(Zane x reader) The Divine Chronicles Book 1: Change

Chapter 5: Change

A/N~ Sorry for any of those who care that I haven't updated in a while I was suffering from writers block DX but don't worry! Some ideas came to me and here we are!

P.s. (if you have super short hair I'm sorry it's hard to write x readers and to make all types of certain things work again sorry if your hair is really short, or if you don't have any idk you but um...you do you boo boo)

When I woke up I was laying on my stomach, faced buried in my pillow, my hair wrapping around my head sticking out in different directions. I slowly opened my eyes letting them adjust to the light that was spilling from the large window and onto my face. I looked at the empty space next to me, noticing the wrinkled sheets, that's when it hit me, Zane, he wasn't there. I sat up in a panic the memories from my previous nightmare coming back to me flooding me with fear. No not again please Irene not again. I quickly got up and raced to Zane's bathroom surveying my reflection. I grabbed the comb from the edge of the sink and yanked it through my hair trying desperately to tame it. After a few more tugs the tangles were out. I looked at myself in the mirror once again taking deep breaths in attempts to calm myself down. I blinked, clearing my vision, gulping in air. I smoothed my nightdress and reached for the door handle, pulling the door open and stepping back out into Zane's room. I looked around finding a clock on the wall. "half past noon" I whispered to myself, no wonder Zane wasn't there, it was already midday, I over slept. I placed my hand on my forehead with a sigh. I walked over to the string that hung on the wall next to Zane's bed and pulled it a couple times, knowing that it would bring a maid to the room so I could get help into my dress. I went over to the book shelf and ran my fingers along their spines. A smile tugged at my lips, remembering the times Zane and I would sit on the floor in front of the fireplace and pour over their words, their stories, information filling our brains with all kinds of crazy ideas. The door to Zane's room opened and I jumped, startled at the sudden noise. A small woman with brown curls tucked under a white maid's cap poked her head in. "I'm sorry miss, you rang?" she greeted. I gave her a warm smile "yes, I was wondering if I could have someone help me get dressed for the day, I over slept." I said stepping away from the book case. The maid nodded with a smile "yes, master Zane said to let you sleep." I chuckled a bit "well thank you I needed it" The maid stepped into the room and shuffled to the large closet. There were some dresses that the queen had made for me for when I stayed at the castle. The maid came back out with a deep blue and black dress. "is this one to your liking miss?" she asked holding the dress up. "yes, thank you..." I trailed off, not knowing the maid's name. "Madeline, my name is Madeline" I smiled and nodded my head "thank you Madeline."

Once I was in the dress Madeline had picked out for me she had sat me down and begun to do my hair brushing it out. As the maid began to work, silence started to fill the space around us, "so, you're the one who is supposed to marry master Zane?" Madeline spoke up. I chuckled, "I suppose you're the new maid they hired? Zane was telling me about you." I felt her tense, "Master Zane was speaking of me?" she said attempting to hide her concern. "Only that there was a new maid in the castle, nothing bad" I reassured her. I felt Madeline relax as she continued working on my hair. "So what's he like? I've only been here a few days and Master Zane doesn't seem to come out of his study very often, so I haven't really gotten the chance to see him." I paused, thinking a bit, "well honestly it depends on how well you know him, you see most people think he's mean and cold and just not a nice person, but that's just what he lets you see, that's just the outside, it's like a protective shield, Zane puts up a wall and doesn't let anyone in. I think more than anything, he's just afraid of getting hurt, but if you get to know him, you'll know that he's actually very kind, even though he'll never admit it..." I trailed off lost in thought. "It sounds like you know him really well." Madeline said "I would hope so he's only my best friend, well he's my only friend..." I said silence once again creeping into the room. Madeline cleared her throat "well you're all done." she chimed from behind me. I stood up from my chair and the maid lead me over to a tall mirror. I smiled at my reflection, then back at her "thank you" I said. She had left my hair down leaving it to flow freely and she had incorporated a few braids in the sides of my head to keep the hair out of my face. I lifted my hand and lightly touched one of the braids. "Is there anything else you need miss?" The maid asked "no thank you I believe I'm alright." I said still admiring my reflection, then after giving the maid's question a second thought I changed my answer, "actually I'm a bit hungry," I said feeling my stomach growl. "Right then I'll have Hanna bring you some lunch." I paused, "lunch?" Madeline gave me a small grin "you slept in remember?" I slowly nodded my head that's right I missed breakfast. with that the short woman left the room. I looked around a bit finding nothing to do so I decided that I would go looking for Zane, he couldn't have gone far, even though it was a rather large castle.

