The Dark Prince

Chapter One

Chapter One
All I felt was numb. I watched the chaos unfold in front of me as if I was in someone else's body. I watched as some random women carted Cameron off on a stretcher, presumably to finish healing his wounds. I barely even batted an eye.

The sounds were jumbled, my body not in the right state of mind to properly comprehend what people were saying. I vaguely heard my name, but I ignored that too. More unfamiliar people came in, doing who knows what. Not that I care. All I want to do is curl up into a ball and die. Just like Selene.

I heard something then. A voice. Saying the same thing over and over again. "It's all my fault." It took a shockingly long time for me to realize that it was my own voice, and every time I said it I was getting increasingly louder. People looked at me as if I was going insane, but I didn't care. I didn't care about anything at all.

The room was crowded, there must have been some kind of party going on when I portaled in. It's not in the castle, I can tell that much. My eyes looked around, not truly seeing.

Everything was dull. I felt dull. My heart hurts and my head is throbbing. That is the only thing I can focus on in this moment.

I vaguely felt as warm arms wrapped around me, lifting me up. They held me bridal style against their chest, whispering things I still wasn't able to comprehend. I cuddled into them, happy for the warmth their body let off. Maybe the warmth will swallow me whole. That would be nice.

I felt something poke inside my mind, but I barely batted an eye. I don't care what it is. I heard something then, a whisper. Sleep.

I've never been happier to comply to a command in my life. In an instant, I was drifting off to sleep. It was nice, to feel nothing at all.

******

The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was a blinding light. The second was that I have absolutely no idea where I am or how I got here.

I groaned and shifted. When I moved, I realized the bed I am on is a little hard. You would think these people would give me something a bit more comfortable to lay on, whoever they are.

I lifted my head to look around the room when my eyes landed on a pair of familiar ones. When I looked into those forest green eyes, I realized two things. One, I am in the Daemonium kingdom. And two, it is not a bed I am laying on. It is Rowan.

I shrieked and flung myself off of him, landing with a crash on the floor. I groaned at the instant pain in my shoulder upon impact. I felt the bed shake from Rowan's laughter as I lay on the floor, trying to catch my breath. After a few moments and I still hadn't gotten off the ground, Rowan slowly got off the bed and walked to where I lay. He crouched down and rose an eyebrow at me.

"Are you okay?"

I let out a slow puff of air and sat up. "I don't know."

We both knew that I wasn't talking about the fall.

Rowan sighed and dropped down beside me. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't know," I repeated, honestly. I really don't know what I want. I'm still so numb. I still feel like everything that happened was just a nightmare, and any second I will wake up. Maybe talking about it, reliving it, will only make things worse. Instead, I decided to change the subject. "How long have I been out?"

Rowan glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, but accepted the topic change. "Three days."

I jolted. "Three days!"

Rowan nodded slowly. "I don't know if I used my powers too strongly and that's why you were out so long, or if," he trailed off for a second, before starting again carefully. "Your depression might have led you to sleep for so long."