The Sun's Shadow

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Blatant curiosity drove the Queen to the door she now hesitated outside of.

The hindrance on the other side could have the answers she needed and that would be her only reason for their reunion. She eased the door open, unsure if he'd be asleep given the amount of sedatives Charles pumped into him. The dark room sucked in the light the hallway provided, but she slipped through stealthily and shut them in darkness once more.

The machines he clung to for dear life beeped and displayed his vitals. It wouldn't be long...

Only a pureblooded vampire doomed to a fate such as this could hold the line between life and death for so long. Each day thinned the tightrope he teetered on the balance of.

"Hello, brother."

The words stuck to her throat like thick honey. She had to swallow to force the guilt from rising along with so many unspoken words. As a second thought, she turned to lock the doors so the one doctor who visited him couldn't enter, then she went up to the foot of his bed to look pitifully down at him.

Dull, grey eyes gleamed up at her and she swore tears welled in them. Likely something to do with the medicine...

She sucked in some air to strengthen her request. "I need you to do one last thing for your family. I know we've taken so much from you."

In truth, they took advantage of his love for them. Her brother had served the royal guard even though someone of his status didn't need to. He only did so for her sake.

Wylda had to swallow her words of gratitude and continued, "My husband hides the truth from me and I need to know what he did to our son. You remember Kaanan?"

How could he forget...

"Well," She tried her best to ignore the tear that escaped his eye. "You were his most trusted advisor. You even hid some things from me and I know there's more I've yet to discover. I recently found out he sacrificed our firstborn."

The words burdened her heart but weighed heavier on the man in the bed before her. She caught the pained look flash across his hardened eyes, giving it away that he knew about that all along. Even so, he also hid some of her dark secrets from the King. His loyalty went both ways.

"My son's curse goes beyond my foolish actions. I just know it. Too much rivals his every action and I was told it wouldn't be this tortuous. Please, Angelo, I have no one else that I trust to turn to. You know something, so please..." She dropped to her knees and genuinely pleaded with him. Her forehead hit the sheets that covered his legs and her shoulders shook as sobs wracked through her.

"You know I can't." Came his sullen voice at last. Then he explained what she already knew, "I made an oath."

"Damn your oath! What about the oath you made the day I was born? To protect your little sister! Doesn't that go beyond your loyalty to the throne?" She ground her teeth in frustration. Then she made him an offer he'd be a fool to refuse, "I can turn up the dose of your morphine. End your suffering... You want that, do you not?"

Who would want to cling to life by artificial means? She imagined he'd want to go peacefully, and this was the best thing she could offer him, since he had no way of healing.

Whenever she thought back to the day the other warriors brought him back to the castle on a stretcher after a mission to infiltrate the faenix council went awry, she shuddered. The memory of him, a bloodied mess on a gurney as Charles worked fervently to restore some semblance of the man he was before only to fail... Made her hatred grow towards the faenix currently within her reach.

Kaanan made it so she couldn't be touched. That's why Wylda needed answers- Things were meant to be simpler. The mages told her so.

"That would be nice." He mused earnestly. If his sister was willing to go this far to commit treason, then there must be good cause. And he vowed to fall on this day with her.