The Lycan King's Healer
The Lycan King’s Healer – Chapter 22

Cathy

How are you doing? I thought.

Good. Tired, but good, the voice in my mind answered back through the tunnel.

I snorted to myself. Tell me about it. Exhaustion was now a staple to my life, accompanying me everywhere. My only friend besides Theo.

But I care more about how you are, the voice continued, sounding a bit concerned. You don’t really talk about yourself.

Sighing, I looked at the ceiling, following the pattern of angels carved in the stone. There’s not much to talk about myself. The estate is well, the garden is fine. The only thing I have to talk about is Theo.

Since it was Aldrich, he always had to analyze each one of my words. The garden is only ‘fine?’ That’s not how you usually describe it.

I have not told him how I don’t like to be outside anymore. Or the mysterious figure in the trees I saw with Theo, or the eyes I felt on me, or the lack of sleep I was getting, or the heavy disapproval I was feeling from the maidservants. I did not want to worry him, making his dilemma even worse than it was. All he needed was extra responsibility while he was leading a war.

Well, it’s just dying, I lied, the summer is over and so are most of my favorite plants.

Can’t you just—

I’ve gotta go, Theo is calling me, I demanded, bluntly ending the conversation.

His thoughts paused for a moment before responding, Talk to you soon, my Cathy.

I didn’t answer, deciding to exit the room as if I was exiting the conversation. If it wasn’t internal.

Sighing out a breath of exhaustion, I returned to the corridor, the guards standing outside my bedroom following suit. Aldrich was going to eventually find out about my paranoia and the strange things happening here, if not through me, then a servant or guard. When I turned to see one of the guards walking behind me, I gasped, already forgetting they followed me out the bedroom.

I hadn’t been in the garden—he was going to know I was lying if I was not seen in it.

“Well, look who it is!”

I barely noticed my sister walking by. Danika grinned at me, stopping in her tracks to talk to me.

“Danika,” I stuttered, instant comfort pouring into my perpetual stream of paranoia. “What are you doing back here? No one informed me of your arrival–”

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” she interrupted with a pretty smile. “I have decided to accept your offer.”

Before she left that day, I had asked her to stay in the estate. She seemed to love how everything worked around here, and I could use a friend besides Theo. She told me she would think about it.

“That’s amazing,” I said, and I truly meant it. Having my sister here, any sliver of familiarity besides Theo, would be very helpful to my predicament. Maybe I could even tell her about it. I’ve already told her so much, and when I did, it felt like a therapy session.

“Your people are already helping me move in. But I wanted to ask you if you’d like to help me decorate my new room,” she offered hopefully.

I genuinely smiled at that. It gave me an idea, something that would fulfill two missions. “Let’s go to the garden,” I suggested, finally not feeling the rings of exhaustion weighing my eyes down. “We can pick some flowers and plants to decorate it with.”

She gave my arm a squeeze, nodding excitedly. “Let’s go. I already have a vision.”

And with that, we returned back to the garden, the last location of our bonding. We were very close as girls, and it was sad that the bond seemed to ebb with the flow of time. But in the garden, it felt like we were tending to it again.

The air was not as brisk, and the sun was highlighting all the colors of the plants. I pointed out the roses to her, assuming she was going to pick from the wide array of colors of roses, but she walked right past them. We walked under the arch, and I carried a straw basket for her. She smiled, her blonde hair blowing behind her as she picked out mostly red dahlias.

“I’m going for a red theme,” she mused, “and roses are too boring.”

I bent to pick them out when something shot by my head.

Gasping, I fell back onto the dirt. Danika let out a cry and dodged something, whatever whistled by my ear.

We breathlessly turned to where the unknown object landed, impaled in the dirt. It was an arrow.

“Where did that come from?” she exclaimed, aggressively looking around in every direction.

The world seemed to pause as I looked too, my body converting from exhaustion to full on adrenaline. Survival mode kicked in.

“I don’t see anyone,” I breathed out raggedly, “stay low.”

She obliged, lying down on the dirt, the soil staining her skirts. I crawled over to where the arrow was buried. There was a piece of paper taped to it.

My hand shaking, I unfolded the wad of paper to reveal a note in neat, perfect writing. So perfect that it was unnerving.

You are right to be paranoid.

Emily

Elias comes home a little more often than when the rash littered my skin, but still not a lot. He does not look at my face when he returns, simply going through the motions of eating, dressing, leaving, and repeating.

I had the servants make his favorite meal for breakfast so that he would linger. Usually, he scoops up the food and brings it to another room. He doesn’t seem to enjoy eating with me anymore, most likely a lack of appetite.

The meal put him in good graces. He even smiled politely at me, nodding a ‘hello.’ I smiled in return but he already looked away, reverting to the food in front of him. He never looked at me, and when he did, it was for a sweet split second.

We sat at the table quietly until I cleared my throat. “I have important news for you, Elias.”

He nodded to show he was paying attention, still immersed in his porridge.

“Aldrich has every intention of inheriting the throne,” I purred, curling my fingers around the coffee mug. “And the people want him to.”

His eyebrows knitted together for a moment, pausing his eating. “Aldrich has never wanted to be King.”

“Well, you know how much he likes to protect his people,” I sneered, “he knows he can do that easier as King.”

He considered this, silent. Then continued eating, chewing slowly.

“To put it starkly, Elias,” I continued with a more serious tone, “the people will pick Aldrich. The only way he will not be King at this point is if he is dead.”

Elias was still silent, but I recognized the anger brewing in his eyes. He was considering what had to be done, contemplating the plan that I was implying if he wanted to attain the throne he wanted so dearly.

And I knew he was thinking exactly what I was.