The King's Queen | ✔

Chapter 76

As I reached the stone slab, another dull ache passed through me. And then I felt the heartbeat before I heard it.

***

Slowly but surely, his faint heartbeat gained strength, resonating through the room. In utter shock, I whirled around to look at him. Despite his stillness, the heartbeat was unmistakable.

He looked to be around ten years old. Origin children were rare; I'd never met one before. I brought him into the passage and stayed with him, holding onto the hope that he would wake up.

There was no way of keeping track of time in the tunnel. It could have been an hour or two, perhaps more. I tried counting but was too anxious and kept starting over. His body was already regenerating.

After what felt like an eternity, his chest rose, and he opened his mouth in a silent cough. His throat appeared to have been injured not too long before he was captured, as it looked hastily wrapped.

As he coughed, I gently propped him up into a sitting position, helping to clear the remnants of Nightshade from his lungs.

The boy opened his eyes, and they left me speechless. Their color was sterling silver, unlike anything I'd ever seen before. My heart raced with anticipation.

Could he be an Angeles? Maybe that would explain his miraculous resurrection.

The boy blinked back the fuzziness from his eyes for a few minutes and then finally seemed to really take notice of me. His eyes held an emotion I couldn't decipher.

His gaze shifted to my clothes, rebounded to my face, and he sat up straighter. His fingers examined his neck as he looked around the place. I didn't interfere as he drank in his surroundings.

His silvery focus surveyed his clothes and injuries next. His heart rate sped up, and he started hyperventilating.

I reached out to touch him, but he slapped my hand away. I decided to give him some space and let him be. He was likely very confused and still disoriented. This was new for both of us.

As soon as I thought about that, my head started spinning. I blinked back the dizziness. I must have stayed in the room of Nightshade for longer than I could handle. Seconds ticked by, but the dizziness wouldn't fade.

A strange sound flooded through my head, and the dizziness gave way to a voice. I looked at the boy, who stared back at me, and the sound steadily became clearer as it morphed into words.

He spoke to me through the mind link, which was very odd. Normally, establishing a mind-link connection required permission from both parties, but he effortlessly waltzed into my head.

He searched my face for some kind of indication that I could hear him, but the language he spoke was foreign to me. The words sounded just like the language Sybil had taught me to read.

"I don't understand you," I whispered forlornly. "Can you understand me? My name is Elizabeth."

He didn't seem to understand me either and kept looking around and repeating two words: Parkos Lavinia.

His language included sounds that didn't exist in English. I brought my hand to my chest and then pointed at myself. "Elizabeth," I repeated slowly. "I am Elizabeth."

He seemed to relax, and his heartbeat calmed to a gentle lull.

"Your name is Elizabeth?"

I nodded eagerly. He was still speaking through the mind link, and his words were all foreign, but I could understand him somehow, and he understood me, too.