Lightning illuminated the sky above us, and I wrapped the raincoat Warren had packed for tighter, but it wasn’t doing a whole lot of good.
To avoid being tracked down by the city security, who reported directly to Theo, we intentionally avoided public transportation until we got outside of the greater capital city area.
It had been raining for hours, and I was beginning to feel drowsy from trudging through the mud in such foul weather. I sneezed, again, this ti barely getting my arm up to cover my face, and I willed myself to keep walking.
Warren was concerned about , and he had been for the last few hours since I’d begun to cough and sneeze. He wanted to shift and let climb on his back, but I’d refused. We would save that for if we were in danger. Right now, I was miserable, but I wasn’t going to die.
“I see city lights off in the distance, Ciana,” he told . “We’re almost to a town.”
His words entered my mind, but I was having trouble processing them. Unless it was a town with a giant bubble over the top of it that would protect from the rain, I didn’t care.
Trudging on, I began to lose most of my conscious thought. I just continued to lift one foot and then the other. Eventually, I noticed that Warren was guiding , his arm around , and then, the mud of the forest changed to open green grass, to pavent, to a sidewalk... to steps.
“Where are we going?” I muttered.
“A hotel,” he explained. “You need to rest and recover.”
“Let’s find a small one,” I mumbled my explanation. “Fewer security caras around.”
“Good point!” He chuckled under his breath and comnted, “You surprise all the ti, you know that?”
***
“Goodness gracious!” a loud female voice proclaid. “You poor dears look half drowned.”
“Yes, we need a couple of rooms, please,” Warren explained to her as I leaned against his side to keep from falling over.
“I’m afraid I only have one,” the woman said. “But it’s got a big bed in it.”
“That will do.” Warren held on to as he fished out paynt for the room from beneath his raincoat, and I wrapped my arm around his middle to steady myself, my eyes locked on the floor where a puddle was forming from all the water dripping off of .
I wanted to apologize to the custodial staff for making such a ss.
Halfway up the stairs, I lost my footing and almost tumbled back down, despite Warren’s grip on .
“All right, that’s it,” he proclaid, and the next thing I knew, I was being lifted off of the steps into his arms. I didn’t protest. Even if I’d wanted to, the words wouldn’t co out of my mouth.
Once we were in the room, he helped out of my raincoat, and then I insisted that I could change into dry clothes myself. I went into the bathroom and took a shower with very warm water, which I enjoyed.
When I returned to the room wearing fresh dry clothes, Warren had also changed. He looked at very concerned. “I think this is worse than just a cold,” he told .
I waved a hand at him, but even that seed to be moving in slow motion. “I’m okay.”
“I think you being in that hideous dungeon for all of that ti has left your immune system weak, Ciana. Climb into bed, and I’ll get you so chicken soup.”
My stomach protested the thought of putting anything inside of it, but I didn’t have a problem crawling into the nice warm bed. The next thing I knew, a spoon was being coaxed into my mouth. I split my lips and slurped up the broth, but I didn’t even know how the soup had gotten there.
Had I fallen asleep?
Warren sat beside , getting so soup and water. Then he said, “I’ll go see if I can find a pharmacy that’s still open.”
A peel of thunder shook the entire establishnt. “No...” I muttered; my mind was cloudy. “It’s not safe. You’ll catch a fever... and... die.”
He chuckled under his breath. “I think I’ll be okay. I take my vitamins every day.”
“You’re a... good prince... Unlike...”
“Unlike what?”
“Unlike... your brother. He’s...” Um, my head was so heavy and I felt I couldn’t think straight, but it didn’t prevent from concluding my thoughts about Theo, “...an asshole!”
I heard a low chuckle, followed by Warren’s gentle voice. “While I don’t disagree with you, I know you’re delirious because my sweet, mild-mannered Ciana would never say such....”
His words trailed away. My head lolled to the side, and I noticed the print on the wallpaper. It was a fleur-de-lis print, white on gray, very pretty....
When I turned back to say sothing to Warren, he was gone.
I fell in and out of sleep, tossing and turning. I had vague recollections of soone helping with liquids and dicines, but for the most part, I had no mory.
I had a lot of strange dreams, and although I couldn’t rember the details, I knew they were about my parents and my pack.
Except for one. Maybe it was more of a nightmare.
I’d dreamt that Theo had been kissing ....
A couple days after we arrived at the hostel, I awoke with a start, much like I had when I’d snapped out of the curse. The sun was streaming in through the window, and Warren was sitting in a chair across the room, reading a newspaper.
“Ah! The sleeping beauty awakens!” he teased, causing to blush.
“How long was I asleep?” I stretched my arms up over my head.
“A while,” he said with a grin. “How do you feel?”
“Much better.” Then, I rembered how he’d gone out in the rain to get dicine and fed soup. “You took care of .”
It wasn’t a question, but he nodded. “I wanted you to get better.”
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. Thank you!” He was such a good man. “We should be on our way soon so that you can get back to the castle. They’re probably missing you by now.”
“Nah,” he said, smiling. The soft afternoon sunshine gave him a golden glow and I felt my heart skip a beat. “I seriously doubt they are. Besides, it’s getting kind of late. It’s been a bright, sunny day, but it’ll be dark in just a couple of hours. It would be better if we continued our journey tomorrow when we’ll have all day to walk in the daylight.”
I knew it wouldn’t do any good to try to talk him out of it, so I nodded. “All right then. I’m going to go outside and get so fresh air.”
“That’s a good idea,” he said. “There’s a beautiful little courtyard around back, full of bright flowers that have flourished after the rain. Check them out.”
I thanked him for the suggestion and headed into the restroom to make myself sowhat presentable. I looked like I had slept for a long ti, that was for sure. My hair was sticking up all over the place, and I had a crease on my face from the pillow.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at myself.
After dinner, I made my way outside and quickly found the courtyard he’d been speaking of. It was lovely. Sitting down on a quaint bench beneath a tree full of fuchsia blooms, next to several rose bushes in a variety of vibrant colors made feel at peace for the first ti in a while.
I tried to think only positive thoughts, but my mind kept going back over everything that had happened in the castle. I thought about Prince Theo and how, for a while, I’d thought perhaps he truly could be kind when he wanted to be.
That had ended abruptly when he’d had thrown in prison for doing nothing wrong. No, I was certain now that he truly was as ruthless as everyone said.
Parts of what had unfolded while I was at the palace seed like a dream to .
Other parts seed like a nightmare....
And then there was Warren. My long-lost childhood friend.
I had wanted to ask him so many tis if he had any mory whatsoever of being in the woods in a faraway land when he was young, but I hadn’t had the courage to bring it up yet.
Footsteps drew my attention around the corner toward the path that led back to the guest rooms. When Warren’s handso face ca into view, I couldn’t help but smile back at him.
“I brought a bottle of wine.” He held it up in one hand. “I thought we could use sothing to help us relax a little bit.”
In his other hand, he held two wine glasses.
“That sounds lovely,” I agreed.
He poured one for first and then one for himself, and the two of us sat back and enjoyed the peaceful sounds of nature as we tasted our drinks.
Sitting there with the kindhearted, handso prince, I couldn’t help but think back on the ti I’d spent with the young man in the forest. He was standoffish and cold most of the ti back then, but I still knew he had a good heart.
“What are you thinking?”
I tilted my head to look at him with a smile. “Thinking about flowers.”
I had gotten flowers twice from him–the sun blossom he had gotten for a long ti ago, and the lavendlilly he gave while we were at the palace.
“What kind?”
“Lavendlilly and... sun blossom.” I finally said it. My face blushed a little, and my heartbeat was increasing as I waited for his reaction.
Would he rember our encounter? He had the bracelet, so he must have mories about it, right?
But his answer wasn’t what I expected.
“Lavendlilly, I know what it is. What about sun blossom?”
He’d forgotten about it? To my disappointnt, I didn’t see much emotional change in his gentle eyes.
Did he forget about ? Did he forget about the ti we spent? Or perhaps the mories I had for the young man in the woods were only special to ?
After all, why would a prince keep thinking about a strange girl he’d t years ago?
“You seem lost in thought,” Warren noted, nudging lightly in the shoulder with his elbow.
“Yeah, sorry. I was thinking about sothing that happened to a long ti ago.”
“Oh?” he asked, his tone laced with curiosity. “Is it sothing you wish to talk about, or would you rather keep it to yourself?”
Turning to look at him, I contemplated what my response should be. All this ti, I’d wanted to know if he rembered anything at all.
Now was as good a ti as ever to find out....
“Many years ago, when I was a girl of twelve, I followed a majestic pony into the woods, and there, I ca upon an injured young man....”
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