Forbidden

F I V E

Her eyes dashed through the paper, reading it word by word, line by line. When she finished, she shook her head in disbelief. "This can't be!" she thought, reading it again before she looked up at the king. Strangely it had said who her mother was but not her father. After reading and re-reading it she felt angry that he had taken some samples of her blood without her consent, but also sort of relieved that someone had finally found out why she was different.

"On the first day you arrived... after we kidnapped you," he corrected, " We drew some of your blood when you were still unconscious because many had read about the abundant magical properties of the golden blood, including some healing properties. (How come I never heard of those before" Astoria wondered) So we became a little curious and..." he stopped and looked at Lilith for some sort of permission, she seemed to know what he was about to say. She gave him a little nod before looking back at Astoria. "Because Lilith is gravely ill, we've tried every healer we could find but nothing has worked." Lilith lowered her head embarrassed.

"But I thought Queen Lilith was a skin healer?" Astoria asked, confused.

.

"She is, she inherited a few of her mother's skills, but her main power is still telekinesis," he answered for her.

"I'm slowly dying," Lilith said softly, her voice was like a bell. "Every time I use my powers, I grow weaker."

Astoria had noticed that the dark bags under her eyes had grown darker every day, but she covered it up and plastered a smile on her face. but if you looked closely you could see slight differences from before.

"So now you know," he sighed.

"I'm so sorry for your illness, I wish I could help," she said, which was true. She was sorry for Lilith, she was a kind woman, she was like a mother to Astoria. Queen Lilith had been the first one to show her kindness when she had been forcibly brought to Tartarus

"Rowan still don't know about me. Would you please not tell him?"

"I won't say a word," Astoria promised,

"Thank you,"

"Wait! If I'm part terrestrial then who is my father?"

"We don't know yet, we're still searching," the King replied.

It finally hit her, if she was part terrestrial then her mother had had an affair with her father- if she could still call him that, and Diane was her half-sister, " Was it all a lie?" She had thought, she wasn't a princess, she never is, and never was. she was nothing.

"Do with this information whatever you want, but if you tell Rowan about Lilith or even mention it to him, I will personally kill you with my bare hands," The king threatened.

Astoria nodded, "I understand."

A couple of weeks passed. Astoria did her normal routine: wake up, train, protocol, then train and at night she would read a book, keeping up with her education But today was special and not in a way she was excited about. She had been informed that there would be a ball with all of the nobles and other important guests attending, and she was obliged to go too. She was in the same position she was a few months ago; servants dressing her up, and her staring in the mirror blankly, but this time it was in different location. The elegant gown she was wearing was made from black silk, the skin-tight bodice showed off her curves, and long narrow sleeves covered her tanned arms with thin black lace. The long skirt was also accented with lace and it flowed down to the floor covering her feet on which she wore matching black heels. Her fiery red hair was left untouched, with its natural curls, and a tiara set with precious jewels - diamonds, rubies and emeralds.