In Your Dreams

Chapter 18

I walked down the hallway towards the King's office, and as I turned the corner, Julian was walking from the opposite direction. He stopped in front of the large, wooden door and waited for me with his signature smile on his face. As I approached him, he arched his eyebrow.

"Couldn't get enough of me, princess?"

I shot him a glare.  "I needed you in here when I talk to the King about my visions."

"You needed me?" He asked in a teasing tone as goofy grin played on his lips.

I pushed his shoulder, but his hard body didn't even budge.  "Shut up, Julian."

He gave me another grin before opening the door, and I hurried in away from him. I didn't need him distracting me.  King Gabriel stood at the opposite end of the room, taking a book from one of his large bookshelves. When we entered, the King shifted his attention from his book to us.

"Claire. Julian.  It's nice to see you. Make yourselves comfortable," the King greeted as he sat at his desk across from us. We both took a seat in the brown, leather chairs across from him.

"I'm happy you were able to meet with me on such short notice, Claire. We have so much to discuss," King Gabriel remarked. His eyes glanced back and forth between us. "Although I wasn't expecting you, Julian, I'm sure you have something to bring to this meeting."

Julian nodded and I replied, "It's no problem, your Majesty."

"Great," he said as he leaned forward on the desk with his hands clasped together.  "I just wanted to first say that I'm grateful that you have no problem being among us, and we wanted to thank you for not being upset about my speech last night."

"It's no problem, really."

He acknowledged my comment with a nod.  "We meant to explain everything to you before hand, but we feared you might want to leave.  We are sorry for that. We hope that you wouldn't mind staying here and help us out with our plans for coexistence." His eyebrows rose expectantly as if waiting for a "yes."

I paused for a moment before answering and glanced at Julian, "I would love to."

"Then it's settled!" He exclaimed joyously as he got out a piece of paper.  "There are few things I wanted to run past you. If you are to help us out, we would need you to make an appearance at public events here at the castle and when we have important visitors. We want to show our race that coexistence is possible."

Appearance?

I wasn't so sure that was what I wanted, but the power radiating off of the King told me that I should think twice before telling him "no."

"That would be no problem. I would be happy to," I agreed to his terms.

The look on his face told me that I said the right answer.  "Perfect! Now, Aurora told me that you and Julian needed to talk to me about something."

Now that it was time to speak, my hands began to lightly shake, and my heart accelerated. I was suddenly nervous about discussing everything with the King. I should've asked Julian what he told them about my visions first.

Luckily, Julian read my mind and started talking instead, "Your majesty, Claire wanted to talk to you about the visions she sees. I know we already discussed that she has had dreams about Tristan and Eretria, but they have been happening more frequently and are physically harming her."

The King looked intrigued, "Really? Tell me a little more about them, Claire. I can't promise I can solve the reasoning behind them, but maybe I can find someone who can."