43. The Ice Wolf Prince
forty-three
The Ice Wolf Prince
*ENDELLION*
I t’s like everything passes in a blur. One moment Azadeh was sitting next to me, squeezing my hand and smiling, and the next, she is breaking down on the floor with blood oozing from her nose and mouth.
For the second time today my body and mind kick into survival mode, and I automatically link Aylin. I don’t even know what I’m doing, just muttering words to Azadeh, and begging her to wake up again, to say something.
Anything.
“What happened?” Aylin bursts into the bathroom with Kilah hot on her heels. For a split second her mouth drops open in shock.
I feel completely calm, like my body and emotions numbed down. “She is bleeding…” I manage.
“I see that,” Aylin hurries to my side, and swiftly instructs Kilah to bring her some wet towels. I barely register what the two women are doing, I just keep rocking Azadeh in my arms.
“She isn’t waking up,” I say.
Aylin looks at me in worry. “Prince Endellion, we need to take her to her room. I can’t attend to her here.”
It’s like my ears are ringing. “She is not waking up. What’s wrong with her?”
Like a shadow Kilah keeps running around, before Caelan and Flinn appear. They exchange a short gaze with Kilah, and she silently leaves the room.
Caelan carefully touches my shoulder. “She needs help, Ende.”
“She needs you now. She needs you,” Flinn emphasizes, squeezing my other shoulder.
“Help,” I mutter, before I feel my sense return at full force. “She needs me.” I press her tighter towards my body, not minding the blood smearing all over my clothes and stand up abruptly. “We need to help her!”
For Goddess’ sake, don’t do that again, Caspian grunts. It was like your mind was completely blank! Our love needs us. Now!
Relief flashes on Aylin’s face. “Take her to her room.”
“Not to mine?” I ask.
“No, the air is a bit dryer in her room. It’s smaller, there are fewer things standing around, less dust,” she hurries to explain.
I nod while I follow her to Azadeh’s room. On our way, Simin comes running towards us, following right after Kilah.
Flinn meets them halfway. “Simin, Kilah, I need your help. Let’s prepare her room.”
“Someone needs to be with Alana,” Aylin says shortly.
“Nevyn is with her,” Caelan says.
“What’s wrong with Azadeh?” I ask Aylin when we reach Aza’s room. “What happened? What’s going on?”
“I don’t know yet,” she says quietly.
Kilah and Simin help me lay Azadeh down, before they send Caelan and Flinn out of the room and swiftly start to get her out of her bloody clothes. The bleeding has stopped, much to my relief. When Caelan and Flinn return, she is lying in her bed and covered by a warm blanket.
“She has a fever,” Aylin explains.
“How is that possible?” Kilah asks. “I know she dropped into the icy lake, but it’s only been a very few hours since then. Wouldn’t it take days for her to develop a fever?”
“Maybe she was sick before that?” Simin suggests, her kind face now full of worry. She keeps brushing some of Azadeh’s hair out of her face. “She is sweating, too.”
“Kilah is right, it happened too fast,” Aylin says. “How did you find her, Prince Endellion?” she inquires, while she starts checking on Azadeh.
“She just muttered something about Cailleach,” I say, furrowing my brows and trying to remember what she said exactly. Everything happened so fast. She was looking at me while coughing up blood and at the brink of fainting. And my whole mind almost froze. But she said something…
Didn’t she say the crazy woman in white spit at her? Caspian asks. He keeps pacing around in worry, his whole attention on our chosen mate.
“She blew…” I begin, before my memory returns. “I think she said Cailleach blew something at her.”
Aylin looks appalled. “She had direct contact with Azadeh?”
“Is that bad?” Kilah asks. “I mean, of course it’s horrifying, but…”
“Go and find Eibhlin, Princess,” Aylin interrupts her. “And, tell her she should fetch my emergency bag from my cottage. She will know what I’m talking about.”
Kilah nods. “Anything else?”
“Have the maids prepare some cold towels, we need to bring the fever down.”
With her last instructions given, Kilah dashes off.
“What can I do?” Simin asks.
“You and the other two princes clean this room from all the little objects standing around and lock them into her library,” she says. “I don’t want her to inhale anything dusty.”
While the others rush around, I stay with Aylin and Azadeh. Aza’s hand in mine feels hot, her body is completely unresponsive. “Did she faint due to her fever?”
“Your Highness,” Aylin says, surprisingly formal. “I… this looks more like she fell into a coma,” she admits.
“WHAT!?”
“You need to let me do my work, please,” she says. “You won’t like what I’m doing next.”
I look from her to Azadeh. “Anything that helps.”
Aylin nods. “Please step back a bit,” she says, right when Eibhlin bursts through the door with Aylin’s bag in her arms. To my surprise, my father follows her, but instead of approaching Aylin he stands next to me.
Aylin and Eibhlin instantly start to prepare some candles, a weird scent engulfing the whole room. Then, Aylin draws a few runes around the bed before grabbing a pendulum and moving it over Azadeh’s face. She exchanges a short look with Flinn, who instantly drags Caelan over to me.
