Page 24 of The Time Of Kings

The only thing I ever desired.

My Electus.

My Queen.

My Gods’ Promise.

However, before I could claim her lips like I always craved to do in these dreams, and just as her face was about to be revealed to me, Fate would snap its forbidding fingers. For just as I would reach her, she would disappear. Like some ghost of a past not yet lived through.

Hence why I would always wake in a thunderous mood, cursing whatever time was left between us. Questioning how many more years I would have to waste living through before I finally found her. Knowing that when I did, from that moment onwards, my days would be filled with the happiness she would bring to my heart. The longing and loneliness of this punishing sentence would finally be at an end.

Making me question now, could these recurring dreams finally mean that I was closer to finding her? Something that seemed more plausible when I overheard the conversation below my window.

Some local peasant had insisted on speaking with the Lord of this castle. One clearly intent on telling me of the strange sight he had beheld in his cottage.

Hence why I summoned my clothes and made my way down to the entrance using Supernatural speed that I was free to do this early in the morning. For the staff would not be awake at this hour.

Although as soon as I heard what he had to say, I knew that it would not remain that way for long.

Besides, they had my annual ball to prepare for this eve, so servants would soon stir, and the castle would be a flurry ofactivity. However, for me, it would soon be so for a very different reason entirely.

“My Lord,” the commoner said, bowing and making me impatient enough to snap,

“Be quick. Out with the reason you disturb this castle’s slumber!”

My man Jacobs had been dealing with him and looked less than pleased that I had been woken.

“He tells of a woman found in his cottage performing witchcraft,” Jacobs said, making me hold up a hand to stop him.

“I askedhimthe account of it, now explain what you saw,” I demanded of the quivering man.

“Beg your pardon for the late hour, My Lord, but it is like your man here tells of it. Witches in me very cottage, I seen ‘em with my very eyes right through me window. They be there cackling out their spells.”

I wanted to roll my eyes at his explanation, hence why I told Jacobs to toss his arse out in the mud, already turning from this simple mortal mind.

“Get rid of this superstitious simpleton,” I snapped, already walking away when he added quickly,

“I speak the truth, for the golden haired one was far too beautiful to be of this natural world.”

I stopped dead in my tracks and turned back to face him, my breath catching in my throat as my heart hammered a new beat within my chest. So, after quick and measured steps back to him, I found myself taking him by the threadbare jacket he wore. My grip unyielding as I shook him to stop his fearful trembling’s, despite giving him reason for them.

“A golden-haired beauty, you say. What of her…? Speak, man!” I shouted, having no patience for his fear of me. Something that admittedly was not surprising, for I was no small man and was near twice his size.

“She looked like an angel sent from Heaven, standing there in me cottage surrounded by witches.”

I frowned at this.

“She wasn’t alone?”

“N-n-noo, M-my Lord,” he replied nervously, the wrinkles around his mouth and eyes deepening as he shook in my firm hold.

“What makes you call them witches? For that is a serious claim indeed,” I asked before letting him go.

“The way they lit the fire, as if spells were being whispered from their lips.”

I dismissed this part as being nothing, but an overactive mind fuelled by the ale I could scent on his breath. In fact, I disregarded his continued rambling completely and instead looked to my steward.

“Wake the fool, I wish to speak with him immediately, then gather up my men, for it seems they have a criminal to retrieve,” I told my steward, ignoring the commoner’s gratitudes. Obviously, he was under the misconception that I was aiding him in this. When in truth, my actions were purely out of my own personal interest. Because if there was even a small chance of the ‘angelic blonde’ being that of my Chosen One, then I would stop at nothing in retrieving her.

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