The Prince's Gift

Chapter 65.

The next day came and went as I let myself fall into the depths of my down covered bed, letting it swallow me up like a comforting hole I never wanted to crawl out of. Before I knew it, most of the day had passed before I finally resurfaced from the darkness around me.

I'd made it a point to clear my mind, trying to allow each memory and nerve to reset cell by cell. To some extent, it had worked. But there are some things even my powers couldn't remove, at least not on my self. The scars were so deep set into my soul that even all of my gifts couldn't wash them away right now.

As I felt myself pulling back into the present, I heard a quiet knock on the door. I mumbled for them to enter as my mind began to fade into a vision, the edges slowly blurring in around my present surroundings.

"Ana? Ana...what's wrong?" I heard Zane's familiar strong voice say as the bed dipped down on my right, his scent now strong around me.

"I'm... seeing something." I said quietly.

I felt his strong hand wrap around my own smaller one and with every inhibition down, I clung to him, letting something as simple as his fingers wrapping around mine touch my soul and keep me afloat.

"What the-Ana what's happening to me? I can't see." He said firmly, his words tightening as he spoke.

"I must be pulling him in with me. This is incredible. I have never been able to do anything like this before." I thought and without a moment's pause, I heard his own voice clear as day as the rest of my vision faded into a fuzzy darkness.

"Ana I can hear you. Don't let go. I think you've brought me into the vision with you. I can't believe this is happening." His words were sharp and crisp, as if he was speaking right next to my ear.

I focused on my breathing. I'd never done this before. Usually, I'd have become strained trying to bring in another consciousness into my vision. Delphine had me try several times, but I was never strong enough to do this before.

The darkness began to lighten, giving way to a poorly lit room with heavy curtains drawn closed. In a plush chair directly in front of a roaring fire sat Maddox. I felt Zane's grip tighten around my own strained hold as I focused on the surroundings. He was speaking to someone.

"Lilith, you mustn't strain. This child is the future of our every plan. It's all come to pass and now the rest resides within you. Once he is born, we will take his rightful throne and the kingdom it rules over. But that won't happen if you keep exhausting yourself." Maddox said with a clenched jaw.

Lilith huffed from the couch and as I looked over I felt Zane's tension. She looked terrible. Her eyes were sunken with deep circles beneath them and her body looked frail. It was as if her body was not accepting the pregnancy.

I could feel Zane's emotions. He didn't like seeing the woman carrying his child in such poor condition. I didn't feel any love coming from him, but with the attachment of their mate bond, I felt his care for her. I felt his empathy that she was in such poor condition, and even more so that his child was somewhere he couldn't be, and didn't even know how to get to.

I tempered the sting nagging at the pit of my gut as jealousy revered its ugly head for just a moment.

"I'm sorry Ana. I don't mean to...it's just...it's the bond. That's all." He said quietly, with a tightness almost as if he was as unhappy with it as I was.

"I understand," was all I could muster.

"The healers have said you won't be having this child if you don't do what you should. You have to get him here. You have to lure him to you or else the bond will destroy your child all in its own." Maddox said, his words dripping in disdain.

I gasped, trying to process what he'd just said. Why was she doing so badly without Zane when I had been able to leave and live as normal as expected with no problems?

"It's because we hadn't completed the bond." He responded, hearing my thoughts.

I just sat quietly, taking in the scene before me. He was right. We hadn't been in a bond. He'd only marked me and as soon as that was released, I was alone. Lilith was connected to him within her soul. It was as if her own was missing a part of itself.

Zane didn't seem to be doing as badly, but maybe that was because the pregnancy was exacerbating her symptoms.

"Can you tell where they are?" He asked lowly, almost as if he didn't actually want me to hear.

I took in a deep breath and looked around for familiar details and then I saw it, in the shadows behind us.

"They're in his cabin. It's only an hour from the castle. It's his safe-hold."  I said tersely.

"Are you sure?" Zane asked.

A flash of the night he'd brought me here flew straight to the forefront of my mind, singeing my mind with the one of the many foul memories of him stealing another piece of my soul because he could. That night had been one of the worst ones from my time there. It was as if he was emboldened by the fact that we were isolated. That no one could hear me scream or would care.

The torture he'd inflicted was gruesome and extreme, even for him. He'd chained me up like a dog, whipped me with metal tipped leather, forced himself into any place he could use in my body for his own pleasure, and then started over. It was as if my blood running down my body and pain-filled screams only turned him on more.

When Ehren came to retrieve me the next day, even he couldn't mend what Maddox had done to me. He could heal my body, but he could never fully fix my mind or my heart. It was that night that he decided he would devise a plan to help take me away. He knew the next time I wouldn't survive.