I left Zane's room and wondered out into the seemingly endless corridor. I began to make my way towards the library, deciding to check there first, but when he wasn't there I decided to go and check his study. As I neared the door to Zane's study I heard some unfamiliar voices coming from behind it. I couldn't make out what they were talking about. I should have just turned around, gone back to Zane's room and waited for him to return, but no, for Irene's sake my curiosity got the best of me and I slowly inched closer to the large oak door pressing my ear against the wood, straining to hear what the people on the other side of it were saying. I could make out Zane's voice but the others, I had never heard before. Then, one of the voices mentioned the Jury of nine. My heart stopped and my blood ran ice cold. Stories of the Jury were spread across the land about how they killed, and pillaged smaller villages in a quest for power. Blood thirsty and merciless, the Jury was feared among the people, just hearing it mentioned was enough to scare me, everything in my body was screaming at me, yelling to run away but I stayed pressing my ear into the door trying to hear better. "Zane, I know that you're the leader of the Jury but-" everything seemed to stop, I didn't hear what the rest of the person behind the door was saying, my body completely froze, fear flooding me, then denial, I couldn't believe that it was true, Zane was my best friend there was no way he was capable of doing all those terrible things, it wasn't true, it wasn't true it, wasn't true. I just kept repeating those words over and over, then the next thing I knew, I was opening the door to Zane's study, unable to stop myself. I stepped inside and met his gaze, it was him, the boy I knew from when we were only children, the boy I would stay up with for hours, who would make me feel safe when I had nightmares, who would study with me and ask me questions wanting to hear about my extensive knowledge on the subject we were studying, my best friend. "Zane?" I said his name but it was barely a whisper, the sound almost unable to escape my mouth. "Is it true?" I asked quietly not wanting to know the answer "is what true?" Zane asked his voice faltering for only a second, if you didn't know him as well as I did, or as well as I thought I did, you wouldn't have noticed it, but I did, he was nervous, he was scared. "Y-you y-you're the-the leader of the Jury of Nine?" I asked still unable speak clearly, my mind was racing with all kinds of terrible thoughts and fear. "I-" Zane began, I backed away from him "you're not who I thought you were," I said coldly my voice rising "you're a murderer! you're a...a..." I stuttered unable to find a word to describe what I was feeling, the amount of betrayal and sadness, "you're a monster!" I screamed at him stepping farther away from him. I saw something flicker in his eyes. "GET OUT! GET OUT NOW! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN! STAY OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Zane yelled causing the other people in the room, who I could only assume to be members of the Jury, to flinch. There was anger in his voice but there was something else there almost drowned out by his screaming, hurt. I felt tears fill my eyes threatening to spill over onto my cheeks any second. "how could you" I whispered before racing out of the room. I fled the castle running from Zane, the fear, the over whelming sadness I was feeling, I was running from it all. I stopped at the base of the steps. There was a carriage, it was the one I had used to come, the driver's seat was empty though and I looked around frantically trying to find the driver. I spotted him a few feet away smoking a pipe. I ran up to him "Excuse me but I need to go home, now" I said to him making it clear that I meant now. He gave another huff of his pipe and nodded his head walking over to the carriage and opening the door for me. I quickly climbed in and taped on the roof letting him know that I was ready to go. The carriage lurched forward and we were off, the horse's hooves clicking on the stone as we rode along.