A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Chapter 26

I felt lighter than ever after my confession. I felt so at ease and care free. I managed to sneak into to the garden to marvel at the night sky when I got a call on my cell phone from Damien.

“How do you always manage to surprise me?” he asked once I answered.

I laughed. “I did tell you I was unpredictable.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” he chuckled. “I’m coming to visit tomorrow.”

“Yeah?” I replied with excitement.

“Mhm,” he hummed. “I have a press conference tomorrow morning, but I’ll be visiting as soon as it’s over.” There was a short pause and he continued, “You know, I have to explain everything to them now. Demons aren’t as forgiving.”

“You’re forgiving,” I teased walking a bit further from the guard that was watching over me. I felt the need to have some privacy. “I recall multiple times where you forgave me.”

“It’s easier to forgive the person you love.”

I blushed as pink as the roses I was admiring in the maze. I was about to comment on his cheesy romantic words, when a snap was heard right behind me. I didn’t think too much of it since I thought it was the guard coming to make sure I was still in his view and out of habit I glanced over, but I didn’t see my guard. Instead, I saw a stranger.

“Elle?” Damien asked with a little worry in his voice.

There wasn’t any time to respond as the man threw a fireball at me. I dropped the phone and blocked the attack by forming a shield of hair around me. The fire circled around me like it once had and I teleported a few yards behind him. Once I appeared, I turned to make a run for it and started to head toward the palace.

Another stranger stopped me and I skidded to a stop and tried to run the other way, but the other blocked my way. Thinking for the quickest way to escape, I jumped, using the air to help me get higher into the air, just above arms reach of my enemy. But before I could get too far, a burning sensation wrapped it’s arm around my ankle and the pain made me lose focus and I tumbled to the ground, screaming in pain.

I pushed my hands away from me and toward the stranger that held the burning rope around my ankle. He released me and went flying back into the pushes. 

Not a second after, the other stranger wrapped his arms around me and I struggled to flip him over my should. I managed it, but the first man had recovered and was quickly making his way from the bushes.

The two in front of me were only a distraction though, because I felt a third man behind me. “Let go! Guards!” I screamed. “Guards!” I was stopped by the man behind me. He had put a handkerchief under my mouth before I could get the chance to hold my breath, the scent hit me and knocked me out.

I was lost in darkness for a while. Normally dreams flooded my mind during my slumber, but not this time. It was only a thick layer of darkness. My head felt heavy when I woke and my eyes opened to see darkness. The ambient light from the candle to my right caught my eye before I fell back to sleep.

The next time I woke, I heard a gruff laughter and my body recoiled as something kicked me in the side. I felt weak and vulnerable, but I could open my eyes to look at my assaulter, who I could see clearly because of the daylight shining in the room. It was my father.

Not the king, who I accepted as my biological father now. It was the man that I had known for my entire life. The man who was rarely around. His chiseled features were cold and his grey eyes were staring at me in amusement.

“Dad?” I coughed. My throat was dry and my chest hurt. “I don’t,” I let out a wheeze and a cough before repeating, “I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t, silly girl,” he answered coldly. He turned to the man behind me and barked,  “Make it last longer this time.”

A sharp pain in my arm made me scream out of fear. It was stopped short though and I only saw blankness again.

The third time I awoke, I was wet. Water was dripping from my hair and into my eyes. It ran down my face and I could feel it on my lap. I was strapped to a chair under a bright lamp, which reminded me of those warehouse type laps in action movies I had watched.

My eyes were wide and I stared at my dad once again. My head still felt heavy, I was hungry and my body ached all over. “What do you want from me?” I asked with anger.

The man, formally known as my dad, laughed. It filled the small space. “Cassandra and I didn’t even realize you were gone until the school called. You’d been gone for 2 weeks and we didn’t even realize it!” He laughed again, this time more mockingly. “But I’m sure you expected that. We were never very good parents to you.”

I continued to stare at him with hating eyes, trying not to let the tears spill. I could feel my throat become constricted, but I let him continue without showing any weakness.

“Especially since I picked Cassandra up from the street corner. I bribed her to play house, got her pregnant. The baby was a still born, as I figured it would have been. Demons can’t have children with mortals,” he laughed. “But it did the trick. Blithe switched the dead thing with you just as I had hoped.”

“You knew?” I asked with a raspy voice.

“Of course, I did,” he yelled angrily before I calming down. “I kept you hidden. We moved constantly when you were little so Blithe couldn’t find you, then we settled into a town and Damien fell in love with you! Do you realize how disgusting that was too watch? My king, was wrapped around your finger. Doing anything and everything to please the daughter of his enemy. I was getting ready to move us again so I could wait just a little longer until your powers destroyed you. But Damien just had to ruin that by going home much earlier than I planned. And being is advisor, I had to be there before him.” His eyes narrowed into slits. “Then you teleported and it just after a couple of weeks it was all over the news that the lost princess was home safe at last. It doesn’t look like you’re safe now, does it?” he asked mockingly and walked away from me and out of the light.

“Keep her tranquilized as I work things out with the two kings,” he instructed the man by the door. I could barely see them. They were just shadows to me. I tried to look around to see how many other demons were in the room, but they were all hidden by the darkness as well. Once he exited the space, the man came to me with a needle.

The pain wasn’t as bad as the last, even though he had practically stabbed my neck with it, but I expected the pain this time.