Cursed Union

{11}

Ganea was far from the land Eliana remembered leaving behind. The moment her carriage crossed the borders, Eliana felt the air thicken, and a wave of unrecognisable and unseeable gas entered her lungs, confiscating all the air.
The soldiers around her felt it too, for they wheezed alongside her before signalling the coachman to stop the carriage, and the others followed suit. The carriages came to a halt, and all the mercenaries, even the most skilled ones, dropped to their knees clutching their chests as the poisonous air filtered their capillaries and diffused inside their arteries.
"Retreat!" a soldier managed to shout over the sounds of men struggling and dying. A bulkier soldier managed to pull Eliana out of the carriage and lifted her in his arms before pulling her out of the carriage. He made a run for the border, desperate to reach the other side, back to Sleyisea.
But they were too far away, a hundred metres across the border, and the soldier fell to his knees before they were halfway there, and Eliana collapsed alongside him.
She almost reached for her bracelet, almost instinctively grasped it before remembering the treaty and the fact that she was in Ganean territory and the consequences Alexander would have to face if, by any chance, they were to get caught.
Around her, she could see the soldiers passing away, and she felt her own consciousness slip away. She clasped her hand around her neck, a sole person on her mind as she drifted in and out before diving in finally.
Something blinding tugged at the skin of her eyelids as she saw red and only that before slowly opening them. The sun blazed her skin, burning hotter than it had during the hottest days in Ganea.
She gave herself a few minutes to adjust to the light before sitting up. Pain curled up and towards her neck, splicing her body and forcing her to fall back down. A presence lurked nearby: she felt it and the familiarity it offered.
She felt the presence sway and shift, and the curtains closed, blocking the lethal light of the sun. "'Morning, Els," said the form, and it took Eliana a moment to register the deep masculine voice. Her mind placed it alongside a much immature one, slightly more high-pitched and playful, and while it vividly differed from the one she'd only just heard, the underlying tone remained the same.
"Brother," escaped Eliana's mouth, and she managed to crane her neck slightly to look him in the eyes. Just as she had assumed, at the foot of her bed stood her brother Cade, watching her with his sincere brown eyes, a smile tugging at his lips.
His appearance had evolved over the years since she hadn't met him. He looked rather bulky, with broad shoulders and strong muscles tense even beneath his tunic. Scars adorned his face and arms, some deeper than the others, and a newfound wisdom lurked in his eyes.
He shared the same black hair as Eliana, and the same brown eyes- only his looking a shade lighter in the sunlight.
"It is good to have you back home, Els," he spoke, but his words lacked their usual warmth. At best, they sounded forced or spoken out of despair.
"How have you been, Cade?" she asked, picking up on the hopelessness trying to conceal itself in his features, and his smile faded.
"I am going to become a father soon. Lana is pregnant and the seers say it's a girl."
"That's great news!" she cheered, but his lips didn't give the slightest of a twitch. "What is wrong, Cade?"
"You shall find out soon. Rest for now, Els," she obeyed, no defiance standing in her bones, and let herself lie back down, speculating reason after reason behind the way she and her guards had crumbled to the floor upon entering Ganea's territory.
"What of my soldiers?" she questioned, despite knowing the answer.
"All dead, even your staff," Cade answered, his voice a gentle, grim whisper. Eliana pressed a hand against her chest as she realized that her stepping foot into Ganea had caused the death of over a hundred innocents.
"How did I survive?" Eliana finally asked the question that had been playing inside her mind for a while.
"I am not sure yet, sister. Perhaps you'd enlighten me," Cade inquired, skepticism dripping from his voice, and Eliana understood that it was a mystery that the future king of Ganea would like to solve.
"I know no secret, brother. I am not even sure what killed them in the first place," she answered truthfully, hoping her brother would see the innocence on her face.
"The air of Ganea becomes more poisonous by the day due to the curse. The people here have built up a tolerance to it, but your soldiers must've had a hard time adjusting,"
"Mother or Father should've mentioned something in their letters," Eliana tried to conceal the accusatory tone, but their negligence had caused over a hundred people to die, so it was a little difficult for her to achieve that.
