CHAPTER 31
On my way back to my room, I realized that I was in desperate need of a bath.
Zendryk and Ulric had gone off to update the King and Queen about the interrogation and what the Soulless had said, which was not much.
What did it mean when it said ‘Helzál’? I repeated the word an endless number of times, tumbling it around, until it no longer sounded like a word.
When I turned down my hallway, I could see Maya waiting with my door open.
As soon as she saw me, she ran over and embraced me in a hug.
“Are you hurt?” She asked, checking me over from head to toe, moving my hair away from my face.
“I was, but the healer...”
She cut me off, “healer?”
Fuck. I forgot. She had no clue what had transpired; the incantation must have erased her memory already.
I wonder if there was a rule about telling her, but at this point, I didn’t give a damn.
So, I told her everything, from the night I fell and hit my head, Ulric being a bonded companion and that he could become a wolf, the Soulless, and what has been happening with Zendryk and me.
It wouldn’t matter anyway; she would forget it all soon enough, but being able to say the words out loud to someone freed my soul.
She sat cross-legged on my bed, staring at me, mouth wide open for a good minute before saying anything.
“So, you slept with the Prince?” Eyes full of wonder and a small, wry smile came to the surface.
“I just told you Soulless creatures are trying to kill everyone, that there’s an entirely different world than we knew, and your first question is about my love life.”
“YOU LOVE HIM?” She excitedly jumped in her spot on the bed, bouncing to her knees.
“I didn’t say that! Like, there are feelings there, but not love, I think, but because he’s betrothed to someone else, it’s complicated. I don’t know. This whole thing is a fucking mess.”
She sat back down, “If it were me, I’d screw his brains out.”
“MAYA!” I scolded her, shouting louder than I should have.
“What? He sounds like a good fuck.”
“Well, he was.” We both laughed and fell onto the bed, the mountain of pillows catching us.
We took a moment to catch our breath, but after we both calmed, I asked her the thoughts that were running through my head, “But what about the other one? The one he is going to marry.”
“She’s not here, is she?” She raised an eyebrow in question.
“No. Not that I know of.” I replied, grabbed a fur-covered pillow, and started twisting the strands together.
“Then I wouldn’t worry. Zendryk said he’s working on getting out of it anyway.
Plus, it’s about time you had some happiness in your life.
You always held us together at The Academy, not just me, but everyone.
Even here, you got me out of serving and having to deal with that bitch of a blonde every second. ”
“Yeah, I guess so, he did say he was trying.” I blushed and pulled at the fur on the pillow, plucking away small clumps of fur.
“See! He’s moving mountains for you, but you’re the only one standing in the way.”
I let her words sink in. Even at The Academy, I never let myself get too entangled with Max.
Maybe it was time for me to find my happiness.
Maybe it was time for me to live. Plus, the sex was good, although I didn’t have anything to compare it to.
That settles it, I was going to do this for me.
I didn’t want to miss out on this chance and regret it for the rest of my life. I was going to choose myself.
I pushed the pillow aside. “So, you really don’t remember anything about last night?”
“What do you mean?” She asked while sitting up.
I sighed, my last hope that she would remember dashed away. “The attack? You don’t remember anything?”
“Oh, you mean that creature that barged into the lady's room, a wolf, which was Ulric, apparently, saving us and taking us to the willow tree to hide?”
My mouth dropped open. But how?! “You remember!?”
“Yeah, it is kind of hard to forget that kind of thing.” She looked at me like I was a crazy person.
So I told her about the incantation. I had left that out previously because, knowing Maya, she would have lost her shit.
She thought about it for a moment before saying, “What in the actual fuck! How fucking dare they! I am going to give them a piece of my fucking mind!”
Ah, there’s the reaction I had been waiting for. “Calm down, Maya. We can ask Zen tomorrow why you can remember everything, but right now, I need a bath.”
After my body and hair were thoroughly washed, I asked Maya to stay the night and sleep with me.
I figured since she’s my lady’s maid, I can tell her where to sleep, and I didn’t want her going too far from me after the recent attack.
I lent her a pair of my pajamas and offered to let her take a bath, which she happily accepted.
She walked into the bathroom and yelled back to me,
“HOLY SHIT! There are so many soaps!”
I laughed as she closed the door, and I was the happiest I had been in a while. The weight of the day slowly drifted away while I listened to Maya hum from the bathroom.
