Blood Empire

Chapter 8

Elios returned to his room, deciding instead to sleep during his day off before Emalia returns to undoubtedly keep him up all night once again.

But before Elios could even change his clothes, there came a knock at the door.

"Go away," Elios growled, too irritated and overtired to even attempt at pleasantries.

"Prince Elios," his uncle responded, opening the door anyway, "We need to talk."

"Uncle," he sighs, hanging his head, "I have the day off, I would like to sleep."

"Now," Prince Orion glowers with an unusual edge to his voice that tells the young prince that he will not ask again.

Elios groans in protest but still follows his uncle out of the palace and into the gardens, away from prying eyes and open ears.

"I intercepted this from your wife," Orion says, pulling a letter from his sleeve, "she gave it to a guard, and it almost made its way to the Emperor."

"I told her not to," Elios says, frowning as he reads the letter, "I thought she understood."

"If this had made its way to your father, who knows what would've happened," Orion says, his voice low as he scans the garden, he then turns back to his nephew and adds, "Do not forget why she is here and why she cannot leave."

Elios tears the letter to shreds, into miniscule pieces before throwing them into the pond to dissolve.

"I'll talk to her again," Elios promises, watching the tiny white flecks disappear, "I'll make her understand."

"You need to do more than that," Prince Orion says, "you need her to want to stay."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Elios scoffs, "for the longest time we have been enemies, I cannot make her just forget that."

"No, but you can help her move forward, have her not see you as her enemy and captor, but as a friend," Orion advises, "you've been married for a week now, tell me what you know about the girl?"

Elios opens his mouth but then quickly shuts it, frowning as he cannot produce a single piece of information about the girl.

"Befriend her, Elios," Orion continues when the prince doesn't speak, "be kind to her. See things through her eyes."

"Her eyes?"

"Yes, my nephew, her eyes," Orion says in a harsher tone, "She is a girl, taken from her home and married to her enemy's son without a say in the matter. She is locked in a windowless room like a prisoner and not allowed out without an escort, and her husband is obviously sleeping with another woman and having her cover up the results."

Orion gestures to the still visible bruising around Elios' neck and the young prince blushes and tugs at his collar.

"I don't think you yet see how valuable your bride is," Orion says with a disapproving sigh, "she and her people are a vital asset for you if you hope to take the crown."

Elios' face blanches and he looks around nervously, shocked at his uncle's bold words.

"Remember why you came back, Prince Elios," Orion says, making Elios' face fall and his stomach tie in knots.

The prince had been fighting in his father's wars for nine years, he had risen through the ranks and held the title of Major. He was responsible for a company of a hundred and sixteen soldiers and three officers when word came in from his general; it was by order of the Emperor that Elios was to move against a band of rebels on the southern border.