Page 41 of Shattered Heir
“I know you think so, Emma. We are all doing what we can.” He touched my cheek.
“I have to save him—me, Ry. You don’t understand,” I said as he stood up, and I tried to move my hand to stop him, but it was no use—my fingers only twitched.
“Do not leave me, Ry,” I pleaded, and I felt a tear fall.
“I won't leave, Emma.” He leaned down, wiping the tears from my face. “But rest, please. You are safe. I will stay here. You are not alone.”
I felt my eyelids grow heavy, and I tried to say something but forgot what I wanted to say as my mind grew fuzzy with fatigue, and sleep called to me, and as I felt myself falling into the depths of sleep, I heard Ryker whisper:
“Just don't leaveme, Emma.”
Before I could say anything back to him to assure him that I wasn't going anywhere, I lost consciousness.
Chapter Eighteen
“Sire, are you ready?”I sat up from the crouched position I was in at my writing desk. Only as I looked about the room, I realized that I didn’t have a writing desk. Those were not my arms, not my legs, not my chest. I was having another memory from Shad’s note. I sat back, and I let Shad show me what he wanted to, with a hope rising within me that it would be the memory that would help him, that it would help me to save him, the boy I so desperately loved. In the memory, Shad was looking over the castle grounds through his window at a pinkening sky behind a dense green forest. There were flickers of light within the forest, which caused me to suspect that the forest was on fire. Something flew out of the forest, and I could feel Shad find joy in seeing a—adragon. Wow, they really were real. It was, once again, I let myself disappear, and it was as if I were Shad, living those moments:
“Home, I am home,” I said, joy falling away to bitter disappointment. I turned from the view of my kingdom. There stood Del near the door waiting. “Just a few moments, Del.” Seeing as I refused to have a guardian knight until I became king, father insisted that I have Del, the captain of our guard, as my assistant. He was not a guardian knight, but he had been trained by one, and he was very skilled. I stood and walked to my bed where my coat and cloak lay. I put them on with haste. I set my crown upon my head and motioned to the door.
“Let us be off.” Del opened the door and followed after me as I walked down the hall. I stopped at the bedroom in front of her door, which was beside mine.
“Sire, there is no time,” Del said a little impatiently, which let me know that my father was putting pressure on him. My father, the King of Embra, was rather demanding and expected nothing but the best from his children, his people, and those who worked for him. I had, unfortunately, felt this on a personal level, and I knew the depths to which his cruelty could descend. He was not a good man, my father.
“We shall make time.” I turned the doorknob and walked into the room, closing the door behind me so that Del could not enter. Inside, there was a queen-sized bed with pink and white blankets and sheets. I walked around to see a dresser with empty picture frames lined up on top. I walked to the bed and sat down, looking at the lamp with jewels hanging from the shade. This was her room. I had never stepped foot inside of her actual room before, but I had seen it plenty of times in my dreams, in my visions of her, and I knew that someday I would see her. I knew that, someday, she would be with me, and when she arrived, I wanted her to have something familiar–a space that was similar to the room she had before coming to Embra. There were not many people who knew the power that the Embra held, but I did because I was born with that powerwithin me. Some might say that it was a blessing from the Ancients, and I would agree, mostly, except for the fact that it also felt like a curse. It was a curse to know about the person who could complete my soul and yet not know where she was–to not even know her name. ‘What if I meet this maiden, and she doesn't feel the same way about me? What if all of this time I had spent preparing for her, for the one and only maiden I could ever love, and what if she doesn’t feel anything for me? What if she is never born? What if she dies?’ I questioned.
Father had no patience for worries or fears. I often confided in my mother, however, who told me to never tell anyone else. I knew that she was trying to protect me, but I never knew from whom I needed protection, till I had grown up. Then, I became aware that it was from my father, I needed protection. I shook my head, not wanting to dwell on him any longer than I had to.
If I could have just known that she was actually alive and well, that would have been enough. But I had yet to even hear her melody. Sometimes, I thought that I might have been mad, that our kingdom and its secrets were all lies. A soul song? Those were just old tales about two souls coming together as one, creating the perfect harmony and melody, together: a song of two souls. ‘But, could it be real?’
I needed to find out more about my ancestors and the gift that the royals in Embra had been given, which somehow had also been lost—until I was born. Despite my lack of knowledge on the subject, something within me knew, my soul knew, that she was mine; she completed my melody, she was my harmony—my song, no matter how ridiculous that sounded. I could not deny what I felt. I knew that she existed, just as I knew that I also existed.
As the Prince of Embra, I had a role to play. I would marry and continue living by the Ancients’ laws in order to ensurepeace and prosperity for my people. I was almost at the age of maturity, meaning that I would soon need to choose a bride.
Father had already received letters from several kingdoms, promising their daughters to me. He didn't care who I chose, telling me that waiting to find someone I loved was a weakness. He wanted to—I cleared my throat—I didn't need to dwell on what my father thought. I stopped telling Father things by age five, and I was grateful that I had not had my first glimpse of her until I was six. That door, beside my own, led to her room, and it was always locked. It was one of my rooms, and I kept it hidden from my father. My mother knew of my dreams, but I didn't need her to tell me that they were things I needed to keep to myself, but she often did anyway.
Marrying someone just because Father wanted me to? I laughed as I thought about that. I had a very loud melody, and I knew that it was an Ancient blessing, a gift. Many of my family members in past generations had melodies like mine. Strong melodies were rare and coveted, a blessing of favor from the Ancients themselves. Maybe that was part of our kingdom's gift. Still, it also could have been a curse, for it was the only reason that I was desired by the other nobles. Nothing was more coveted than a pure and strong melody.
Maidens had thrown themselves at me in the past, but I had only one maiden on my mind. She had wavy, golden hair; eyes the color of the emerald pools in the spring; and a smile that made me weak in the knees. She was the one; she was the other half to my soul; she was my soul—my song.
“Highness, please—we must go,” Del sounded, impatient from behind the door.
“Sorry, I do not wish you to be in trouble.” I walked to the closed door to speak with him on the other side.
“Do you think that you will find her before the ball?” Del asked. I looked around the room and pictured her there, talkingwith me. How I wished that instead of the visions–the dreams of her and I together—that I could be with her for real.
“I have no idea, but I will find her. I will not settle for anyone else, no matter what.”
“That is good, Sire.”
I opened the door and swiftly closed it behind me, looking at Del as he bowed.
“Yes, it is. Now, let’s go see what our ferocious King wants before he takes out his rage on us for being too late.”
The world fell back into place as I sat up. It was dark in my bedroom. The bedroom I was sitting in looked so similar to the one that I had just seen within that castle, with Shad—in my mind. He had known about me? He had known about me while he was on Terra? Did he think that we had this soul song thing? I rubbed at my face as I pictured him again in my mind, while he looked at himself in the mirror; he was incredibly handsome. He looked so much more like the prince I knew him to be, standing there in his castle, if that were even possible. I lay my face in my hands, trying to stop the tears from spilling out. He knew about me. He had prepared a room for me in his castle that he believed would make me feel comfortable? I was in shock. How could someone love me if they didn’t even know me? And what exactly was a song? I had heard mention of songs a few times before that moment, but still, I didn’t really understand. In that memory, the idea of this “song” seemed very important, like it was a part of him. I knew that I needed to figure out what that meant right away. Within the darkness of that night, there was a stillness in the room, a stillness that did not exist in the room in Shad's memory. I remembered the moment when he glanced out of hiswindow at the pink, Terran sky and the thick forest below him. Terra was more beautiful than I had ever dreamed, and seeing just another small glimpse of it made me want to be there more than ever before.
I knew that I needed to tell someone about that memory, but it felt too personal to share. Maybe, it was a memory that Shad had left just for me, left it for me so that I would know, without a doubt, that I was the only girl who he had ever wanted. That I had a home, a place on Terra with him.
I looked at the clock on my phone. It was three in the morning. I was already seventeen—my first birthday without my parents. I wanted to cry and pout about being alive when they were not, but I was still reeling with joy from that dream. As I closed my eyes and tried to dream of him again, I whispered to him:
