His Virgin Bride

Chapter Thirteen: Angel of Mercy

My heart was throbbing so painfully, I was swinging in and out of consciousness. Pixie magic must have been stronger than I expected. I look up and noticed that I was in a sort of dungeon; and that my hands were binded by chains.

“What the…” I manage to say  before I wince. Oh god, my head was pounding.

“Here,” I hear a familiar soothing voice. “Drink this.” I look up and see Queen Theodora. Her face was streaked with dirt, her gown ripped, yet she still looked stunning. “It’ll sooth the pain,” She says, her hands hold back my hair as I drink from the chipped bowl. It was water.

As I pull back, I notice that her arms were not binded. “Why aren’t you tied back?” I ask her.

Queen Theodora sighs. “No matter prisoner or slave, a Queen can never be binded,” She tells me. “A Princess however, well that’s a different story.” She says.

I roll my eyes. Of course I could be binded.

“So where are Xavier and the King?” I say after I finished drinking the water. "Are they here too?" Wait, if Xavier was here, he would worrying about me more than his mother.

Queen Theodora looks nervously about. “Somewhere, but they’re alive. Weak, but alive.” She tells me with a soft smile.

“For now that is,” A voice says from the shadows.  We look and see Henry strolling up into the light like the traitor he was. I glared at him for a moment, my eyes full of venom. Queen Theodora stands up and blocks him from my view defensively.  “There is no need for the protection, your majesty, I mean no harm to her.” He tells her.

“Coming from a fiend, I find that very hard to believe,” She says, coldly in response. I tilt my head aside and watch. Henry chuckles at her words, he then takes a step and disappears from view. I feel a breeze and then he's sitting beside me, Queen Theodora spins around and glares at him. “Get away from her, now.” She tells him, her tone was menacing, yet Henry didn’t seem to be affected by her words. He didn't seem to be moving any time soon. “I mean it, you fiend.” She says, harsher this time.

Henry laughs. “Look at what you’ve become,” He tells her. “Nothing but a prisoner, and a pawn,” Henry tilts his head casually to one side as Queen Theodora tosses the bowl at him. “Pathetic and I once worshipped you.” He sighs.

“You will pay for this,” Queen Theodora says, coldly to him. “Now state your true intentions, I know that you’re not here just to provoke me.”

Henry grins, and smiles. “In time you will find out, and the picture will become very clear.” He says, but I had a feeling that it was for me. Henry stands up, and I see a younger, cleaner him. “Do you recognise this face, Princess?” He asks me, a smile playing on his lips. “I cleaned up just for this night. Perhaps you’ve seen it before.” He says.

My eyes narrow at him. “What are you hinting?”

Henry laughs, running a hand through his shorter hair. “In time, little one.”

With that, he disappears.

"What an odd man he's always been," Queen Theodora says. "Don't you think?" She asks me.

"Little one..." I find myself whispering.

The Church bell continued to ring on, and on.

“Daddy,” My father didn’t reply, his face was shadowed. “Daddy, why aren’t we leaving like everyone else?” I asked him.

A hand gentle stroked my head, and soon I was in my mother’s arms. “Shush, dear,” She placed a finger on her lips as we walk away from my father. “We’re going back now.” She told me.

My eyes never left my father, his hand rested over his eyes. The wooden box laid down in the hole beside his feet as people began covering it with soil. “What about daddy?” I pointed back at him, but mother never looked.

She didn’t reply at first, but she eventually did. “He’ll be back in a while, daddy just needs his space.” She said, softly to me.

“Oh… alright, mommy.”

 

I hear a crack of thunder before I feel rain drops touch my skin, but that was impossible. I yawn and stretch my arms out wide, but wait a minute… I touched my wrist –there was nothing there.  My eyes flew open and widen as I stare down at my bare wrist, there were no shackles, but I wasn’t in the dungeon either. Looking around, I see Henry standing about a meter away, his back was to me. “Where are we?” I ask him.

Henry doesn’t turn. “You should know.” He says, calmly. "You've been here before haven't you?"

From the corner of my eyes, I notice hedge stones all around us, each one of them bearing an angel statue on top of it. “Angel of Mercy Memorial Garden,” I say in response, my voice breathless and hushed. My dress was getting soak by the rain as puddles began forming around me, I gathered my dress and walked up to Henry’s side. He was looking down at a worn hedge stone, on it was a sleeping angel. Henry ran a gentle hand against the name engraved. “Is this her?” I ask him, softly. "Your lover? The one that you wanted to marry?"

“Yes,” He tells me. “This is my Annalisa,” He says, getting down on one knee before the stone giving me a full view of the name.

Annalisa Christine Philips

“Philips?” I find myself saying. I staggered back before I looked back at Henry. “Is she related to me, Henry?”

“She was your grandmother.”