THE USURPERS| 2021

CHAPTER 15: THE CITY PT. 1

CHAPTER XV
The City pt. 1
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"Should I call the physician?"

Maelle would not leave the room, even after I insisted I was doing well. She found me right after Dana had left; sitting on my bed with a dumbfounded look on my face. Apparently, I had gone pale.

"I just want to sleep." I mumbled as I pulled my sheets over my body. My body was buzzing with energy but the sooner I could convince her I wanted to rest, the sooner she would leave.

"You were nearly killed last night, your body must be recovering from some sort of trauma." She sat on the edge of the bed, smoothing the sheet around her. "Maybe it's your nerves. You know, you can catch a cold from being frightened."

"I doubt that." I mumbled. I had been frightened many times in my life, and those moments had only caused my power to crawl under my skin like an animal waiting to pounce on prey.

A knock broke the room's tender silence. I felt Maelle rise from the bed and open the door. When I heard it close again, I peeked my head over the sheets to see Maelle with a letter in hand.

She walked over to hand me the letter. "For you."

I was about to ask who it was from but the black seal already answered my question. It was plain black wax. No engraving.

"Who is it from?" Maelle asked. Something about her tone told me that she already suspected who had sent it.

My thumb brushed over the seal. Unadorned. No sigil. Fitting for a man from a dead country.

"I'd like to be alone now." I said, not bothering to look up at her. Maelle had been nothing but kind to me since I had been put in her care. I couldn't bear lying to her.

She furrowed her brows and looked at me for a long moment. As if she were holding herself back from saying something. Suddenly, she turned on her heel and left the room, the door shutting loudly behind her.

Acutely aware of the sound of Maelle's fading footsteps, I quickly tore open the seal. When I unfolded the letter, I found myself reading a short sentence—scrawled in elegant penmanship.

Walk to your balcony.

A feeling of dread and something else, anticipation perhaps, sparked inside of me. Was he waiting for me outside?

I leaned off the side of my bed, looking towards the door to my balcony. Maybe I was a great fool for even considering going out there. He had revealed to me he was a traitor to the crown this morning, a phrase that should have been followed by me running as far always as I could from him.

But that wasn't what I cared about.

There was an aching knowledge within me that there was another possibility to my curse. A possibility that could mean I wasn't an abomination to the world.

I placed my feet on the ground and made a quick resolve to head towards the balcony.

Stepping into the cold night air, I slowly padded over to the balcony's edge like a girl with a death wish. Who was to say that I wasn't a living target now? I imagined an arrow flying towards me from the tree tops. Maybe that would be General Altan's attempt to cut his liabilities now that I knew the truth about him.

Instead of an arrow, I looked down to see a tall figure standing in the clearing below.

"Are you insane?" I hissed, leaning over the railing as I watched General Altan walk forward. Even in the dark, I knew who was looking up at me with a shadowed grin.