In love with royalty 👑

Forty eight

"Jayson? Jay!" Elena frowned. She'd been knocking for the past 5 minutes but Jayson didn't open up. She tried to pushed the door open but the door didn't budge. She had a bad feeling about this. "Guards!" She screamed and 2 guards that were stationed at that part of the castle came running. She pointed at the door. "Open this door." She shouted.

She was scared. Scared because Jayson was unstable and shouldn't be left alone. Scared because Jayden had left in a hurry and although Jayson might've understood that, he may not be able to handle the fact that his brother wasn't around the palace anymore.

The guards pushed and pushed but to no avail. The only way to open the door was to break it open.

"What's going on here?" Stephen asked, Jeffrey walking by his side. "I heard some noise. What happened?"

"Jayson is locked inside." Elena informed him.

"What? How?."

"He didn't come out for breakfast this morning. He hasn't come out since today, so I came to check . I knocked and called him but he wouldn't answer. If he was awake, he would have woken up. Don't you think?"

"Shit! What are we waiting for then?" Jeffrey said. He quickly observed the hinges of the door and frowned. "This is gonna take a lot of time."

"Wait!" Stephen ordered. He quickly went through the keys on his belt. When he found the master key, he asked everyone to step back and he opened up the door.

What he saw made his blood freeze. He stopped walking and stood there. He turned to his sister quickly. "Elena I'm not sure you can..." his voice faltered.

"Please don't tell me. Oh no." She walked into the room and she froze at the sight of Jayson.

Stephen turned towards the door. "Um, we'll take it from here. Thanks. I'll see you later Jeffrey." He closed the door and locked it.

Elena still stood there. "No please. Stephen, is that... is that?"

He nodded. "Yes it is. Please I know you're heartbroken but don't stand there, we need to help him."

Elena walked forward shakily and touched Jayson's pale skin. She cleaned her tears immediately and lifted him up. He was light, so light. She pulled his shirt off and laid him back.

Stephen removed the blood soaked sheets and kept it aside while Elena busied herself with cleaning Jayson's cuts.

"This is my fault." Elena said. "If only I had noticed it yesterday. I thought he was getting better." She wiped her red rimmed eyes. "I... what are we going to do? Nobody can know about this. He has lost so much blood. We have to bring in the physician.

There was a knock on the door and the siblings looked at themselves. Stephen stood up and walked towards the door. "Who's there?" He asked.

"The queen, open up." Lisbeth said. Stephen frowned but open the door. Lisbeth wasn't alone, the king was there too. "Jeffrey told me something was wrong here. Where's jay... oh my God. Please tell me it's not what I think." She ran to Jayson's side and held his weak hands. "No no no, get the physician, quick. Desmond you need to inform Edgar, call him out of those meetings."

Lisbeth cradled the boy to herself, kissing his forehead over and over again. "You cleaned him up?" She asked her daughter.

"Yes ma." Elena drafted letters to Jayden and the matron immediately and ran to send them out as an emergency.

Edgar came running to Jayson's room. "What happened?" He took the pale boy in his arms. "Please tell me he didn't cut himself."

Elena nodded. "We found him soaked in his own blood."

"No." Edgar cried. "No please, he was doing so well." He kissed his forehead.

The physician came in and began checking Jayson immediately. "Turns out no real damage was done. But he's lucky you found him when you did. You guys need to be careful around him. Make sure you don't let him out of your sight. He may be depressed and having suicidal thoughts. I suggest that someone who is really close to him be here when he wakes up because the first person he sees, he's going to be really attached. He might think that the person had been beside him and he might become really clingy. He might see the person as his safe place now."

King Edgar nodded. "Thank you. This information can't be told to anyone who isn't present here."

"He knows." Desmond said. He hugged his best friend tight and assured him that everything will be okay.

Stephen sent for Jeffrey and went to wait on him outside the room.

"Hey." Jeffrey said. He pulled Stephen into a hug and released him when he heard the boy crying. "What happened Stephen? What happened to him?"

Stephen cleaned his tears and stared blankly at the door he just came out from.

Jeffrey guided Stephen to the his room and made him sit down. He discovered that Stephen was clutching something tight to his chest, a red cloth or was it a bedspread? He slowly pulled the cloth away and he gasped making Stephen to turn to him. "What... is this ... blood?"

Stephen nodded slowly and tears rolled down his cheeks. He knew Jayson was unstable but he didn't think it had gotten to this extent. Seeing him lying there in a pool of his own, pale and dying had shocked him more than anything. His Jayson. He blamed himself for everything.

"Stephen. He'll be fine. Nothing will happen to him okay?"

Stephen nodded and stood up. He gathered the bed spread into his arms and left the room. Walking to his room, he tied up the sheets and hurled them to a corner of his closet. He then walked back to Stephen's room, entered gingerly and closed the door.

He sat next to Stephen and caressed his face. Only God knew what the poor boy had been going through. Jayson had grown beautiful over the years. He was such a beauty and Stephen realized that as he watched the boy sleep calmly, as if he didn't have any worry in the world.

He caressed his eyebrows and admired how his long lashes cast a shadow on his skin. His eyes landed on the mole on Jayson's upper lip and he smiled subconsciously. He touched it once before letting his eyes get to the latter's full plump lips. They were so red and succulent and Stephen chastised himself immediately and got his mind out of the gutter.

He admired Jayson's pale skin. Completely flawless except from the self harm scars. That added to his beauty too. It was who Jayson was.

Jayson probably thought Stephen hated him. That was a lie. He didn't hate him. If anything he was so scared because he almost lost Jayson today.

He held the boy's hands and kissed it. Thinking about how he almost lost Jayson brought tears to his eyes and he let it flow.

He blamed himself a great deal. If only he wasn't trying to make Jayson jealous. Yes, he had been trying to make Jayson jealous that was why he paraded Jeffrey everywhere. Even Jeff didn't know his plan but nobody had to know.

He cried harder thinking of how lost the boy looked as he apologized to Jeffrey. Jayson must hate him now, because who the hell makes royalty apologize to servants?

He was still crying when he he heard it. The softest of all voices he'd ever heard.

"Stevie?"

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Clears throat. I know this was long overdue. Please forgive me. I've been dealing with writer's block for a while now. I love you all. ❤️