“Just in case,” Flinn says quietly.
“I can behave, you know?” I say.
“I… your instincts are as if she is your fated mate,” Flinn says. “We don’t know how your wolf will
react.”
I feel stunned at his words. Everyone keeps saying the same to me ever since I told them that I felt Azadeh getting hurt. But, I know for a fact that we don’t share a mate bond. It’s impossible that-
A scream pulls me out of my thoughts. Azadeh’s whole body is convulsing, her expression one of agony. Eibhlin tries to keep her down, while Aylin keeps moving her pendulum over Azadeh’s body, drawing more screams from her. The veins on her arms and face turn almost black, her eyes snapping open, but instead of her beautiful brown eyes, they are just white.
With a growl Caspian comes forward. They are hurting her!
With a power I didn’t know I possessed, I pushed Flinn out of the way. Caelan and my father react fast, one of them wrapping his arms around my middle, the other grabbing my arms. I have never felt that angry before. Someone hurt my mate, she is screaming in pain. Someone invaded her mind and her body. They almost took her from me today, and now they are trying to take her from me again.
My muscles are quivering, my heart pounding, so that it almost blocks out all the other sounds around me. It’s like my blood is boiling, my body feeling hot first in despair before I’m filled with the coldest wrath I’ve ever felt. It’s like an ice-cold grip around my heart, but instead of numbing me down, it makes me even angrier.
“Oh fuck!” Caelan grunts. “What is this?”
“What’s happening?” Flinn blurts out.
“We need to stop him from shifting,” my father yells.
I feel my joints elongating as Caspian and I merge to one angry being, and shift to our wolf form. Out of my blurry vision, I can see Eibhlin staring at me, her eyes wide in both horror and odd fascination. “Wow,” she utters.
“This is not the right time to be fascinated,” Caelan yells. “Get over here! Now!”
“We are finished, anyway,” Aylin advises, stepping into my vision. A thundering growl leaves my chest. Aylin bows her head to me and gets down on her knees. She bares her neck to me as she reaches a bowl of herbs towards me. “My Ice Wolf Prince,” she whispers as a calming scent fills my nostrils. “We were just trying to help the princess. I know the cause for her condition, now,” she says quietly. “It’s a curse that infected her body. It has already clung to her internal organs. She needs you. She will need you more than ever, to be able to find her way back to us. You and Caspian, not your third form.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, as my anger feels less violent.
“You are on the right track,” she says quietly. “You need to control your emotions further or it will do great damage.”
“Damage?” I growl.
“He can speak,” Eibhlin exclaims. “This is so amazing!”
“Not the right moment, Eibhlin,” Flinn huffs.
I feel more and more irritated. “What’s going on?”
Aylin points towards the mirror in Azadeh’s room. I turn towards it, the mere surprise at seeing my reflection instantly grounding me again. Instead of my usual wolf form, a huge creature blinks back at me. It has the form of a wolf, but instead of fur there are ice crystals and icicles covering my body. My silver eyes are the only reminder of who I am.
“You need to shift back,” a woman’s voice reaches me. She takes over from Aylin and approaches me now, kneeling down next to me and reaching out her hand carefully. She gently touches my head, turning her palm towards me and showing me how my icy fur spikes her hand. “You and Caspian merged into one being now.”
I turn my head to look at her. Her wild red hair dances around her shoulders as if it is flames.
Mother!
“What you are is beautiful and fascinating,” she says gently. “And strong. It’s been very long since we had an Ice Wolf in our family,” she says. “You will learn to control these powers, and we’ll begin with you shifting back.”
“How?”
“Find your connection to Caspian,” she says. “Find the bond to him.”
I follow her advice, reaching out into my mind and easily finding the bonds to my family and wolf.
“Connect to him,” my mother instructs.
I keep looking for my wolf counterpart until I see his dark fur and his ever present gaze. He looks at me full of pride. We are so strong, he growls. From now on, no one will ever hurt our family or mate again.
Yes, but it was so close that we nearly hurt them, instead.
You are nitpicking, he grumbles, but I can see that he is flustered.
No one will ever hurt her again. And we will learn how to handle these powers… whatever they are. We will learn to understand them and become even stronger.
Deal, he says. Our love won’t want us to be out of control. She will want us to be in control of who we are, and not threaten our families.
We exchange one last look, nodding at each other and verifying we are on the same page. I can feel my anger calming down and diminishing completely, as I shift to my normal wolf form first before shifting back to my human form.
I feel exhausted, my limbs weak and barely able to keep me upright. My father hurries towards me and wraps a blanket around me, before helping me up and making me sit on the chair next to Azadeh’s bed.
Then, he turns his attention back to my mother. “Sine!” he blurts out, hurrying towards her and engulfing her in a hug before twirling her around.
My mother smiles at him, grabbing his face and kissing him softly.
