Ashes Of The Throne | Part I

Chapter 48 | Down The Rabbit Hole

The medical team hadn't taken long to confirm that the Princess had been deceased from the initial autopsy. She had suffered from the attacks, and it was identified that it had been one of the guards that were still alive at that present time. As to why their systems finally picked up on his location? It was assumed that he had emerged from the crawl space they were hiding in.

He, like the other guard, held wounds that weren't treatable. The blood loss from the attacks suggested how violent the night was for all of them inside the palace—telling from the immense and brutal force unleashed on the servants that there was no intent to leave any survivors behind.

Cid dismissed his soldiers after that, wanting them to return in the morning, to which they would release the information to the high officials and work on the funeral that would then take place for both the Queen of the two worlds and her Royal Highness.

After intensely scrubbing off the day, Matthew turned off the searing hot shower. For one of the most exhausting nights he had in a long time, tonight was in the books. It was also the knowledge he now held that everything would change in the next few hours once the news broke.

His mind consistently drummed over contingency plans, anticipating what it meant for them and where it took them next.

How was it that his day began not too different from the many others he has had over his lifetime, turning into the normal nights when he could escape Escobar?

Yet she, with her smart little mouth and greedy little hands, forced him to forget about his world momentarily when she kissed him, taking the air out of his lungs and keeping it all to herself.

Why had he thought about how it felt to have Eko's skin against his own or the sway of her body when the lights had hit her perfectly between the beats of the drums?

Matthew shook his head, baffled at that piece of fact alone.

He didn't expect his night to go to shit, being on the moon, inspecting the palace and finding the deceased Princess as they did. Comforting Eko the way he had, then escaping for his life as the palace crumbled around him, leaving the dirt and ash covering his body.

He could smell the blood as he sat there with Cid; it was over his hands, his shirt and tangled in his hair. The longer it sat, the more nauseating it was and the further it consumed him.

Matthew was left with these abhorrent feelings of death, eating at him further as his body remained on autopilot.

Pulling on his briefs, he snapped from what he was doing when there was a small rap on his door.

Cocking his head at the noise, he decided to avoid it, knowing his track record; it had been one of the fan girls. He needed to keep focused as much as he would appreciate it any other given time after tonight and the morning he was about to have.

Moving amongst the narrow closet to find fresh clothing, and before he could reach out to grab his pants and shirt, the second rap on his door echoed again, this time a fraction faster.

Ignoring his better judgement, he relented and moved to the door, shoulders relaxing. Maybe it was Jesse or one of the guys; perhaps they needed something else; it was coming to two in the morning.

The option that it was one of them was a far higher probability than that being the Fanclub.

Tapping into the control panel for the door, he allowed it to slide open, and the person that stood staring at him was not the person he expected.

Even if it became the one that he was most curious to see at this time of the morning.

"Eko?" Bare-chested, chiselled abdomen, the soft bulge was staring at her, now leaning against the door frame. A surprised and delighted look on his face as he took in the brunette goddess curiously.