9 Forbidden Poisons (2/2)

'Why?' James interrupted. 'Why should he be spared from the threat of death when he broke your laws?... Answer me Lilly!'

'He lives,' she began, grief and pain evident in her words, 'to bear the blood burden that has stained his soul.'

'Blood burden?'

'The replacement he tore out of me is dead and now he must live with the illness that killed it.'

James was quiet for a moment. 'And you?'

'I am the image of death.'

'Does this mean you are dead?' he asked softly.

'No.'

James looked up when he heard the branches rustle. He hoped to see Lilly, but there was nothing. 'Lilly? Can I see you?'

'Perhaps later, Prince. A few of the animals require my attention.'

'Lil...' He sighed.

She had distanced herself from him. As distant as she had been when they first met. But she had let him near. She'd helped him learn more about her people. Did she not care for him as he felt she did because she had accepted his help? James patted Torta's neck. Torta turned and left the forest. James didn't really pay attention to where Torta went after that. He figured he'd take him back to the castle as he always did. But, James was surprised when Torta took him to the river that he had once laid Lilly in.

On the far side was a cloaked figure. They knelt and seemed to be working on something. A strong wind kicked up and James shielded his eyes. When he looked up again, the figure was gone. Had it been Lilly? In his reading he had come to understand that Adremedians were gifted to control one of the various elements, but no one Adremedian could control them all. He stayed by the river until a few soldiers came to get him. His father had begun a set of treaties with some of the neighboring kingdoms and he was confined to the castle grounds. Every waking moment he was accompanied by someone—many of them the princesses from those kingdoms. His silent retreats to the library or his room were nearly non-existent.

A few weeks later, James sat in the main hall with his father King Chasio. He didn't want to be there, but his father was insistent he select a wife from the four princesses before him. He didn't want any of them. He wanted Lilly. But he also knew it was a very real possibility that Lilly would never come to love him. James stood to pick the woman that annoyed him least when the doors of the great hall opened. The cloaked figure that stepped into the room bowed deeply in the doorway.

”Who are you?” the king demanded. ”What is the meaning of this?”

Lilly cringed at the noises—made louder as they reverberated off the walls. 'Can you hear me now, Prince James?' she asked.

”Lilly,” he said, approaching her.

'There's something I need to….' Her thought cut off as James grabbed her and kissed her deeply.

Her lips were wet. She struggled to push him away, but he kept hold of her and refused to stop kissing her.

'James, let go!' she screamed. 'Stop. You're killing yourself.'

'Better that than marrying….' He broke away with a groan and collapsed on the floor.

Lilly knelt beside him.

His eyes threatened to roll up into the back of his head as darkness pressed on his consciousness. He felt the blade of Lilly's indigo and silver inlaid dagger stab deep into his stomach.

'Release!' Lilly commanded the blade as his father roared, ”Guards!”

James curled toward her, hoping to see her beautiful face once last time. Her face was too deep in the shadow of her cloak for him to see anything. The guards grabbed Lilly's arm and pulled her back as he passed out.