Shift ✔️

End of the Day - 12.1

Jace's POV

It's been a few weeks since Annabelle's unfortunate event at the mall. I keep telling her it was a stunt that I don't need her repeating. I don't know why I keep telling her this, I know it was a reaction that anyone would have, to try and defend themselves. I am just trying to keep up appearances. For who? I don't know, it is just Annabelle and I.

Luckily since my talk with my mother, I haven't seen much of my parents. I still eat (or should I say drink) with my mother every night, but we rarely speak, usually my father is with us but he has actually been out for the past two weeks, apparently there have been rebels on the outskirts of the kingdom, and he has been off, campaigning, dealing with any unrest felt among everyday civilians. Basically if the rebels cannot get enough civilian support, there will be no way to take him down, or strip him of his power. No cause is won by few men, or so my father seems to believe.

Either way it doesn't really matter why he's gone, all that matters is that means that by the time he gets back, no one will be talking about Annabelle and her accident at the mall, as people have been calling it. It was easy for me to get people to believe she is still not a threat with my influence over the media. It was just an accident, a young frightened girl who never has, never would hurt a fly. Which honestly is the truth. She was scared, and she is a young girl. I do know though, that the way she was about to advance on that vampire bitch was anything but harmless. Not that I blame her in any way.

I am having a hard time placing any blame on Annabelle lately. We spend every night talking, or she sings to me, and it is the one time in my day that I feel at peace, and that I feel everything will be okay.

Flynn keeps making fun of me, saying I'm like a kid waiting for school to end, since I get so antsy at the end of day, waiting until I can head back to my room, and just spend time with Annabelle. I shut him up with a look every time. I honestly wouldn't know what to say, other than blame him, saying that bastard did this to me. He is the one that brought her home to me in the first place, which is something I am still meaning to question him about.

He was never the type to pick up a stray, I know for a fact he ether lets them get away, or lets someone else deal with it. I wonder what was so special about her. Or why he decided that giving her to me, who has never in a million years asked for a 'pet'. Although, I had hated all were's and shifters at that time, I never wanted to spend my time torturing one and I definitely didn't want to be responsible for one. I'd been putting off asking him about it, because I knew he would just smirk at me and say in the most annoying voice that only a family member could pull off "you're welcome."

It was honestly strange I had a pet to begin with. Some of the nastier vampires had were's and shifters as blood slaves if they particularly hated them, treated them the same as humans, but our castle, until Annabelle, held no permanent were's or shifters. They were usually rouge prisoners that my father killed within a few hours of them arriving or in rare cases, sold off to the highest bidder, if they were as pretty as Annabelle. Of course many witch families' had 'pets', mostly because they took in their friend's kids who were shifters or were's after the whole debacle. But this is why I found it strange that Annabelle had called the witch family, her family, most in her situation wouldn't. She explained that she'd been living with them her entire life, which was also strange.

Lucky for Annabelle that she is very pretty, because if she wasn't then my father wouldn't have stood her living in the castle, though Flynn wouldn't have brought her if she wasn't. He's not stupid and he also has been a supporter of werewolf and shifter rights long before the war ended, not if he'd admit it himself. I was far against supporting them at one point, but, I feel as something has really, shifted.

Lost in thought as I wander at a normal pace down the hallways towards my chambers, I hear a loud annoying screech. "Prince Jace!!" Sadly, that noise is coming from none other than Chelsea, who has been one of the more persistent ladies that lived within the castle grounds.