His Forsaken Luna-Chapter 112: Strange Happenings (2)

I gasped so aggressively I sprang up and looked around, wide-eyed, disorientated. The fire crackled in the fireplace, the embers glowing dully.

"Ida?" Theo’s soft voice called to me from under the bedsheets. "Did you have another nightmare?"

I turn my head to look at him without truly seeing him. Was this real? It felt real. But my dream it was so vivid. Goosebumps crawled down my skin. Theo sat up, his arms wrapping around my waist and kissed my shoulder. "You’re cold," he whispers. "It’s okay. It was just a dream."

My shoulders remain tense. My senses told me something wasn’t right.

Theo stroked my shoulders and tugged me back down and into his hold. His warmth envelops me, I can feel it on my skin but inside a chill clings to me. "Did you want to talk about it?" He asks in a soft voice.

I shake my head, my mind flicking back to the nightmare but I can only remember glimpses of it. There had been a child and a servant and blood. I stared at Theo’s bare chest, going through the parts I did remember.

Xan.

Xan was there. In a blur or possibly whatever my imagination created made him move so quickly until he stood in front of us. Kharis stepped forward, his hand on his blade. "Are you one of them?"

The boy tilted his head back, gazing up at the Southern Were. More like sizing him up. Xan didn’t answer, his attention turning to the woman and child frozen in the courtyard. The wind howled and blew aggressively against their clothes.

The servant shielded the little girl from the wind, acting like the blood on her neck was normal.

Xan sighed loudly with a weight on his shoulder no child should carry.

"Xan," I call him softly, stepping around Kharis.

"Your Highness!" Kharis tries to stop me but doesn’t move to when I gesture for him to stop.

"Xan... What’s going on here? Can you tell me?" I lower down so we are the same height. "I’m only trying to help." My gaze flicks to the woman and child. Why hasn’t she tried to flee yet?

"Adults," Xan scoffs and stares back at me.

I stare into those bottomless dark brown eyes until the darkness is all I see.

"Ida?" Theo rubs my back slowly, comfortingly. "Did you want to rest more?"

I sigh and shake my head. "Nope I’m utterly freaked out now. I won’t go back to sleep. It’s the same one as before..." I trail off with a frown. Was it the same nightmare?

Another week had passed since the attack and the children were rescued. Smaller attacks outside the walls kept Alaric busy and Eryx kept patrolling, scenting for the High Fae. Once he knew what the threat looked like, he was returning to Sun and Fury. I was sure that was why I kept getting these nightmares.

It wasn’t just ’him’ returning to Sun and Fury, I was coming with him. After seeing the deaths of so many children, and missing people’s reports ever increasing, it was clear what I had to do. A war between our kingdoms was pointless. We did need to band together against this threat because the attack on the palace and the ones in the mountains weren’t going away.

They were the bigger threat. I still had to speak to Theo about my plans but I worried. Initially I was meant to go with him East. I had every intention of helping him gain his freedom. But I knew we would part ways. I was to be Eryx’s chosen mate, I couldn’t take my slave, one I’d accepted into my bed to stay with me. My chest felt heavy.

A pounding on the door made me jump, my heart racing. A glance at the window showed it was that time.

"You want to train," Soren’s voice grumbled from the other side of the door. "You start with small habits like this first."

With a loud sigh, I forced myself out of Theo’s arms. "I’m getting up!"

"You should be ready now," Soren grumbled again.

"Well, aren’t you a bag full of sunshine first thing," I muttered, sliding out of bed and grabbing my training attire. Theo sleepily got out of bed and started braiding my hair as I tied up my boots.

The attack had made my brother even more protective, rightly so, I suppose. I wasn’t allowed out of the palace usually anyway. My little tunnel had more patrols around it making me wonder if Alaric had always known about my hidden spot.

I’d made a point that if I was to be trapped like a bird in this place then I should be allowed to learn how to fight. I thought he would disagree with me but he readily agreed and here I am. I’m pretty sure it is to stop me from leaving the palace in search of more answers about the strange happenings around the North and the palace.

Soren wasn’t forgiven. He also wasn’t allowed to guard me now without one of the Southern Weres present. Eryx wasn’t pleased with my decision to keep Soren close by but he didn’t interfere with it. Anytime he looked at Soren, everyone tensed from the fury blazing behind his eyes, and his taut muscles ready to strike.

"Good morning, Your Highness." I looked up at the soft voice of Soren’s son, Calix.

"How many times must I tell you to call me, Idalia?" I smile down at him.

If we didn’t pull Calix from the academy, Eryx might have been louder about disagreeing with me. Since the boy was mostly safe in the palace, and still doing well in his studies and training, Soren also accepted Calix’s choice to be closer to his father.

"Miss Idalia," Calix blushed.

His hair was darker than Soren’s and pulled back in a small que. With tanned skin and striking silver-blue eyes, Calix looked nothing like Soren. I wondered who he took after. Soren didn’t mention anything about his father—he also didn’t mention anything about a son but here we are.

I ruffled his head as Soren scolded him for dropping his guard after Soren tripped him up as he walked by. Calix fell on his back with a loud thud. Kharis snickered behind me and I elbowed him. The boy hit his head back in annoyance, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Don’t worry, kid," Kharis offered him a hand. "We’ve all been there. That includes him."

Calix scowled at Kharis’ hand and stood up without taking it. Kharis smirked. "You learned you lesson yesterday, huh?"

I wrinkled my nose but didn’t say anything as I passed, aware Calix won’t converse with me as he mentally beats himself up. It was a part of his training, and Soren had been strict on Calix especially since he entered a vipers den. The palace wasn’t safe on a typical Sunday but with Blood Wraith attacks and people going missing, it was better to be on guard even as young as Calix.

Walking up to Soren, I put my hands on my hips, the cold air biting into my face, alerting me more. "What are we doing today?"

Soren arched an eyebrow. He was taking my training seriously as well. "The same as the past week. Run."

"Ugh. I’m not going to get up this early just to run," I complained, mirroring his action of crossing my arms against my chest. "I want to know how to defend myself. Not be so useless in everything!" Actually, join my brother’s scouting missions, not be looked at as weak.

Soren’s expression softened a little. "You’re not useless, Your Highness. This is training. We have to get your stamina up to the same as..." He was almost not going to say it but my narrowed gaze told him to continue. He knew better than that. "Ours. You haven’t received your wolf yet. Unfortunately, it means you train harder. We’ve all been in your shoes."

"I’m pretty sure I’ve never had those small feet before," Kharis muses from the side, staring at my boots, missing the point.

Soren gives him a pointed look, and in a single moment, his knee drops to the ground. My head follows down at the action. Soren smirks, his arm around Calix’s neck as he struggles in his hold. "I heard your breaths before your attack."

"I still got you though!" Calix exclaimed.

I watched in amusement. Soren noticed I was still standing there and pointed to the side to my usual route. "Run," he commands before releasing his son.

With a sigh I began warming up and doing stretches. I didn’t mind running, it helped with the nightmares and my thoughts running wild with everything I had to do, the scheming, and not thinking too hard about the possibility of being Chosen or part Fae.

"He’s right," Kharis said as he breathed easily beside my panting self. "Even if we come across an attack today, your stamina will still help-"

"In running away again?" I shake my head.

"Yes," Kharis says sternly, holding my stare as we pass buildings and courtyards slowly. We ran in the snow and on the path so I could run on either, including slippery passages. "The quicker you are out of danger, the more focused your protectors will be."

I blow out a breath. "Fine," I grumble, rubbing at my eyes and putting one foot in front of the other.