I crawled into bed but grabbed my old, worn leather journal and quill and wrote the date at the top of the page along with six words in the middle of the page: The Day I Chose to Live.
Morning came faster than I would have liked, and a knock at the door stirred us awake. I ignored it for a moment, wanting to let Maya get some extra sleep. But they knocked again, this time followed by “Avyn?”
Ulric? What the hell did he want? “You can come in, but I’m still in bed and have no motivation to move.”
Maya stirred beside me, and I sat up to block her from Ulric's view, not wanting to give him the opportunity to ogle her while she was still in her pajamas.
Ulric stepped into my room, pulled one of the dining chairs away from the table, and brought it to the side of the bed I was on. He sniffed the air a couple of times. Damn dog.
“Zendryk sent me to check on you after last night.” He sat and crossed his legs, resting his hands folded together on his knee.
“And he couldn’t check on me himself?” I grabbed a pillow and placed it in front of me to make sure I was fully covered.
“He wanted to give you space; he wasn’t sure where the two of you left off.”
“Well, if he sent you to find out, you can tell him to be a man and come ask me himself,” I said matter-of-factly.
He chuckled at my bluntness, “I told him you would say that.” He rubbed the black stubble on his chin, “So, your friend… May?”
“Maya. And it’s not happening.” I said, hoping to shut that thought process down in its tracks.
“What’s not happening. I was just curious if she was safe.” He raised his hands defensively, but I could see right through them.
“I’ve seen you chase servant girls around here since the day I got here. It is not happening.” If he thinks that he is going to be able to chase Maya around, he has another thing coming to him.
I would not let him get his claws, pun intended, into her. I just freed her from Jane; I am not going to deal with this situation, either.
“I think you have a bad impression of me.”
“No, I just know where you’ve …. Dined, and you are NOT dining there,” I said in a rushed hush of an angry whisper.
I crossed my arms. Conversation done. He is going to stay the fuck away from her.
He took the hint. “I’ll let Zen know what you said.” He got up and left, quietly shut the door, most likely sensing that Maya was in the bed beside me. Thoughtful, but still not fucking happening.
Once the door closed, Maya started laughing, startling me. “You heard all that?”
She sat up beside me, “You two weren’t exactly quiet.”
“I think he knew you were here, you know, wolf sense things.” The words seemed weird to say, but it was becoming the norm to talk about things like this.
“Well, he is cute.” She raised both eyebrows in a quick, playful flick at me.
I nudged her with my elbow. Of course, she found him cute; he was a very handsome man, annoying, but handsome.
“Maya, do not go there. Do I need to lecture you, too?” Maybe I should tell her about the conversation he had with Zendryk in the sparring ring, about going to the brothels and the variety of women at his disposal.
“No, but I do think I’m old enough to make my own decisions, mother.”
I grabbed a pillow and whipped it at her face. We broke out into a pillow fight, only stopping when fluffy white feathers filled the room along with our laughter.
I insisted that Maya come to breakfast with me, as I wanted to make sure she ate a decent meal after last night's events. She tried to tell me no, but I didn’t give her a choice, and for the first time in my life, I pulled rank on her.
The roll of her eyes told me I'd won. We made our way to the private dining room, and Zendryk and Ulric were already there having a heated debate.
They were both standing, hovering over a map splayed out on the table.
“It can’t be there; the mountains are uninhabitable,” Ulric said. “Even though they are Soulless, they need a life source to feed off of.”
“But what if there is something to live off there. We’ve never been able to find a passage through, and we cannot fly over as the altitude is too much for the horses.” Zendryk replied.
“It’s impossible, if we can’t get through, then how do they?!” Ulric was getting frustrated with the conversation.
“That’s what I haven’t figured out yet.” He brought a hand to his chin, rubbing the day-old stubble. “But there has to be something that way; they always come from the north…”
They noticed us and stopped talking.
“Well, good morning!” Ulric exclaimed with a goofy smile directed at Maya.
“Shut it, Ulric,” I said while walking to the table, taking my seat, and showing Maya to the one beside me.
“Beautiful morning, isn’t it?” Ulric said, eyebrows raised with excitement, and I rolled my eyes in response.
I pointed towards the window just as lightning flashed and thunder roared behind it; the rain pounded against the window, silently calling him out.