Weeping Home one last time.

She was weak, Lady Charlotte had said. Void of allies.

I wasn't going to be her. Whatever it cost me, I wasn't going to be her.

I left without waiting for Kael, or saying goodbye to him.

Lady Charlotte's words followed me all the way back to the palace like something I couldn't shake off my shoe.

Capture the hearts of the nobles or the King Regent.

I almost laughed out loud in the carriage. Almost.

Mikah and Mikael flanked us in silence as Liora watched me from across the seat with the particular expression she wore when she had something to say but was waiting to be invited.

"Don't." I said.

"I didn't say anything." She responded.

"You were about to."

She pressed her lips together, looking out the window. We rode in silence for the rest of the journey, which was the most peace I had gotten all day, and I still couldn't enjoy it because Lady Charlotte's words kept rearranging themselves in my head every time I tried to think about something else.

One was nearly impossible. The other was absolutely, completely, laughably out of the question.

I went to bed that night with a headache I hadn't earned, and a frustration I had no outlet for. I missed Callum with a specific, quiet ache that only showed up at night when everything else got too still. Not the desperate, drowning kind of missing, just the low, constant kind. The kind that reminded me what warmth felt like before I forgot.

And then, out of nowhere, the room was burning.

It was the kind of fire that had already decided what it wanted, and had been at it for a long time before I arrived. The walls were orange and black. The air was thick and tasted like ash at the back of my throat.

One second, I was lying in the dark, and the next, I was in the middle of a fire, and I wasn't afraid.

That was the strangest part… the complete, bone-deep absence of fear. I knew I should be terrified. I could feel the heat on my skin, could see the ceiling beginning to give way above me, but my feet were planted and my arms were outstretched and every part of me was entirely, absolutely certain.

There was a man behind me.

I couldn't see his face. I couldn't turn around, or maybe I didn't want to, maybe turning around wasn't the point. The point was the thing in front of me. The thing that was coming through the fire with the specific intention of getting past me and I wasn't going to let it.

"You don't have to do this." His voice came from behind me, deep and wrecked, like it cost him something enormous just to speak. Like he already knew what I was going to say and was asking anyway.

“I know." I said.

"Hyacinth…"

“I know.” I said again.

The thing came closer. I held my ground, and my arms stayed out. The thing looked like a shadow, and it was relentlessly coming after me. It took a leap… and then… nothing!

I woke up with my hand pressed flat against my chest, like I was trying to hold something in.

My heart was going absolutely insane. I lay there in the dark, staring at the ceiling, trying to catch my breath and figure out what exactly I was feeling, because it wasn't fear. It wasn't even confusion, not entirely.

It was grief. A sourceless, enormous, grief.

“Another goddamned vision.”