The King's Queen

Chapter 9

After discussing some more with Prinarch Cole and Prin Odette, we dispersed and went our separate ways. Brooke lingered behind, gazing sadly at the hawk. She couldn't sense its emotions like she could a human's, but still it hurt her to see it like that.

I could still feel a dull throb at the back of my head, the remnant of the earthquake that shook through my skull a few minutes ago. It was weird. They were getting more frequent. I would have to go see a doctor. Perhaps they'd be able to tell what was wrong with me.

I'd put off going for as long as I could. Being a medical student, my mind was running rampant and imagining all the possibilities that could be wrong with me. Most of the diagnoses pointed to me dying... which I would much rather not be the case.

If my university roommate Nikki was here she'd chastize me for overthinking things and tell me to go to bed. Sleep was her solution for everything. To her, sleep was a barrier against every negative thought. She found solace in dozing through the day.

I glanced at Ashton who was still in a pretty bad mood after his mini standoff with his granddad. I laced my fingers with his and offered him the brightest smile I could muster to cheer him up. I didn't understand much of what had happened, but I could figure out that Prinarch Cole most likely had an ability that interfered with Brooke's and hurt her.

"Sorry for the bad mood, princess," he sighed, tightening the hold on my hand slightly. "If you haven't realized by now, my family's a freaking mess. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to run for the hills."

"What are you talking about." I nudged him playfully with my shoulder. "You are my hill."

His lips twitched and a light laugh escaped him at the cheesiness of the line I'd just pulled. "What was that? I think you've been spending far too much time with Raúl. It's not healthy."

"I beg to differ." I laughed, happy that he was in a better mood now. "We're watching a new telenovela together and it's full of lines like that. I think it's gonna change my personality by the end of the season." I flipped my hair and flashed a dramatic, longing stare down the hallway. "My heart is ablaze with my searing passion for you, my love."

Ashton doubled over laughing at that one and the sound of his laughter had me smiling along too. His happiness was my happiness. And his pain was also my own.

"Hey," I spoke slowly. "What's your grandfather's unique ability? It was clashing with Brooke's earlier."

"Oh that," he sighed. "I was telling you about it last night but you were too tired to stay awake." His eyes became teasing. "You kept introducing yourself over and over in Nalish in your sleep."

My cheeks reddened and I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Whatever. What's his ability?"

"Like most of my family, he has a mind based ability that lets him influence other people's emotions. As you can imagine, he uses it quite a lot to his advantage." He scoffed at the thought.

That explains why I'd felt so drawn to him when we'd just met. It felt as if I could trust him. All of that was fake...

"We believe his ability might be Brooke's complement," Ashton continued.

"Complement? What's that?"

"Well, my favorite human, I'll tell you. For every unique ability, there is another unique ability that is its opposite. It's like Yin and Yang. For example, if someone had a unique ability to control light, there would be another unique ability that could control darkness. For Kris, his complement might be someone who repels objects. We don't fully understand why some Alphas and Betas get unique abilities while others don't. They think it has to do with strength of the bloodline and chance."