Unclaimed

Chapter Sixteen- Echoes

Petra

I hummed softly as I ground down the garlic with the muddle. My eyes stuck on my eldest daughters back as she shrunk herself next to the fire. Only Raul knows that a week ago I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen. A sickening dread overwhelmed me as I ran to check on my kids.

Luca and Yazmin were perfectly fine, sitting in their rooms, unharmed. It's was Beau. It was Beau that was in danger of being ripped away from me. Without ever having a chance to talk, without ever giving her the reason for our constant separation.

I hated it. Every time she looked at me, I was a stranger to her. Every time our eyes met there was nothing in them that recognized me. It makes me sick to my stomach that she can't recognize me.

So here I am, cooking for her because that's the only thing I feel like I can do. She ran from me in that hospital, and that just made me more afraid. What about when I'm trying to save her? She won't recognize me then either?

Standing in her kitchen, looking around her house to see her entire personality written on the walls. The colors that bathed the house when the sun was out. If one dared entered her room and drew back the constantly drawn curtains, you would find the windows were stain glass. Lit up by the sun showing the beauty of nature caught perfectly in glass.

Her entire home was a church of color and light. Then Queen Naomi caught me snooping and we had a cup of tea, while I guiltily watched attendants and Lycan guards in heavy dirt covered work boots stomp through the house. Even I was irked with how much filth they tracked in.

I watched from afar as Beau manically cleaned her house. That's the only thing we both shared, it was our common hatred of filth. There was a moment, when she was throwing the garbage in a nearby fire pit, letting the dirt and muck cleaned from her house burn. She stopped, pausing as she stared into the fire, I moment where I saw her eyes turn from a placid lake to a raging storm.

I wanted to hold her. To run to her and tell her everything was perfectly fine and she was safe.

She lifted her eyes to the sky and I watched as she let herself fall back into the clovers. The fireflies flaring around her distancing themselves in fear of being squashed. Hitting the ground with a thud , and she laid there. One hand over where she'd been shot, I mimic her, remembering the pain I'd felt only days ago. I cried.

The prince himself was nearby, watching her as well. Eyes filled with just as much rage if not some homicidal beastly intention. Eyes glued to Isabeau as she laid there staring at the sky. I could feel the numbness in her. My child. She was tired. 

It had been five minutes of her laying perfectly still, soaking in that hollow feeling until she suddenly bounced up and went back into the house.

It was only then the prince and I saw each other. Meters away from the house, still far enough to be unnoticed, hiding in the darkness. There was guilt on both of our faces.

Once I was done cooking, a hearty chicken stew and white rice on the side. I remembered she liked hot sauce and lime, smiling to myself when I saw fresh lime right there on the counter. And a big bottle of hot sauce fixed right into the fridge shelf. Another thing we shared.

The prince had to coax her from the fire place. The minute she moved away she started shaking. She was still weak. The cold getting to her. She sat quietly and ate as much as she could before going to bed. We didn't say a word to each other as she ate, but she muttered a 'thank you' as she ascended the stairs.

That was enough for me to clean the kitchen with a smile on my face. Raul met me on the path into town, just a few yards past the tree line as to not be seen by Beau. We walk together in the covered in the darkness of the forrest.