His Mate

Chapter fifty six

Aliyah furrowed her brows, “I don’t understand.”
“I know,” Irene said, “I’m still telling the story aren’t I?”
Aliyah chuckled, embarrassed at herself, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Irene said, scooping up her mixture and bringing it to her face to have a sniff, “hmm, one more ingredient is missing, the tongue of a deer.” She placed the spoon back in the bowl and went to her drawers, searching for something. Aliyah watched her in fascination and slight disgust when she brought a jar and opened it, bringing out something that definitely looked like a tongue. She placed the jar back and walked to the bowl again, dumping the tongue inside it. She placed her hand on the bowl and closed her eyes. Seconds later, the bowl started boiling and she opened her eyes. She stirred and scooped another potion up and inhaling it, she sighed in content, “ah, now it’s ready.” She reached for a cup sitting beside her and scooped some potion inside it and handed it to her, “here you go.”
“Not in this life time,” Aliyah said immediately with a shriek, moving back from her.
Irene rolled her eyes, “oh please, you already had some last night.”
“What?” Aliyah shrieked and in the next second, she was barfing. “What in the world?”
“Listen to me princess; you need to take this to clear out the effect of the powder used on you last night. You weren’t waking up and Edward was so worried so I made a little concoction to get you up so that he would be at peace. Now, this is the real antidote that you need and you need to take it for three days hence why I made this quantity. So you either take this now or I am dumping everything outside and when you get sick later, I will tell Edward that you refused to take your medication and trust me, you don’t want to know what he will do,” she smiled a dangerous smile that Aliyah took the cup from her immediately.
“But this is so…” she barfed again, pinching her noise so as not to breathe in the horrid smell.
“It’s for your own good princess. Here is a trick, pinch your nose, close your eyes and gulp it all at once. Then I will give you this sweet for the after taste,” she reached into a bag and brought out a lollipop. “I rushed down to the human realm this morning and got some, I know you will like it,” she winked.
Aliyah sighed, knowing that there was no escaping it so she took her advice and drank the liquid, the taste was bad as the scent and she was snatching the lollipop from Irene, unwrapping it and popping it inside her mouth.
Irene shook her head with a light chuckle. “Edward is the only person I know that takes a concoction without batting an eye.”
Aliyah frowned at that. “Whatever reason did he need to take some?”
“No reason, he just helps me to taste them. Back then when I was still discovering my powers, I would ask him to get me some animals and then I will cook up a potion with their body parts and will give it him to have a taste. He would gladly do so, even though it gives him an upset stomach after, but he never said no whenever I brought a new bottle for him to drink,” she smiled softly. “I stopped though when I found out the effect it has on him for he never told me himself. I had a vision about it and just as I was going to tell him, I saw him throwing up and that was it, I never showed up in front of him again with a potion to taste.”
Aliyah smiled at the story, the man really does have a gentle side. “Did he ever ask why?”
“Why what?”
“Why you don’t bring potions to him again?”
“Oh, he did, and I told him that I didn’t need him tasting them anymore, that my vision shows me the right way to miss the ingredients to get what I want.” She shrugged. “You must be hungry, I will cook us something to eat.”
Aliyah nodded and followed her into the kitchen where she wowed. The woman had every cooking gadget and it came as a surprise to her. She also noticed that there was no potion or anything for magic that was in the kitchen, which meant that the woman really meant it when she called it her kitchen. She stood in the center, watching to know what she was doing and how she can help.
“Back to my story though,” Irene said as she walked into her pantry and walked out with some vegetables. Dumping them on the sink, she started washing them. “King Josiah has always been in good terms with King Solomon but he had always envied the man’s land. King Josiah was richer, thanks to the Dark Prince, but a greedy man is always a greedy man. King Solomon had a vast land that occupies the forest and tropical nature, birds lived there and swans always visit the lake. King Josiah didn’t want to fight with King Solomon, not only because of their long years of friendship but because King Solomon may not have the Dark Prince but he had able bodied soldiers. Defeating them in a battle, although not impossible but it would take a long time to achieve that task. So Josiah thought to himself, while fight them when there is an easier way to get what he wants?”
Aliyah grabbed a knife and a bowl and picked the vegetables Irene had washed into the bowl and took it to the island where she found a chopping board and started cutting them.
Irene smiled at that and picked up the frozen chicken she had kept earlier to defrost and started spicing it to put in the oven. “King Solomon had three sons and a daughter and according to him, she is his little angel. Two of Princess Mariah’s brothers didn’t give a damn about her, but her eldest brother, Prince David loved her dearly, even more than their father. King Josiah journeyed to Vallahan to propose to the princess without the knowledge of the Dark Prince. King Solomon accepted the proposal for who wouldn’t want to have a man as the Dark Prince for son in law but he still wanted to ask his daughter for her happiness meant more to him than his wants.”
“Let me guess, Princess Mariah rejected the proposal?” Aliyah asked.
Irene chuckled and shook her head. “Negative, Princess Mariah has never seen The Dark Prince for she was never allowed out of the palace and the Dark Prince hated social events as much as he hated to be surrounded by women. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes after a victorious fight, the Dark Prince would sit around and drink ale with his men and after that, maidens are allowed to entertain them, but being committed to one or having someone special has never been in his dictionary. As far as he is concerned, he doesn’t need to love or be loved. But Princess Mariah on the other hand, although has never seen him but has fallen in love with just the tales told about him. When her father brought her a marriage proposal, she threatened to kill herself if she was forced to marry someone but when she heard the maids discussing who her groom would have been had she accepted, she had picked the hem of her dress and ran out of her room to her father’s study to apologize on how she talked to him and to accept the marriage.”
“Wow.”
“Indeed,” Irene chuckled. “So King Josiah who had left dejected was met on the way by King Solomon’s adviser to tell him the great news and the man had journeyed home happily. When he told his youngest son about his upcoming marriage, the Dark Prince had rejected immediately but the King had other plans. First, he threatened not to hand over his throne to him if he doesn’t marry Princess Mariah, however, the Dark Prince didn’t care about the throne and still rejected so the King used another means. He threatened to kill himself and even had himself poisoned to prove it. Now forced into admission, the Dark Prince had no choice and so, the engagement party was arranged and for the two to finally meet each other with the wedding agreed to be in a fortnight after the engagement party.”
“The wedding didn’t hold right?” Aliyah asked, already feeling the pain in her chest and surprised why she would be feeling such, a pain she never knew of.
“Let me finish,” Irene said. “Mariah’s heart fell even deeper when she saw the Dark Prince but the Prince has never been the type to hide his feelings so after the party when Mariah snuck into his chambers to talk with him, he told her straightforwardly that he doesn’t love her and was forced into the marriage by his father. Mariah didn’t feel broken by that, she expected it, after all, a man as famous as him will have his standards but she came up with a deal. She promised to talk to her father to postpone the wedding for a year and in that year, the prince is to court her and get to know her and if he doesn’t love her when the time was up, she would call off the engagement and he can be with whoever he wants. The Dark Prince didn’t think that was necessary and was just a waste of time but to humor her, he agreed. However, the princess had a condition, during the time frame, he was not to meet with any other maiden.”