Mia
I was a genius. I smiled as I walked to the quarters where the boys were. They rushed out as soon as they heard my footsteps and engulfed me in a tight bear hug. I chuckled at their show of emotions.
“Thank goodness. You are back.”
“Now I can breathe properly.”
“I didn’t think that I slept or ate well all these days.”
I chuckled at their words. “Calm down, guys. I’ve only been serving tea to the king. You have nothing to worry about.”
“You said you were going to be back every evening.” Jack reminded me.
“I am sorry. I couldn’t come.”
“How is he? The king?”
I nodded. “He is fine. He is more of himself lately.”
“I haven’t seen him lately. I don’t think he has meetings.”
I nodded again. “I think the tea is making him weak. He stays in bed mostly through the day. Hopefully, we can force the dark wizard out of his body soon and we can get rid of him.”
“Good.” Quinn nodded and sighed, rubbing his chin and I wondered what he was thinking of.
“I need more of the sap.”
“Mia!” John gasped. “What have you done to the one you had with you? You were supposed to be putting it in his tea. Have you been giving him only the sap alone to drink?”
I chuckled at his attempt at sarcasm. “I added more to his tea when I noticed that he was expressing more of himself than the dark wizard. The tea is keeping the dark wizard suppressed and with the approval of Rudolph, I increased the dose.”
“Okay, I will give you another container but be careful. You don’t want to overdo it and weaken the king too much. Remember it’s the dark wizard we are after and not the king. We don’t want to hurt him in the process.”
“I will be careful.” I nodded as I got the sap from him. “It’s just that I want to go home as soon as I can.”
Quinn nodded. “I understand. We all want to go home and that is why I’m warning you to be careful. This is the home of the vampires and if anything should happen to the king, you would be blamed for it. Rudolph and Ava wouldn’t side with you if the king gets hurt, even though we are all in this together.”
“I will be back soon.” I said and was about to go in when Rudolph ran in.
He was breathing heavily and his eyes were laced with anger, his lips were bared in a growl and the full extent of that anger was directed at me.
“What are you doing?” He growled at me. “What have you done to the king?”
“Don’t growl at her that way.” Quinn snapped at him, pulling me behind me.
“I will snap at her as I want.” Rudolph replied, unconcerned about the anger in Quinn’s eyes.
I wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t intimidated by Quinn’s growl. How would he be when he wasn’t bothered about defying his king? Rudolph was a force on his own. I was surprised more about why he would growl at me. I had jumped at the sudden growl – I couldn’t help it – which was why Quinn had had to jump to my rescue.
“What do you mean, Rudolph?” I asked.
“I trusted you. I thought we had a common goal. I shouldn’t have believed easily the words of a werewolf. There is certainly a reason that our races don’t mix. Don’t you dare think that you are all going to leave here alive if Ethan dies.” He was still growling with anger but there was a catch in his voice when he mentioned the king’s name and I could sense how worried and broken he was.
He cared more about the king than he let on.
I sighed. I wouldn’t ever hurt the king and it broke my heart to think that he believed that I was doing that. “What happened, Rudolph? I didn’t do anything to hurt the king.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, not believing me. “If you didn’t do anything to him, why is he the way he is?”
“How is he? I just left him and he seemed fine to me.”
“Go and check on the person you say is fine.” He hissed.
Quinn gave me a look as if to remind me of what he had said earlier that the vampires wouldn’t hesitate to throw me under the bus if anything wrong happened to Ethan even though we had all planned this together.
I sighed and ran out of the room, knowing that the boys were running behind me.
I gasped as I got to the king’s room. I couldn’t believe that I had left him moments ago. No wonder Rudolph was so mad. I wouldn’t have believed that I didn’t do anything to him either if I hadn’t known any better. I was glad that Ava had come in when I was serving the king or I might have been accused of adding poison to the king’s tea to get revenge on him. I was relieved that I had a witness.
“What happened?” My voice was a tiny whisper as I turned to Ava.
She looked up from where she was tending to Ethan, her eyes filled with worries. “He suddenly started vomiting five minutes after you left.”
“And these happened to?” I asked, looking at him.
He seemed drained out, his skin looking paler than he usually was and filled with big, red rashes all over. I gasped at how much he must be in. I felt pity looking at him and guilt racked me up from the inside that I had done this. Maybe I shouldn’t have been overly ambitious as Quinn had cautioned.
He had convulsions and shook on the bed. Ava cried as she watched her mate being held down by two of the soldiers so he wouldn’t tumble off the bed.
I sniffed, feeling the need to cry with her. I shook my head. I needed a clear head. I couldn’t afford to be emotional. I had to think. I was the one who had come up with the plan, I had to find out why the king as reacting adversely to it.
The king retched again and Ava screamed, jumping off the edge of the bed she was seated on to sit by his head. She placed his head on her laps and began to rub at his hair, smoothening it to the back and soothing him with comforting words as she wiped the sweats off his face.
“Ah!” Ethan groaned.
I frowned and looked at the boys, wondering if they had caught what I had seen. I had seen a shimmer on Ethan’s body seconds ago and the voice that had let out that groan hadn’t sounded like that of the king. I was convinced that it was the dark wizard who was getting weak and that was what was making the king sick.
“I think you should stop the tea.” Ava raised her head and stared at me, her eyes fierce.
No! I almost screamed in my head. That would be what the dark wizard wanted. His form was already shimmering on Ethan’s body which meant that his powers were getting weak and he was gradually losing his hold on Ethan. We couldn’t end it here. We were almost done. We couldn’t afford to give up here and give him time to get stronger.
“We shouldn’t.” I said, daring to defy the lady that was soon to be queen.
“This is the fifth that he had gorged out vomit since you left. I’m not going to leave him to puke out his insides.” She cried as she talked, staring at me and willing me to understand her. “I can’t let this continue.”
“Why don’t you be patient?” I urged her. “I’m sure that we were almost done.”
She sighed, looking at me and seemed confused, unable to decide what she wanted to do. I couldn’t blame her; it wasn’t an easy decision that she had to make.
I would have been confused as well if I was in her shoes. Whether she asked me to stop giving him the tea or not, he was in pain. She had to pick the pain that would be better for him. How could she make that choice when she didn’t feel comfortable at all being in any pain?