54. Prince Cole
Chapter 54
Prince Cole
“The whole world can become the enemy
when you lose what you love.”
— Kristina McMorris
I go numb as Davina’s body crumples to the ground, her fall too sudden.
My knees hit the floor as I reach out for her and shake her gently, but she doesn’t respond.
My mind can’t accept what my eyes are seeing.
Her eyes are shut.
Her body is limp in my hands.
Desperation tightens in my chest as I shake her again, a little harder this time. “Davina, wake up.”
But she doesn’t stir; her skin is cooling as if life has drained from her.
“Davina, you need to wake up.” My voice is a breath, trembling with desperation. “ Please —” My heart feels like it’s been ripped out and stomped on. “No, no, no,” I breathe, my voice growing louder with each repetition until it becomes a roar.
I gather her limp body in my arms, shaking her desperately as if I could will her back to consciousness. “No, you can’t—” The words fall from my lips, barely a whisper, but it’s all I can manage.
She’s fallen into that cursed slumber.
My mind screams in denial, but I know she’s gone—at least, the vibrant, fiery woman I know is. The smile that had touched her lips moments ago now seems like a cruel trick of fate.
I cradle her like she’s the most fragile thing in the world. “Davina, come back to me—” My voice cracks. “Wake up!”
A guttural scream tears from my throat, raw and desperate. Rage surges within me, consuming every rational thought, every shred of control I’ve ever had.
This is wrong. This is so wrong.
The sound of footsteps approaching makes my head snap up.
Rafe and Juliet burst into the kitchen. “Cole, what’s—” Their expressions shift from confusion to horror as they see me on the floor, cradling her in my arms.
Rafe stands back, a heavy, sorrowful expression on his face.
Juliet gasps, dropping to her knees beside us. She reaches out to touch Davina, to check on her, but I see red. “Get away from her!”
She recoils, her hand hovering uncertainly. “Cole, we need to get her to bed, to keep her comfortable and let her rest peacefully,” she says softly, but her words cut through me like knives. “It’s the only way to help her right now?—”
“No,” I snap, tightening my hold on Davina. “I need her here, with me. She’s going to wake up. I know she will.”
Rafe’s hand lands firmly on my shoulder. “Hey, we just have to?—”
“Stop!” I lash out, my fists shaking with the need to hit something, to destroy something, to tear the world apart if it means I can have her back. “I can’t—” I choke on the words, unable to finish, unable to face the reality that’s staring me down.
Rafe crouches down, trying to calm me, but his words only make me more frantic. “Cole, listen to me. There’s nothing we can do right now. We can’t wake her. It’s beyond our control.”
“ No ,” I roar, the word tearing from my throat with a force that seems to split my chest open. “You don’t understand. She’s supposed to be here with me, not—she can’t be—she’s going to wake up. She has to wake up. She’s going to wake up again, right? She always wakes up?—”
“Cole, please, you need to calm down.”
I shake my head, clutching Davina’s body closer to me. But they’re right, and deep down I know it. She’s really gone . Not dead, but lost to this world, trapped in a place where I can’t reach her.
I want to kill everyone in this godforsaken world for doing this to her.
I can’t stand to see their pitying faces. “Get out,” I hiss through clenched teeth. “Both of you. Get out. ”
“Please, Cole,” Juliet pleads. “We have to move her.”
My eyes burn with unshed tears. I can’t see anything beyond the lifeless face of the woman I love. I want to scream, to tear at my own flesh, to unleash my pain on anything and anyone. The world feels like a mocking, cruel joke, and I’m trapped in the center of it. I can’t stand the sight of her like this, so close and yet so far away. I can’t. I can’t see her like this. I can’t stand the thought of her slipping away from me, not when I’ve finally found something real and precious in this cruel world.
With one last anguished look at her, I rise to my feet, letting her slip from my grasp.
I stumble back, away from her, from them, from everything.
Rafe reaches out to steady me, but I push him away, shaking my head violently. I can’t stand to be here, surrounded by people who can’t possibly understand what this feels like.
People who can’t bring her back .
I turn and storm out of the palace. But as I step out and the air hits my face like a slap, I realize there’s nowhere I can run that will make this pain go away.
There’s no fight to win, no enemy to defeat.
So I don’t stop running until I’m deep into the forest.
And I won’t stop until I reach Lorelda’s cottage.
The one who cursed her.
The one who caused all of this.
The one person I know will bring me more pain.
She has to.
Because I’ve lost her. And in losing her, I’ve lost myself.
I’m utterly and irrevocably lost.
The bitter irony of seeking refuge in my enemy’s home is completely lost on me as I stagger inside.
Lorelda’s cold eyes meet mine. “Well, well, look who has come to visit. What a lovely surprise to grace me with your presence.”
I don’t respond. Words fail me, replaced by an ache in my chest. I walk past her, barely aware of my surroundings.
Lorelda watches me, amusement flickering in her gaze as I collapse into a chair. She offers me a drink, and I don’t think twice. I down it in one go, then another, the alcohol burning its way through me, doing nothing to numb my torment.
The flickering candlelight seems to mock me, dancing tauntingly in the darkness.
I stare at a flame, my thoughts sluggish and heavy.
“You look terrible,” she remarks, her tone dripping with false concern. “Why are you here? Surely, you did not come just to drown your sorrows in my presence.”
I lift my head slowly, meeting her gaze. “I want you to lock me in the dungeon,” I say, my voice sounding unfamiliar to my own self. “With Aurora. Lock me in there with my sister.”
Her eyes widen slightly, then narrow. She tilts her head, considering me. “You want to join your sister in her misery? Why would I do that? Why, pray tell, would I grant such a request?”
She’s all I have left.
It’s the only way to make this pain bearable.
“Please,” I plead, my dignity long gone. “I need to be with her.”
Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise, and then she laughs, a cold, mocking sound, devoid of warmth. “My, how far you have fallen. You truly are pathetic,” she says, shaking her head. “No. I won’t grant you that. There’s no use in locking you away.And you don’t get to decide how you suffer.”
“ Please , Lorelda, just lock me in there.”
She turns away from me, dismissing me as if I’m nothing.
I watch her walk away, the weight of her refusal pressing down on me. Her back is turned, but I can almost see the satisfaction in her stance, the way she seems to revel in my desperation.
“I have always known you were a fool,” she says without looking back. “But this is a new level of self-destruction, even for you.”