Claiming Her Crown (War Songs of the Courts #2)

Prologue

Alec

She still wasn't awake. A month had already passed and the only sign of life was the steady heartbeat we could only hope would continue.

Originally, Lincoln said to expect her to be awake within a week, but even he couldn't fully predict the challenges her change would present. Now he simply told us she'd wake when she was ready. He knew more about her change than anyone else, but even his knowledge was limited.

So we waited, a quiet falling over the house as the days passed. Everyday she didn't come to the silence would become more pronounced and we would grow more anxious. It was getting to all of us. Except Lincoln. He didn't seemed too fazed by it all. He was too sure in his belief in her to be anything else.

Zaria handled it differently than all of us. She was a natural nurturer, so she fell back on that to cope. She worried over all of us while we worried over Echo, distracting herself from her own concerns. And her concerns were big. Echo was Zaria's last hope. This was it for her and I knew it would break her if she lost this after getting so close.

But she wasn't just Zaria's last hope. She was all of ours.

I leaned against the doorframe and watched her still body, willing her to wake up and give me shit for worrying over her. Demetri walked passed me, not bothering to acknowledge my presence. At this point, we'd unintentionally established a familiar routine between us. One of us was always with her, waiting for any sign of life. Occasionally we ended up waiting together, never saying a word as we sat in the dull room.

We'd done this too often.

Zaria scolded us about it once, but Demetri gave her a dark look and she'd never brought it up again. He was usually softer with Zaria than the rest of us, but he'd been short with all of us as of late. Not even Zaria was spared from his foul mood.

I gave a sigh and watched the steady, slow rhythm of her breathing as Demetri settled in the chair next to her bed. My eyes wandered to him and I took in his appearance with a twinge of concern. He'd been putting off meeting with the Council. In fact, he hadn't really done much else other than sit by her in that chair and it showed. His face was covered with a light scruff that was left ungroomed and his inky black hair fell limply over his eyes, completing the look of his emotionally distraught condition.

He kept his gaze glued to her, any emotions that might have been visible in his eyes hidden behind his hair. "What is it, Alexander?"

I looked away, pretending I hadn't just been staring at him. "Hmm?"

I felt his eyes turn to me, the power he radiated still present despite his broken emotional state. "You want to say something. So speak."

I shifted on my feet and returned my eyes to his, unable to make them out completely in the shadows. "We can't delay them forever. The Councils will demand to see her at some point. They're going to know. I'd rather it come from us now."

He turned away, taking in her pale face. "They can wait until she is awake. She needs to be ready," he said, his voice stony with finality.

"But they don't know she's not awake. That's what I'm trying to say, Demetri. We need to tell them," I said, finally stepping into the room completely.

He stood abruptly, sending the chair backwards. "No. We will not contact them until she is awake and has had time to..." He faltered before continuing, "come to terms with what she is and her future."

"We don't have the time to wait for that. Our people are dying. Each side is taking lives that we can't afford to lose and the longer we wait for her to take her crown, the more damage that is done to the Courts."

Even in the dark, I could feel the anger his glare burned into me. "Screw the Courts," he growled, his voice low and creeping.

"No, screw the Courts rulers. The people of the Courts have no power," I countered, my own voice rough with fervor. I pointed at Echo then, holding his gaze. "She is their power, Demetri. They need her. We need her."

Silence settled over us and we finally heard it. We had missed the thing we had been waiting for in the heat of our argument. The thing we hadn't even noticed until now seemed to fill the room, swiftly quelling any anger we held. Our eyes met, both of us frozen for a second that seemed to extend. Hard breathing cut through the tension. A heartbeat raced within the chest that laid only a short distance from us like the bass of a song, subtly reminding us of her presence.

She was awake.

A U T H O R ' S N O T E :

Merry Christmas, y'all.

@BluBByGrl suggested I release a little somethin' as a Christmas present, so here it is.

It's just a short prologue, but I hope y'all like it.