The Royal Flower

Chapter 8 - Different Worlds – Her World

Carolina

The day I disappeared from my world began just like any other day. It rarely rained in our queendom unless my mother had willed it that way. So, it was sunny, the birds were chirping, and basically, it was like a fairy tale. Yada-yada.

The place was ready to spill me out of its guts. The forests were primed to lose me.

However, my trouble began when my father sent my older brother Prince Samuel to Shadowcreek to rule independently. It happened a year before I vanished. My brother had gone through twenty-five winters, and he still could not get his head out of his butt. He did not like talking in front of many people. Yet, he was not against whispering into the ears of many women who went by way of his bedroom. Samuel did not have any special powers, but he was the sneakiest person I had ever known. He also had no plans to marry whatsoever, to the disappointment of my father. However, my mother was all for freedom to do whatever you choose. It seemed that whatever my parents had somehow fizzled into smoke when they had him. I could rule better than Samuel, but he was the oldest. In my current world, it meant having “first dibs,” if I remembered the phrase correctly.

My sister Princess Luella was also an heiress in her own right. Only two years older than I was, she was to become queen. Luella was a fire witch, like our mother. She was beautiful. People often called me plain when I stood next to her, even when we had the same coloring. Even when we resembled each other. The future queen had that extra spark and was not against the confining gowns and the heavy crown.

And I realized that I was nothing.

I did not say that I was ugly or stupid because I knew I was neither. I would gladly kick anyone who would call me that. However, I was not a fairy princess, either. I was the youngest child, allowed to wear tunics and breeches because they did not wish to tire themselves with reprimands.

Anyway, the year Samuel left was the year that I buried myself deep into darker sorcery. I was an elemental but a more complicated one. I could control all four elements, and because of that, I became an accomplished shifter at only eighteen. When I turned twenty-one, during my last summer in Mogochislenia, I was one of the more powerful young witches. I knew it in my heart but did not know that I would soon test it.

The creature witches in the forests had sometimes resorted to mating with werewolves, and the warlocks even mated with lamias. When my mother took the throne years ago, the whole continent of Mogochislena had gone wild. The creatures rose from their hiding places, for better or for worse.

Then, I met Xavier. He was half-warlock, half-lamia, and he wanted me. Xavier was a handsome man of twenty-three summers, with dark hair and piercing green eyes. He was muscular as he was brilliant. Thinking of him here in the 21st century, I realized I had a type. My father did not trust him, though, for a good reason. Xavier was not a gentleman, and he never claimed to be good. He liked his magic dark and his nights long.

Sometimes, I would meet him in the forest, not in hopes of a tryst but because I liked living dangerously that way.

“Come with me, Carolina. You don’t have a place here. Your siblings had divided your family’s kingdoms,” Xavier invited, calling out his inner snake, er, lamia. He was the serpent in the garden, and I was his Eve.

“There is always Swordsmith,” I teased, mentioning the forbidden kingdom. I listlessly broke a few twigs while he sat on a tree branch.

“I don’t think you are cut out to be a queen,” he said, obviously baiting me. He had a lopsided grin that could make any woman shiver.

“I am not? Whoever said I could not be a queen. You might be looking at the Queen of the Forest.”

“Ha! The queen herself might not be pleased that you said that. She is a proud woman, and you know that she does not like you and your family.”

“I am not afraid of anyone.”

“Are you not?” he asked, approaching me.

Xavier was not the sort who asked permission. He jumped off the branch he was sitting on, bent to where I was seated, and just kissed me on my lips. I found myself closing my eyes. Then, he pulled back and watched me, possibly gloat at the blush on my cheeks and the swell on my lips.

“I am not afraid of you, Xavier.”

“Then, come with me. I will protect you. From anything. You know that.”

“But I do not love you. You know that.”

He smiled bitterly, but he was a persistent man.

“You will learn to love me if you give me a chance, Carolina.”

The truth was that a part of me was afraid of him. He had so much intensity that I felt he would stifle my love for life. I was attracted to him, but I could not imagine being his wife or mate.

We often met, though. Not as lovers but as part of a coven of dark witches. My mother began sensing the change in me as I began to change. My sleep had become more restless, and my temper was hotter than ever.

The problem was that I thought that I was with friends when I was with my coven. I was wrong. Some of them had been observing me, gauging the powers that were growing in me.

“Aren’t you a princess?” one of the older witches asked.

I nodded, apprehensive at the way she asked the question. She seemed to have something else in mind, a more profound question than the one she uttered.

“Be careful, then. The forests are full of creatures who would like to feast on the powers of an elemental like you. Royal witches and warlocks do not often go this way. Didn’t your friend tell you?”

“I can protect myself,” I insisted. Pride cometh before a fall.

“She is with me,” Xavier said, rising from the coven’s circle and resting both hands on my shoulders.

There were days that I hoped I had run away with the lamia-warlock. At the moment, though, I was glad that I did not, as I watched Daniel sleep peacefully in his bed. He always left his door slightly open. If he did that for me, I did not know then. My host might be sensing the anxiety that took over me when I saw his discovery. I feared that Xavier might have tried to rescue me and failed.