Death Is My Soul Mate (Book 5) *ON HOLD*

Chapter 1: Once Upon A Time

I can't believe it's already book 5! *cries* I hope you're all enjoying the series thus far. I mean, it seems like most of you are! Feel free to watch the lovely trailer to the right that I made out of love. :) <3

Well, here goes nothing (everything).... ;)

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"It was a hot and sticky day with no wind. The farm smelled of yesterday's rain and fresh manure from the stables. Alexandru Crucellio sat at the back of his house, sitting alone in the shade with a collection of rocks, a snake's skin, and different sized sticks that he had collected around the fields, as well an odd-shaped blade. He had immediately buried the blade into the ground next to him in case someone decided to steal it, or his mother saw it from inside the house and took it away from him. The blade was very special to Alexandru because he knew that it was magical.

            "What is wrong, my love?" Phoebe Crucellio asked, setting down a small bowl of water on the ground and caressing her twelve year old son's muddy face with a damp towel as he continued to play in the dirt. "I have watched you through the kitchen window sulking around in the mud and in the fields. Have you taken care our animals, yet?"

            "I already took care of the chickens and the rabbits."

            Phoebe plucked a twig out of her son's hair, running her hands through his soft gold hair. "And the horses? Have you fed the horses? Drakon might need a wash, love." She then plucked another twig from her son's hair and muttered under her breath, "As do you..."

            "Father told me not to take care of the horses today because I...hurt my ankle... sparring."

            Phoebe looked down at her son for a long time "You never hurt yourself sparring, my love. Why do you lie to your own mother? I always know when you are lying." Before he could move out of her grasp, she reached down and pulled up the bottom of Alexandru's pants, exposing a purplish bruise on his lower left calf.

            Phoebe was horrified. "Did your father do this to you?" she whispered, but her son started to draw in the dirt again. "Answer me, boy! I am speaking to you!"

            "Yes!" Alexandru exclaimed, stabbing his stick into the ground so hard that it snapped in two."It was all my fault! I went out to show my secret spot in the woods to the other boys in the village. I wanted to play with them longer. I disobeyed father's orders and he went looking for me and..." Alexandru put his face in his hands and started to weep. "I am sorry, mother. Father hates me now, please do not hate me as well. I will be a good boy!"

            Pheobe Crucellio blinked back tears, reaching down to her son and bringing him to her chest. "I could never hate you. You are a good boy, Alexandru. You are my heart and you are your father's heart. You know that your father does not tolerate playing in the forest late in the afternoon, but he should not have hit you for it. There are many drunken men that wonder about at night, he was only worried that you would be hurt."

            "I should not have went, it is my fault. I only want to show them my secret spot," Alexandru whispered. "All of the other boys are allowed to play late at night and it is not fair. I am forced to spar with father, do chores all day like a slave boy, help with dinner, and then sleep early. This is my life."

            "Do you not like your life?" Phoebe wondered.

            "Our life is fine," he said dismissively.