Dark Prince: The Death Realm

Chapter 5

Zekrin woke up in a haze on the grass. He got on his hands and knees, spitting a mixture of blood and spit out of his mouth. Multiple times. He got up, grabbing the shreds of his clothing which were still on his human body and used them to cover himself. He ran back to the tower without so much more than a second glance from his servants, who were used to this odd monthly occurrence that happened to their master.

After changing, a servant knocked on his door.

"Come in." Zekrin called. The servant timidly came into the prince's chamber, now a king.

"Your highness." the servant bowed low. His voice was quite shaky as though something had happened to upset him, as though he were afraid of that same thing upsetting his master. Zekrin frowned.

"What is it." It was more of a statement than a question. The servant stayed quiet for a moment, straightening up and obviously considering his words quite a lot.

"Erm, your highness... last night... when you transformed...." he stuttered. Obviously he was struggling not to offend, but Zekrin was not patient today. 

The royal crossed his arms, a frown carving it's way onto his face. 

"In your shadow form... you attacked the person closest to you. That is, we think you did not have your human consciousness about you, my king. For, you see..." at this point Zekrin was almost about to shake the servant by the shoulders. "You.... the Queen... she was attacked. Rather brutally. But not enough to get her to transform quickly, but not so little as to be able to take it out of her system. So, your highness, you see the dilemma."

"She's stuck in a dying limbo because she's a fae." the were was shocked at the news of his behavior. It was a five word mantra that repeated over and over in his head, This is just a dream. This is just a dream. Zekrin tried to steady his panicked breathing. This couldn't have happened. He couldn't even fathom how careless he must have been the night before when in his shadow form. He closed his eyes, sinking into a chair and trying not to run from the situation as his instincts told him to do.

"Thank you for telling me, Aniik." he said, his voice audibly shaking. "She is in the infirmary, yes?"

"No, sir, she is in the Riverwick glen with her own--with the fae." the underling changed his words  quickly as he saw the stormy and hurt expression of the new king. 

"You are dismissed, Aniik." the king said barely loud enough for the servant to hear. The man bowed and retreated from the room as instructed. As soon as the door closed, he felt the tears flowing down his face. They were tears of shame, fear and anger. 

What will happen to her? She has such a slim chance of surviving and you know that! If you had just used your common sense, you might have known that, but you never use your sense as a shadow-beast. Never. It would solve so many problems if shadow-beasts just used logic. But that's why we're such a feared species. That's why we're cast out to the edge of the land, out far from Riverwick and Lochdeer. That's why people don't become attached to shadow-beasts... that's why people don't marry shadow-beasts. 

He desperately wiped his eyes with his sleeve, getting up and checking his reflection in the mirror. His hair and face still looked a mess. Small specks of blood were still dried onto his cheeks and his eyes were red from crying. He licked his hand and scrubbed his face with the spit, much like a child. 

After shaking his head and heading to a sink to splash his face with water, he summoned a horse to take him into the Riverwick glen. The brown speckled horse wasn't fast by any stretch of the imagination. It was barely faster than walking. He urged the animal to go faster, but it did not do much to help the animals speed. If anything, it made the horse run slower.