71 Chapter 71 : A monster
“It seems I don’t have a choice,” King James Burchard spoke solemnly, “as long as you keep your word to restore order in my kingdom, I will aid you in whatever way that I can.”
Elric smirked slightly and nodded his head, “I’m glad that now you see things my way James.” The silver haired man stood up and pat the king’s shoulder lightly, “We will move out the minute I hear from the snowlands. Theo will show you to your accommodations, you all must be very tired.”
When Elric left the room, king Burchard sighed heavily and massaged his temple. Why did it feel like this was more of a coup than an alliance, it felt as if this silver haired king was practically taking over Gavaria as well in the name of helping the humans there to co exist with the other races. But what other choice did James have? Being human, he wouldn’t be able to command his people all on his own. And after word of Elric’s seemingly perfect reign over Meria spread across the continent, many halfbreed nosferatu, lycans, elves and dwarves saw him as some sort of savior and supreme ruler. Having him as an ally was the best bet at at maintaining the throne.
On the other end of the palace in a solitary chamber, Julia was sitting on her chair digesting the events that had occurred that afternoon when the door creaked open. Her heart jumped when the silver haired king walked in.
She quickly stood up and awkwardly curtsied, not knowing how to act around him now. Just a few hours ago she saw him as the enemy who had worked hand in hand with Ella to charm prince Adam, but now he was the man whose mother she had killed because of her obsessive crush on a man who she had absolutely no chance with. She felt so stupid.
“You’ve made the right decision dwarve,” Elric spoke. He stood over the short woman condescendingly with his arms behind his back. “Joining me in my plan to restore our people’s land, their legacy, it’s the right thing to do.”
He inched closer to the woman, grabbed her chin and tilted her head up to face him, “you are dwarvish royalty, and with your help we can bring the entire continent to its knees and our once exiled and tortured brothers and sisters will reign supreme again. Wouldn’t you want that?”
Julia nodded her head slowly and Elric let her go
“What about Adam, and Ella, how do they fit in into all of this.” Julia questioned the handsome man.
.....
“Your little boyfriend Adam is a prince of the elves, even though I see him as an enemy right now I cannot build the world I want without his help,” Elric responded.
“And what about Ella?” Julia questioned the silver haired king once more, wondering why he hadn’t answered her question completely to begin with. Was she also someone he needed to bring about this new world order he wanted? Or did he just want her back.
“Ella.. she’s an important part of this as well,” Elric responded.
Julia didn’t know why hearing him say she was important left a bitter taste in her mouth. He was so vague about it, was she important to the plan or to him? And why did Julia even care? She scolded herself internally as she watched him walk out of the door.
The green eyed woman sat down on the edge of the bed and sighed, she had to give Elric some credit though, he was singlehandedly rebuilding the entire continent from the ground up so that everyone would have a share of its wealth. No more hiding, no more segregation, just everyone living in peace like they once did a hundred years ago.
Little did she know that Elric had no intentions of living peacefully with humans, Infact, he was turning the tables around completely. Humans who didn’t abide to his laws were turned into outcasts, slaves and farm workers. He was building a world where humans would be at the bottom of the chain, with lycans reigning at the top, and once he retrieved his wife from Adam, the nosferatu would reign right beside them. It would be the perfect world for him and Ella, a world where they could be together for all eternity.
Now that he had amassed an army, he could now proceed to the enchanted forest. For the sake of keeping face, he would give Adam one chance to return his wife and return to the central continent to rule with him. If he declined, he’d wage war against Adam and whoever would support him, thereafter taking the elven prince as his prisoner. Once the elves fell, and the nosferatu and dwarves sided with Elric, he’d be the undisputed leader of the entire continent, no one would dare go against him. And no one would ever take Ella away from him ever again. It was the perfect ultimate plan.
*
The elven prince groaned and rubbed his neck sluggishly, the smell of smoke and firewood filling his nostrils. He opened his eyes and realized he was surrounded by darkeness with only a faint golden glow coming from his side.
Adam supported his weight on his shoulders and turned to look at where the source of light was coming from. He saw his men sitting around a fire a few feet away from him, it was already late into the evening. He felt a little disoriented wondering what time or what day it was. How long was he out and...
Suddenly a thought crossed his mind, Ella! What had happened after that incident? Was she okay? Was she even alive?
The dark haired prince stood up weakly, still feeling the effect of the blood that had been drained from his body. If it was an ordinary man, he probably would have been out cold for weeks or six feet under, luckily, Adam wasn’t an ordinary man.
He took heavy steps towards the fire, scanning the people around it looking for her face.
“My prince!”
Zander rose from the log he had been sitting on and rushed to Adam’s side, putting the prince’s hand over his shoulder and helping him walk towards the rest of the men.
“Your grace you’re awake,” Ivan commented in a relieved tone, “if you had slept any longer we would have had to eat you because we’re almost fresh out of meat- ow!”
Roland retracted his hand that he had used to punch Ivan on the arm and looked up at Adam, “how are you feeling prince Adam?”
“I’m fine,” the prince responded, “don’t worry about me.” His eyes scanned the faces again but Ella’s was missing. “Where’s Ella? Is she asleep?”
The men gave each other nervous glances which made Adam incredibly tense, “why are you all looking like that?!” He questioned them, “where is she?!”
“Your grace Ella almost killed you,” Beric commented, “don’t you remember?”
“She wouldn’t have killed me! Now where is she?!”
“She sucked on you like a water skin in the desert!” Ivan spoke, “we’re all actually surprised you’re even walking after being out cold for the past three days.”
Adam’s eyes went round in shock. Three days?! He had really been out cold for a whole three days? The eleven prince flattered his lashes and shook his head. “That’s not important right now, please, where is Ella? I need to know she’s okay.”
“What if she tries to attack you again?!” Beric responded in a panic, “it’s too danger-”
“She didn’t attack me I made her do it!” Adam yelled, he was breathing heavy and he was almost losing his mind waiting for someone to tell him where Ella was.
Zander looked down at the man he was holding and furrowed his brows, “you mean you let her drink your blood?”
“Look, I’ll explain everything later,” Adam said to his men, “right now all I ask is you take me to where she is.”
Roland and Zander looked at each other and then nooded. “Alright,” Zander answered, “right this way.”
The blond elf led Adam into the thicket of trees not too far from the camp. After a few minutes of walking, Adam noticed a strange large circular object made of interlocked stems held together by bands of sisal, it was a giant cage. And around the cage was a ring of different silver objects and cloves of garlic.
Adam let go of Zander and inched closer to the cage, and what he saw within made his breath hitch. Inside the cage, Ella sat with her knees to her chest and her face buried into them. She was still wearing the blood tainted clothes from before and her hair looked disheveled.
“Ella!” Adam turned back to look at his men with a deep scowl on his face, “why did you put her here?!”
Zander shook his head and looked up at Ella, “We didn’t have anything to do with this your grace, she locked herself in here.”
“What?”
Adam circled the cage groggily to the other side where he could better see her, “Ella... hey.. what are you doing in here? Why would you do this to yourself?”
Ella rose her head slowly and lifted her hair from her face so she could see who was taking to her. Adam was taken aback by how tired her face looked. Her skin had retained its warm color but she had heavy bags under her beautiful eyes and stains of mad and blood on her face. He also noticed that her eyes were different, she had developed some sort of heterochromia, with one eye slightly red and the other blue.
“Ella, open this thing right now!”
“Leave me,” Ella rasped, “can’t you see that I’m a monster.”
Visit freewe𝑏nove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺 for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience