The Wicked Prince by Tilly Hart

Author:Tilly Hart [Hart, Tilly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

ELLIANA

My throat still ached from being strangled twice in as many days. Not just the bruised skin, but the flesh inside was tender.

Maman and I had left Diego sleeping, still restrained, in the tent and posted a man at the door. We retired to my own, much smaller space and sat around the fire together.

'What was it?'

Maman shook her head as she gazed into the wooden bowl in her lap. She sprinkled a powder into it and combined it with Diego‘s blood, tutting to herself.

'It's not good.'

My heart sank. There had to be a way to help him. 'Is there anything we can do?'

She nodded.

A sliver of hope reared up. 'What?'

Maman sighed and set the bowl down at her feet, stretching out her ancient back and looking at me through tired eyes.

'It's a blood curse, and a nasty one at that. The darkness within him has seeped in through his blood. It has reached every part of him, from his heart though to his head.'

'Can't it be removed?'

'Yes. But it means removing his blood.'

The words rumbled about in my head. Remove his blood? It wasn't possible. He would die. 'How much blood?’

'As much as we can. A man can lose a lot of blood and still live. We cannot remove it all though, and should he survive, a little of what ails him would remain. It's impossible to tell whether it would be enough to abate his urges to murder, or whether those would remain. The thing, it is strong. Far stronger than I have seen, and to put it in his blood is to make it almost impossible to eradicate.’

'I can't let him die, Maman.’

‘We'd lose the gold and our people would starve. The king would be furious. But we would survive.’

I stood up, rage bubbling within me. ‘Not because of the gold, I don't care about gold. Because I love him.’

Maman shook her head sadly. ‘You are a silly girl sometimes Ellania. You don't even know him. The whole time you've been around him, this curse has tainted him. You don't know what he will be like without it, should he even survive the ordeal. We need to take him to the gates of death and leave him there, allowing him the choice to return and recover, or accept his fate.’

I bit my lip and shook my head. 'You do not know everything Maman. I love him, and he loves me too. Whenever the darkness reared up in him, our love was the only thing which made it cower within him.'

‘Carnal relations are not love, my dear. This thing flees from passion and intimacy, not from love. Did telling him, or showing him, love work? Or was it only when he spent his anger between your thighs?’

I blushed a hot red to hear her speak of such. It hadn't been just the sex, had it? No. He loved me, I was sure of it.

'I know what I felt Maman. I cannot let you kill him. I will not.

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