"If they had, then Prince Alexander wouldn't have let you come."
Eliana tilted her head slightly, reining in her anger as the realization dawned upon her.
Her mother was far too sophisticated to cry, much on a piece of paper she was writing to her daughter, and her father was too arrogant to plead with her to come, yet they both had.
It seemed to her that they must've been desperate if they'd made her come to Ganea, taken countless lives just to have her in the kingdom. They ought to have other reasons than just 'missing her'.
"Why am I here, Cade?" she finally asked, a feeling of fright mixed with uneasiness crawling into her bones. He merely offered her a smile, and the lack of verbal response did little to soothe her. "Cade, what is going on?"
"You shall know soon, Els," he was about to say more, when Eliana's mother entered the room.
Seven years ago, when Eliana had left Ganea, her mother had looked like the most striking woman on the planet. With shiny hair, petite frame, and glowing skin, she was considered no less than any maiden half her age.
Yet, as Eliana stood before her now, she felt as though her mother had aged three decades in her absence. Gone were the shiny, healthy hair; they were replaced by dry, hard hair that looked nothing more than a mass of tangled threads. She had grown underweight, even more so than Eliana, because there seemed to be no fat or muscle left on her body, and she closely resembled a skeleton. And her skin was loose and wrinkled, like a lady twice her age.
Concerned, Eliana shot upright and reached out for her mother, wondering about what had happened to make her mother look so terrible.
Her mother stepped away from her touch and gave her a pointed look, "Is this what I taught you? For the sake of Lobium, tell me you did not embarrass the House of Keizer in Sleyisea with your poor etiquette!"
Eliana stilled and sunk into a small curtesy, suppressing the emotions threatening to spill out from her eyes. Seven years, and that was the greeting she'd received.
"Good morning, Mother," she said, her gaze on the floor. Her mother offered a tight smile in response before running a scrutinizing gaze over her body.
"You have gotten so thin, and oh, you have that ugly scar on your face. My Lobium, it looks horrible," she scrunched her nose in disgust before continuing. "Perhaps we can hide it," she turned to one of her ladies and asked, "A fine handmaiden can get rid of it, right?"
"Of course, Your Majesty. I shall have my finest reach here and take care of her," a young lady dressed in a fine dress replied.
"Thank you, Rowan," she replied, before turning back to Eliana.
"Oddly enough, Princess Eliana, you have managed to look beautiful despite the defects. Though as much as I would like to discuss them over, and offer corrections¸, I am here to speak to you about matters with far more importance," she turned to her ladies and the guards. "Leave us be." In a matter of seconds, the room was clear of people, leaving Eliana alone with her mother and her brother.
"What is it, Mother?" Eliana asked carefully, not disregarding the urgency on her mother's face for a second.
"Why did Alexander let you come?" she questioned demandingly, holding Eliana's arm in a firm grip.
"He let me come because I asked him to let me," Eliana responded, her brows furrowed in confusion at her mother's question.
"Just like that?"
"Yes, mother. I asked him, and he agreed,"
Her mother turned to Cade and muttered harshly, "What game is he playing?"
Cade did not reply to her, but regarded Eliana with a calculating look, as if trying to peel the layers away and see some truth he believed she was hiding.
"If I find out that you're lying, Princess, I shall have you dismembered." Eliana felt tiny snowflakes of ice fall over her heart and hold it in place as her mother's threat sank in.
Why would I lie about something so trivial as that?
"Alexander let me come because I wanted to come. That is all there is, mother,"
"Oh, you must be mighty unlikable if you failed to make him fall in love with you with a face that pretty," her mother seethed, and Cade maintained his silence even as Eliana looked at him with perplexity. "What sort of marriage did you and Alexander have, anyway?"
Her question cut through her chest, and even though it was rhetorical, Eliana answered nonetheless. "It is a lovely marriage. We love each other!" Eliana knew that the second part was a lie. She loved him, but the Prince, no- he definitely did not reciprocate her feelings.
Her mother scoffed. "A lovely marriage that he didn't even wish to consummate,"
"A man of honour would not touch a woman her age, Mother," Cade finally intervened, a worrisome expression clouding his face.
"How would you know about the status of our marriage?"
"Everyone here knows of it, and so does everyone up in Sleyisea, and Keovalan,"
Eliana let a small frown form over her face as her mother's words sank inside her head. She had never even imagined that her virginity was what everyone had been gossiping about in three empires, and it made her situation all the suspicious.
"Whether he touched her or not, it doesn't matter. What does is the fact that he let her leave. He sent her back to Ganea, uncaring about her fate. That shows how eager he was to shake off this marriage,"
Uncertainty filled her, and Eliana looked between her mother and Cade, waiting for one of them to explain her mother's words.
"Cade, what seems to be the matter?" Eliana questioned, crossing her fingers as she waited for him to respond.
"The treaty that was signed with Sleyisea stated that your marriage with Prince Alexander had to take place in five years or it would be annulled,"
"And it did. It took place in four years,"
"It was never consummated, and hence, it did not count."
"So, the treaty is annulled. I shall speak to Alexander and have another one forged. He will listen to me,"
"It is not just the treaty that is rendered powerless. Since your marriage has not been fulfilled, and you are back here, you are a Ganean subject. And your marriage can be considered annulled, and it would give Father, the King of Sleyisea, the entire right to have you married to another,"
Dread coiled through Eliana's belly at his words, and she sat back down on the bed as it struck her. "I am here for the feast."
"There is no feast, Princess Eliana," her mother taunted. "Take a look at the land and you shall know that it is not even fit for living, much less hosting a feast,"
"Alex couldn't have known about this. He shall come for me,"
"Your vampire lover is five hundred years old. There is no way he is unknown to these facts, Eliana. He sent you here knowing what would come, and from what I have heard, he had a hand in planning it as well,"
"You are mistaken, Mother." Her voice trembled as she said those words. Memories with the Prince filled her head: then shooting together, running together, having a duel with him, waking up in his arms. A bitter taste fell on her tongue as she recounted how he had denied going all the way through with her whenever she had suggested it.
"Am I?" a mocking lilt stayed in her mother's voice as she uttered those words.
Eliana's heart shattered, and Cade handed her a glass of water to pacify her. With quivering hands, Eliana took it and brought it to her lips in an attempt to sip from her, but the glass slipped from her hands and fell to the floor as the thoughts of despair began filling her head.
"No..." she mumbled, hugging herself. "This cannot be true. He cannot..."
"Your future husband shall be arriving tomorrow. You will be married soon after, and if you attempt to escape your fate, I shall have you feasted upon by your ex-husband's kind," her mother threatened, before turning around and leaving the room.
Eliana stared up at Cade and her words came out cracking as she begged, "Please don't make me go through with this. I love Alexander, I want to live with him. Please,"
Cade knelt in front of her and took her folded hands into his before gently speaking, "I know, Eliana, but up until now, you were miserable with him. In your letters you mentioned how he went on for days without sparing you a glance, how you caught him with countless women throughout your marriage, and how he never loved you the way a husband would love his wife."
"None of it matters, Cade. He is my mate, and I would die without him,"
"No harm will befall you, Eliana. The man we have picked out for you is by far the best man you could ask for. Trust me, and if not me, trust Roese," he spoke, kissing the back of both of her palms one by one.
"What do you mean? Roese is dead."
"Yes, indeed, but when she was alive, she spoke very highly of him,"
Eliana snatched her hands away from his grip and held them to her chest in horror, as she comprehended the meaning behind his words. "It cannot be. You cannot possibly-"
"It is for the best,"
"Whose best? It is certainly not for my best!"
"It is for Ganea's best, and the best of your family, including Roese's son, and if you are able to see it, it is for your best as well. You will live in a better land. It is said that the sun rises from Keovalan. It is safe, Eliana, with no monsters, and your husband will not be a beast. He will be a blessed human. He will be a heretic, not a vampire, with no urge to kill you every day,"
There was no way for her to explain that she wanted the vampire and not a do-gooder heretic.
She wanted her husband, Prince Alexander of Sleyisea, and not her dead sister's husband, Daniel Gervaise, the King of Keovalan Empire.