Forgotten Memories

Chapter 3

Cole looked up and smiled when he saw Arael walking into the dining room with her head up once more. He probably looked like a fool with the way he was grinning at her but he knew that the woman he loved was still in there and he planned on getting her out.

"Arael, darling, take a seat",his mother said happily. His parents had grown to love Arael as their own daughter. It had taken a lot more convincing to get his father to open up to the idea of accepting her into their life than it had with his mother. He understood why though considering the King had spent millennia thinking she was dead only to find out she wasn't and that she wouldn't be killed. He was happy that they had accepted her but he was upset that she could love them back already but not him.

Arael took her seat next to Cole and smiled at him quickly before looking away. He laughed silently making her blush and look down at her fork. Noticing her dropping her head to hide her face once again, he reached out and lifted her chin gently.

"What did I tell you in the room?",he asked softly. She sighed and bit her lip as she nodded. He smiled with satisfaction and turned back to everyone to see them all grinning at him and Arael.

"Are we going to eat or are you guys going to stare at us the whole night?",he asked bluntly. His's mother laughed and turned away from them.

"The boy is right",she told her husband. As if snapping out of a trance the rest of them quickly busied themselves with getting food.

"So, Cole, what happened with Arael? Maggie said she could hear her screams on the way to your room and thought something was wrong",his mother asked. Arael's cheeks turned blood red and she hid her face in her hands.

"I was my fault... He was blushing and lied to me by saying he wasn't so I was hanging over him to see his face and called him a liar then he told me not to hang on him and tickled me",she rambled on, embarrassed that it had caused a scene. Cole rubbed the back off his neck as he picked at his food.

"Wait a minute. He blushed? No one has ever made him blush before. We were starting to think he just couldn't show emotion on his face",his father said, feigning shock. Cole looked up and cleared his throat loudly to get everyone's attention.

"Enough about us and whether or not I blush. I thought of something, father and I wanted to ask you about it. You remember the girl you took from earth last year? Well what did you do with her?",he asked. A girl had started causing an excessive amount of trouble on earth and they had had to intervene before she caused too much imbalance. His father stopped with his fork half way to his mouth and looked up at his son.

"I turned her into a fallen and let her go",he replied. Arael perked up at his father's words and looked up from her meal.

"If I may ask, Your Majesty, how do you turn a human into a fallen?",she asked the king. The King smiled at Arael and put down his fork.

"I don't mind at all, my girl. And how many times have we not asked you to call us by our names. It's just Darius and Lillian to you. All the Kings have a dagger made for them when they are born - you got one as well - and these daggers are very powerful. If a human is killed by a fallen's dagger and a fallen King brings them back, they come back as a fallen and vice versa. I killed that young girl and brought her back so she became a fallen",King Darius told her.

"That sounds really easy",she commented.

"That's just the jist of it. There's a lot more preparation, rituals and pain involved in the more detailed version",he replied. That sounded like the more realistic version based on what was actually being done during the process. She thanked him for explaining and they carried on eating with everyone talking when they pleased.

After dinner Cole helped Maggie clear the table and the staff started to wash the dishes as he headed up to his room. He found Arael at the bottom of the stairs, looking like she was lost in her thoughts with a frown on her face. Stopping in next to her, he lifted his hand and ran his thumb over the worry lines on her forehead, causing her to jump.

"What's worrying you so?",he asked. She turned and they headed up the stairs together.

"I'm just wondering what will happen if I never remember you... Will you kill me like you were meant to in the first place or will you just move on and forget about me? Because I don't know if I want either to happen. I really am trying to remember you and I believe me, I want nothing more than to remember you and what happened between us, but all I can remember about you is that you were there. But I can't see you or hear you or feel you or remember anything else about you. You're just an invisible presence in my memories and no matter how hard I try...",she trailed off and looked up at him with tears in her eyes as they stopped in front of her door. He pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"I can't forget you even if I wanted to and I would never kill you. I'd die sooner than letting someone lay even a finger on you. You've got nothing to worry about, my little bird",he told her firmly. She didn't want to but she knew she had to let go of him soon or he would think something more was off about her.

"Now go get some sleep",he said softly and forced a smile onto his face as she pulled away. She nodded and let go of him to open her door.

"Goodnight, Cole",she whispered before closing the door behind her. He walked off to his room and slammed the door before picking up the lamp next to his bed and hurling it across the room against the wall where it shattered into hundreds of pieces across the floor. He knew he should be happy that she at least knew he was there in her past but it took her over a year to finally remember that. How long would it talk her to remember everything about him and to love him again? A few more years, decades maybe? How could he be happy that the love of his life would only remember him in a few decades if she even ended up remembering him at all?