The king’s carriage pulled up in front of Yemanja’s house and Emelda peeped out of the window to take a quick look at it. The house looked quiet as if no one was in there but Emelda could sense Yemanja from where she was. It wasn’t her witch side that picked up the scent but rather, it was her wolf side. She knew that her grandmother was home.
“Are you ready?” Lucius asked her.Emelda nodded.It seemed that Yemanja had heard the carriage coming because she walked out of the house and stood by the door, looking at the King’s carriage which was parked in front of her door.
“Please stay in here, okay?” Emelda pleaded with Lucius. She didn’t know how her grandmother was going to react but one thing Emelda knew was that Yemanja’s bitterness and hatred for the throne, could cause her to hurt Lucius.And Emelda couldn’t risk it.Lucius got out of the carriage and held the door open for her as she stepped out. He kissed her as soon as her feet touched the ground
Emelda spent exactly twenty-five minutes as she tended to her grandmother’s wounds. She cleaned it, applied some ointment to it, and then dressed it and by the time she was done, Yemanja felt a whole lot better.“You should have come back to me Emelda, instead of staying at that godforsaken place,” Yemanja said as soon as Emelda was done with the wound dressing.Before Emelda responded, she gently reclined her grandmother’s chair, propping her legs upwards and making Yemanja very comfortable. Then she got up and dusted off her dress. Her eyes ran around the living room and she took a mental note of all the things that she still had to do before leaving.Then she smiled at Yemanja, “I don’t want you to feel like I abandoned you, grandma, it was nothing like that, the palace needed my help and I gave it to them. Because of me, King Cyrus is alive and well and we have been able to capture the people who planned the coup.”
The carriage ride from Yemanja’s house to the palace was dead quiet. Lucius and Emelda didn’t say a word to each other. Lucius noticed how Sad Emelda was and he guessed that she probably wanted to be by herself. He had seen the rejection she had to take from her grandmother and he had wished more than anything that he could have done something about it.But he couldn’t, and that fact made it so hard for him. It was hard for him to watch her seat in pain. There was a moment when he tried to hold her hand but she jerked it away from him.In a way, Lucius felt responsible for it all, maybe he should have stayed in the carriage like she had asked him to, things got heated after he went into Yemanja’s house and Lucius felt as if that was why the situation escalated badly.The young king wanted to help her, to hold her, and to tell her that it was going to be fine, but he couldn’t because he didn’t even believe that it would be fine
Yemanja was the only family That Emelda knew about, she never got to meet her father’s side of the family and so Yemanja had been her only blood. And now, the only family member that she had, rejected her.It was in that state of mind and with tears filled in her eyes that Emelda went to bed and then she started to dream. The dream was barely starting when she found her mother standing by the door to her room. Her mother had come into the palace and was already in Emelda’s room.Being a witch, Emelda knew that this was more than a dream, it was sort of like a trance and so she opened up herself so she could feel it.And she did.She started to speak with her mother about what had happened earlier, with tears in her eyes, Emelda narrated the whole story to her mother who totally understood. Her mother didn’t need her to recount every detail because she had seen it herself but she did
“Follow your heart,” were the words that stayed with her after she woke up. she didn’t know what it meant but one thing she knew for sure was that her mood was better.Emelda had been in a foul mood after leaving her grandmother’s house the day before. She had gone up straight to her room and had cried herself to sleep.But now, after waking up from the dream where she saw her mother, Emelda’s mood had improved tremendously.But her mother’s words stayed with her, she had told her to ‘follow her heart’. Her mother had also asked her about how she felt about Darius.Emelda jumped off the bed still locked in her thoughts, “why had her mother asked her that question? And what exactly did the universe have in store for her?” Emelda couldn’t place it so she simply shoved the thought aside and she focused on her current reality. 
“Emelda,” Lucius called her name as he bumped into her. Lucius had been worried about her, ever since they got back from her grandmother’s house. He had watched her seat in the carriage all through the ride and then she had gone up to her room. Lucius had come to her room on so many occasions throughout the night but he had always managed to convince himself to go back. He didn’t want to bother her and he understood the fact that she needed her privacy.And so, he had let her be.The only other thing that Lucius had done was to get Emelda’s personal maid to wait by her door. He hadn’t meant to have the girl stay the whole night but he knew that Emelda could need some help and he wanted her to have the help she needed, even though it was late at night.And so, Lucius had told the maid, Vera to wait outside Emelda’s door until Emelda came out.But now, Lucius could see that Emelda was awake, she had even changed her cloth
“Where is my brother?” Lucius asked the closest guard to him and the guard immediately saluted.“He is at the training ground your highness,” the guard responded and Lucius thanked him.Lucius proceeded to the training ground where Darius was and as he went, he thought about how the guard had known about Darius’s location.That was one thing that had always baffled Lucius, even as a kid. The guards were all stationed at different spots and they never moved around but they always seemed to know every security detail of everyone that was on the palace grounds, regardless of where the person was.Lucius still didn’t know how the guards could do that but he was impressed by it.After a short walk through the back of the palace, Lucius arrived at the training ground where he saw his brother training viciously like he was preparing for battle.And the truth was that Darius was preparing for a battle even though the battle
By the time Emelda got to the palace, she was already out of breath. She had gone for a run with the hopes of clearing her mind but instead, it had gotten worse, all thanks to Darius who had shown up unexpectedly.She didn’t even know why Darius had come looking for her but it didn’t matter anymore.Darius’s last statement had left her confused.Emelda couldn’t believe that Darius’s mark on her was still visible. How was that possible? The fact that she had also shared a vision with him left her even more confused. With the little knowledge that Emelda had about being a wolf, she knew that having the same vision with another wolf could only mean one thing. Two wolves sharing the same vision meant that they were seeing a part of their previous lives and what had happened in their previous lives. So from Emelda’s understanding, her spirit wolf had been married to Darius in a previous life. That was what she had seen in
King Lucius was a young man and in his time on earth, he had had a few girls apologize to him for something they had said or done to him. but none of them had made that apology while they were naked and standing in front of him.This was a first for him and to think that the apology came from the same girl that he considered to be the love of his life even made the moment more intense.Before she even said the words, king Lucius had known that there was nothing Emelda could do or say to him that he could ever hold against her. To him, she could do no wrong. She was the love of his life and he couldn’t even stay angry with her for too long.“it’s okay Emelda, I know you were upset about what happened at your grandmother’s place yesterday. And I get it, I know what it feels like to be rejected by your family and I’m sorry that you had to go through that,” he replied.Emelda smiled as she trailed her finger on his smooth face, &