Sugar Mommy

Chapter 17

Sugar Mommy

Chapter Seventeen

Dolores Miller

"Where are you going?" My brother inquired, squinting his eyes as he approached me while I dropped a black coat over my shoulders.

"You are one to ask." I fired back, not willing to see his face.

"Dolores, I've had enough of you disrespecting me." Denver finally snapped, catching me off-guard. "You may be the future monarch, but I am the one in power right now, and you will respect me."

"Not much of a powerful move you played when ordering Haru to be shot, brother." I sat on a couch nearby to put on my shoes.

"It was for you!" He raised his voice. "Everything, everything I've done since mama and papa's death 'till now has all been to protect the power of your authority on the throne!"

"Well, my authority lies on a kingdom you're no longer part of!" I raised my voice to match his, standing up to face him. "And you no longer hold the authority to be in rule!"

"You're going to bring him back..." My brother trailed off, his eyes wide in shock despite the soft, low whisper of a voice his sound now held. "You read the book..."

"Yes, and I'm going to bring him back." My voice hardened.

"And you are aware that if you enter the underworld, you will never have Father Akio's blessings?" His hands shook.

"Si, Hermano." I turned on my heel and was about to exit the palace when my brother's voice boomed behind me.

"Dolores Miller, you will not step outside this territory!" I turned around to see my brother's once-blue eyes colored in a rageful red.

He had lost control...

"Submit." He commanded, his voice low and his body held high, yet an occasional twitching in his eyes that showed how hard he was trying to not become a wolf.

"I don't want anyone to sympathize with me, I just..."

"No," I replied, my voice dripping in the same authority his sound possessed before I turned my heel and walked off.

~~~

I walked 'till I didn't know where the roads led anymore.

Is it wrong of me to regret speaking to my brother like that?

I was snapped out of my thoughts when the branch of a high oak tree snapped due to a pheasant landing on it.

"Is it perhaps a sign of fate?" Diana sighed, most probably still upset with what happened with Hermano.

I have never talked to him harshly, let alone raise my voice at him.

How can I be comfortable with that?

"Break a branch of a nearby tree, Dolores. Don't think much of it." Diana sternly said.

I took a few steps back until my back hit another tree I didn't realize was behind me.

I plucked out the branch closest to me as quietly as I could, internally groaning when I realized that I have to sharpen it.

I walked behind the tree and grabbed a rock from the ground before squatting down on my toes and resting my elbows on my thighs.

I sharpened the branch, internally praying the pheasant was still there when I get up to hunt it.

It's peculiar how barely a few months ago if anyone told me that I would be in the woods at midnight, sharpening a branch to hunt a pheasant to summon the god of death, I'd laugh at their face.

Yet, here I am.

"Love is a very ironic phase of life."

It surely is, mother.

The Queen twirled around the room, her little daughter in her arms all the while. 

"I haven't forgotten your smile or the love of each word in the songs I have written for you. So, come to me once again. Stand beside me as you hold my hand. All the while, as I take you to my world."

"How many songs has father written for you, mama?"

"Many, my love." The Queen laughed, "I'll sing them all for you."

"When, mama?"

"All in slow time, Princess Dolores. We have eternity at our hands."

"The Minister has been sentenced to death."

The silence knew who was guilty.

The Princess knew the Minister removed the breaks long before the Prince, didn't she?

"You're the feeling of shade under a burning sun, my dear. You're the air of the trees. You're the victory, the soul, and the universe. What I mean to say is, you freaking matter."

I stood up with the, now sharp, branch as I walked to the oak tree.

There were about three pheasants on the branch now.

I aimed at one of the left side corners, and approached it from its behind, silently, so as to not alarm them.

Clutching the branch, I jumped up and grabbed the pheasant by its torso before it could react, closing my eyes instinctively as the other two birds fluttered away in panic.

My eyes darted to the pheasant in my grasp, and I was caught off guard when I noticed that the bird wasn't struggling.

It was alive, I could tell because of its open eyes and its faint beating of heart, but it was simply motionless.

Suddenly worried, I sat down on the ground in the position I previously was, dropping the branch, and instead, placing the bird delicately on my lap.

I released it from my grasp, ready to catch it if it tried to fly away, but it didn't.

It didn't move.

Instead, it lied on its back and gently closed its eyes.

No, no, no.

I searched the bird for any injuries, but it possessed none.

Suddenly, it sneezed.

Again.

And again.

"Is it sick?" Diana muttered.

I examined the bird once more and recalled how it was a bit weaker and slightly thinner than the other two pheasants.

"No, stay with me, birdie." I gently rubbed its belly, trying to get it to open its eyes, in which I succeeded. Well, slightly.

"Come on, little guy." I gently rubbed its nape and forehead, trying to get him to open his eyes fully.

It didn't work for too long though.

The bird shut its eyes, and the slight up-and-down in its torso stopped, its beak slightly hanging open.

"No, please no," I don't know why I cared so much, I was going to try and kill it anyways. But thinking through it now, perhaps I wouldn't have been able to go through with it.

My subconscious mind's first instinct, for some reason, was to gently put my ear near his torso, which still bore its beating heart.

Still beating heart! That's a head start!

I immediately started to gently press on above his heart while blowing air through his beak.

If I don't save him, I cannot talk to the god of death.

I cannot let that happen.