The Last Silvermaw Hunter

Chapter 20

Mother paces in front of me, while I sit in her study in a pair of dragonhide leathers. Apparently in my little zombie phase, I left the room in only the slip that was put on me.

"Do you have any idea how long it will take to rebuild and pay for that tower?!" June scolds, stopping behind her desk, placing her hands on the surface. "We'll have to raise taxes for months if not years to pay off the cost. We'll also have to postpone the whole school year at least, 'cause you can't control your own power."

I sat there for a moment, "You don't know what I went through when I woke up." I snapped, "You don't know what I felt when I woke up with my wings gone." I shake my head, "You know what I don't know why I keep having to defend myself to you." I stand to leave but only to sit back down when an indescribable pain shoots through my arm, my shoulder and makes me flinch when it hits my neck.

My pants are the only sound in the room before mother rushes to the door and shouts for someone to get a healer, she looks back to me for a second before lowering her voice to finish her command.

I grab onto my bicep as the pain starts again, hissing through my teeth, I do my best to keep my power from getting out of control. June rushes over to me and crouches beside me, placing a hand to my forehead, checking my temperature. She frowns, "You're burning but your skin is ice cold." She brushes my hair back, "we have to get you to your rooms."

"What do you mean my rooms, didn't they crash with the rest of the tower?" I ask, a shiver racing down my spine. She hesitates for a second before nodding hesitantly, "They did, but I've taken it upon myself to move you in with Prince Iarwarin for the time being."

I sit up a little too fast and almost faint from the pain. "No," I say through gritted teeth, "I refuse. I don't know him. And don't you dare say I will get to know him, I refuse to be in the same vicinity as him." I shake my head and she opens her mouth to speak, "No, no, no. I can't, I can't, I can't."

She cups my face with her palm, the sorrow in her eyes nearly makes me break down, "I know you don't want to get to know him, but you must if you want to survive. It was the only way I could keep you alive." Tears start falling down her face, as she gives a weak smile, "It was the only way I could keep you from leaving me, you have no idea what would happen to me if you left, Adorite you mean everything to me. Everything."

My back arches as another wave of pain flows through my body. June's hands slip to my shoulders trying to keep me from falling off the chair. I lay there panting when it leaves. "What is happening to me?"

She smooths my hair down, "I believe it is the second stage of your metamorphosis."

All I can respond is a stupid "Uh uh."

The door opens and June's head whips in that direction, the relief on her face tells me who it is. The healer rushes to my side and June stands, still looking towards the door, and she asks "What are you doing here?".

My pulse jumps when I hear who it is. "My job."

June bares her teeth and her voice takes on its melodic tilt to it. She points to the door as she takes a step closer to him, "Get out before I throw you out, Prince Saber."

I hear Saber take a step and his head turns visible over the top of the chair I am currently slouching in, in one of the weirdest and most unladylike positions, but I don't move as the healer examines me.

"The king sent me to retrieve Adorite." Saber says with complete calm.

"He will not see her, I refuse," Mother hisses the melodic tilt to her voice growing stronger, "and if he has a problem with that then tell him to come to me, but I refuse to allow another one of my children die by his hand."

Another wave of pain flows through my body, worse than all the others. I try not to curl into myself as it comes, to not give the healer more trouble than necessary, but it happens anyway.

I distantly feel a drop of sweat slide down my forehead and land onto the leather of the chair. A cry tears from my throat as it comes again not long after the first.

June rushes to the healer, "What is it? What's happening to her?"

The healer studies me, "She's shifting, but without her wings, she can't."

"What do you mean 'she can't.'"

The healer looks at June, "Something happened correct? Something major?" She asks, "The white band wrapped around her torso, thicker at her back, she had wings? Did she not?"

June looks out the window and sighs, "They took her wings, they said that she was too powerful with her wings, that she's a danger to all that the king has built to protect." She sits on the arm of the opposite chair, "I tried to get them to stop, that she was no danger to anything, that she doesn't know how to control herself and her power turns out of her control when she's threatened. I tried to get them to stop, but Caesar ordered the guards to keep me away. I fought, I couldn't stand to have my daughter lose the only thing that made her...her. Then...." She looks up at me with tears in her eyes, "you started screaming, you didn't even know you were doing it, but you screamed and it broke my heart, that i swore to myself that you wouldn't be hurt once you came here, and I broke that promise, to myself and to you."

"I tried so hard to get back to you, but they locked me in my room. I was the queen and they locked me in my room, like I was a stubborn child. Then your screaming got louder, loud enough that Vashak roared in response, I had to calm him through our bond. I had to reassure him that you were in no immediate danger. It hurts to lie to him, I knew he would have come here within seconds if I told him, but I knew that Caesar would have ordered him killed. And I can't cause you any more pain, so I lied and told him to stay where he was. I lied so many times that day, and I didn't even know it."

It gets dead silent when she finishes and after a while, the healer clears her throat, "I can give her a buffer, to help her control her magic and have it keep her from shifting, but keep this in mind, it won't be a permanent fix, you'll have to teach er how to control it and have it and an constant stage of stability or be at risk of her shifting without her wings."

June nods and goes back to the other side of her desk. "Get her fixed up, we can't keep the king waiting any longer than necessary." And just within seconds mother is withdrawn once again.

"I can get a necklace to act as the buffer, but it's back in my quarters or do you have something that I can spell in here?" The healer asks, now crouched beside me again, poking and prodding.

"I've got something."

My eyes pop open, and I didn't even realize I closed them, it wasn't June who spoke, it was Drayco. He's holding a plain silver band out in the palm of his hand. He's looking straight at me while I stare dumbstruck at the ring in his hand.

The healer takes it and mutters a few words under her breath, the ring glows before dimming to a pale shimmer. She puts the ring on my hand and within seconds the pain that was coursing through my body stops and I suck in a full breath, sit up, then hiss through my teeth when my body groans.

Gods, who knew going through a shifting phase would make your body feel run over by a semi truck...well a blocked shifting phase.

I stand up, "Well might as well go see the king. Gods forbid he be kept longer than he wants." Huffing I try to take a step, only to fall and be caught by Saber. I ignore his rain and thunderstorm scent.

"You should rest before you go." The healer states, standing behind me.

"No," I say, still leaning on Drayco, "If he wants to see me, he'll get to see me, pain and all."