The Forgotten Princess | Avery x Leofric x Uhtred | The Last Kingdom

Painful truths

(Authors note: Sorry for the late update. I have just discovered I'm pregnant after four years of fertility issues and I am definitely struggling in this first trimester. My partner has set my laptop up at a desk so hopefully I can write more comfortably now and it wont take so long next time. Thank you for being patient!)

Finan had stayed with Avery for the next couple of hours, they shared cups of ale together and just enjoyed the company of one another. She could tell he was worried for Uhtred; he was still sleeping but he was already healthier since his arrival. And Finan was now worried for her too, ever since he found her on the ground of the barn.

"Why do you think the witch showed those things to you?" He finally found the courage to ask after they were several cups of ale deep.

"There are rumours, surrounding my birth. Especially about my mother, or who she is. Skade claims my mother was like her, how she used her powers to seduce the King and the Queen was so desperate for another child that she claimed me as her own. Then they beheaded my true mother. The woman from the visions, she wore an amulet. My brother has the same amulet hanging on the wall in his study. I need to find it. Maybe I can learn something else about who it belonged to." She finished her cup, wanting to find Sihtric and hopefully feel that comfort only he could offer her.

"What do you believe, in your heart? Do you truly want to walk this path because you might not like what you discover." He reached for her hand when he noticed how she was starting to fidget in her seat and the warmth she instantly felt made her take a small breath which hitched in her throat, but she hid it behind her cup.

"What would you do? If you were to face this problem?" Avery truly trusted Finan and his opinion. She knew he would only give her advice that would benefit her, that would protect her. Her eyes glanced at their joined hands for a moment before she looked back to his face as she awaited a response.

"You deserve the truth; I just worry it will be enough to break you. Maybe there is a reason why your family has kept this from you?" Her body tensed slightly, but he was quick to notice her fight or flight response and placed down his cup of ale so he could hold onto their joined hands with all his strength. "I am not justifying it. I just want to protect you."

"If this is true. I am no longer that Princess that you lust over. I am just a bastard who was fathered by a King. I am nothing, I come from nothing." Her eyes could not meet his, she felt ashamed about her past even though there was nothing she could physically do to change things. She could feel the shift in the room, feel how close he was to her now as if he was going to silence her with a kiss but before anything could happen between the pair, they heard one of the guards at the entrance blowing their horns. Someone else had arrived.

The pair quickly jumped apart, hands already on their weapons as they went to investigate. Avery instantly hid beneath her hooded cloak again, following behind Finan and hiding in the shadows. A skill she had seemed to master under Sihtric's training. There was raised voices and when the men approaching introduced themselves, she understood these men had been trying to reclaim Skade. She was their good luck token.

"You should remain hidden. One of the men still craves the blood of a Princess since the last time we escaped these walls." He was about to reach out for her, to touch her one last time but Avery was quick to listen. She would never let herself be a victim again.

As she was hiding in the shadows of the streets and finding her way back to the small safehouse where her and Finan had been hours before she heard a familiar voice that stopped her in her tracks. Uhtred, he was alive and well – even walking around the town and celebrating his health with his brother. She continued to hide, not wanting to reveal herself so suddenly and cause him to think he was still suffering the effects of Skade's curse. Because as she was watching him the last few days, she heard him mention Leofric – as if he were speaking to him and his ghost was haunting him. It made her happy to see him so healthy again, but she hated being surrounded by so many men she could not trust. She wanted to hide again.