“One daughter in a coma,” she says. “One daughter-in-law cursed, and one of my miracle sons was born with the rare power of the Ice Wolf Prince. What else did I miss? It seems like it was truly time for me to return home.”
“That pretty much covers it,” Kilah says.
My mother lets go of my father and turns to hug Kilah and Eibhlin. “My strong girl and my special
girl.”
“Do your other miracle boys get a hug too?” Flinn asks cheekily. “Even though they can’t turn into a cool ice wolf?”
Mother just chuckles and hugs them, before turning towards me. “My boy,” she says gently. “I’m so proud of you.”
I turn to look at my family, noting how Flinn is sporting bruises all over his arms while my father and Caelan are bleeding. “I’m so sorry,” I say.
My father beams at me. “Forget it. I for one am proud of having such a strong alpha as a son!”
“Yeah, you better be sorry,” Caelan grumbles. “Because we can’t shift into a special wolf.”
“Or merge with our wolf spirits,” Flinn adds.
“You just had to win, didn't you? Get the woman and the special powers,” Caelan says, amusement in his voice.
“For the record, I’ve never been so happy to be in this family,” Eibhlin says. “This is the most fascinating stuff ever.”
“You are what you are,” Kilah says. “And, you are still you.”
I smile in relief. “Thank you for not treating me like a mistake.”
“None of you were ever a mistake,” my mother says. “No matter what the superstitious pack members used to say when you were born. You were always a miracle.”
“Did you know this would happen?” my father asks Aylin.
Aylin shrugs. “To say I knew would be an exaggeration, but I had a feeling that one of them inherited special powers. Them being triplets, the prophecy, the Desert Princess… it all led me to thinking that this wouldn’t be the end of it.”
My mother turns towards Simin. “What’s your name, child?”
“Simin,” she says shyly. “I’m Princess Azadeh’s friend. She always treated me like her sister.”
“Sweetheart,” my mother approaches her to take her hand. “Your princess is said to be born with the gift. What exactly does it mean? I’ve researched a lot but no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find anything.”
“Aza’s father had all the books destroyed that explained the gift,” Simin explains. “I don’t know much about it either. General Shayan would know more. But… she has many names. The Desert Princess… the Princess of Prosperity like the young dragon called her. The Princess of Life and Death.” She pauses. “The Desert people think she is cursed.”
“Her gifts are no curse,” I say. “Just like mine aren’t, either.” I pause. “I think Azadeh awakened them.”
“What?” Aylin looks at me in surprise. “Why do you think that?”
“Because she made the goddess’s tree bloom again, and the wasteland is coming to life once more because of her.”
“It’s…” Simin looks flustered. “You will think I’m stupid. But, General Shayan told us a fairytale when we were younger. About…” She pauses. “No, it’s childish.”
“I doubt it is,” my mother urges her gently. “You can tell us.”
“About a princess, who can protect those dear to her.”
“Like Aza did,” Flinn says. “When Tynan and the others were hunted by the blizzard. She covered them with a barrier.”
“She did that at home too, once,” Simin says. “Which is why everyone was so terrified of her. If she can do good, she can do bad too.”
“What else can the princess in your story do?” Aylin inquires.
“Bring rest to tormented souls, and stuff like that.” Simin blushes. “And… it’s said her powers grow when she is in love.”
“If her love grows, then the prosperity will, too.” Mother affirms. “And part of our prosperity is our nature, the lands surrounding us. The prophecy calls her princess of the sun, because she is the light.”
“And what now?” I ask, while I take Azadeh’s hand into mine again. She looks like she is sleeping.
“I will give her all the tools,” Aylin says. “The herbs to help her relax and fight, the runes to keep the curse from spreading, the peace of mind she needs to focus, but she needs to battle this on her own. This is between her and the woman in white.”
“Just like you needed her faith and love, she needs your faith and love now,” my mother adds. She smiles. “And now, I’m going to look for my warrior girl and make sure she returns to us.”
*AZADEH*
I hear whispers around me, but they are far away. Like voices frozen in the air and carried through the wind from far away and now surrounding me like snow petals. I remember that my body was in tremendous pain, the kind of pain that almost broke my mind. It feels like something was burning me from the inside.
But now, I feel peaceful.
Like I’m floating.
I take a few deep breaths before opening my eyes, noticing I’m lying in a beautiful green meadow. Funny. It feels like ages since I’ve seen a green garden. Even back in the Desert there were mostly just oases and small gardens with fancy flowers, but the general landscape was rather sandy, the green more leaning towards brown. It was beautiful in its own way.
But this here, this rich green meadow with the tiny yellow and white flowers blooming everywhere, is new to me. I get up on my feet, wandering around. I’m barefoot and only dressed in a light white linen dress.
There is a lush leafy forest stretching in the distance; everywhere it’s just green. I follow the sound of birds until I find myself at a pretty stream that turns into a small waterfall and ends in a wondrous lake.
I’m still bathing in its beauty when I hear a cough behind me. “Hello Princess,” a voice says. “So, we finally meet in person.”
I turn around in surprise. “Favian,” I breathe.