The Wizard Prince's Rebel Soulmate

Chapter 1

~ One Year Later ~

“Hold it, hold it, just a little bit longer…”

Aurora wanted to scream at Lorenzo, but her focus was on keeping the shield of fire she’d conjured around her intact, while he threw buckets of water on it. She didn’t feel the heat of the flames, but the steam of the evaporating liquid made it seem like she was inside a sauna and it was difficult to breath. Finally, he allowed her to relax, and she gave in to the trembling of her legs and just plumped down onto the ground.

“You did well today, sunshine,” Lorenzo complimented her, but the only response she could muster was a groan.

“Your father would be proud. His strongest element was fire, too, you know? Maybe we should focus on the others a little more…”

They had been training every day for a year. Her powers had grown fast, but Lorenzo kept pushing her to her limits, his past warrior training shining through more and more each day. On top of working on controlling the elements, he also trained her to fight without using any magic, saying that it was important that she knew how to defend herself in case she wasn’t able to use her powers. Every afternoon was spent learning spells and potions, specifically the ones from her family’s grimoire, until she felt like she couldn’t possibly cram any more information into her brain, but Sofia was relentless.

Sandra helped her as much as she could, now that the entire library was digitized and archived, and all the old books were taken care of and conserved properly. They did get more books every now and then, but the bulk of the work now was fielding requests from their groups around Central Italy, who sometimes needed specific information and requested Sandra’s help. Somehow, not only had the books been uploaded into the cloud, but also into Sandra’s brain, as the woman seemed to remember every piece of knowledge that was in these books.  

Once a month, they travelled to meet other leaders of rebel groups in the kingdom like Marco and his family, encouraging them to keep up their training in case it was needed and checking to see if they needed anything. Starting a revolution was equally exciting and boring, as Sofia stated, they needed to do a lot of planning and coordinating, which on some days felt like they were just wasting time. But she trusted her aunt to keep them safe, and to make sure that when the day came to take back the throne from King Riccardo, they wouldn’t fail.

Right now, she dragged herself upstairs to her room to take a shower. She’d taken a quick nap on the drive from the quarry, their usual training grounds, but the dirt had mixed with her sweat and was clinging to her skin, making her feel dirty and uncomfortable. Standing under the cool shower, she let her thoughts drift back to South Tyrol. Thinking of him didn’t hurt that much anymore, not to the point of paralyzing her. On some days, she was almost thankful that he showed her who she was and helped her release her powers. She was working on feeling more positive towards the whole experience, but the process took time and this was one of those instances where magic didn’t help.

Aurora quickly towel dried her hair and slipped into some comfortable clothes, before going to the kitchen to grab some lunch. Training made her hungry, and she knew there was still some pasta left from last night that she could eat right out of the fridge.

Sandra greeted her as she walked in, a book in front of her as usual, a finger on the page marking the spot she left off.

“What are you reading today? I thought you went through all the old stuff we have downstairs?” Aurora asked as she opened the fridge and started looking for the leftovers.

“Oh, this isn’t for work, this is for fun,” Sandra replied, and Aurora turned around to see her holding up the book so she could see the cover. While she couldn’t make out the title, a photograph of a half-naked guy with an impressive six-pack was holding on tight to a woman, who gazed lovingly into his eyes.

“You raided aunt Sofia’s stash again, I see,” Aurora chuckled, opening the Tupperware with the pasta she’d been looking for and grabbing a fork before sitting down next to her friend.

“A girl has to get her romance wherever she can,” Sandra replied dryly, taking a sip from her iced tea.

“Is it good? I might have to borrow it when you’re done,” Aurora asked between two forkfuls of pasta.

“Yeah, but it makes me want to hate the heroine for getting such a good-looking, kind, romantic guy who’s great in bed,” Sandra sighed, making Aurora laugh.

“If you want to find yourself a man like that, maybe you should search for him outside of the library, instead of falling in love with a fictional character,” she teased her.

“First of all, I don’t want a guy who doesn’t like to be in a library. Secondly, if a fictional character pisses me off, I just close the book and open another one with someone I like. Can’t do that with real people,” Sandra grumbled, but Aurora could see the hint of a smile on her lips, indicating that she was only half serious.

“Well, it’s none of my business, but if you want your soulmate to find you, you have to go somewhere he can actually… you know, find you.”

Talking about soulmates made her heart hurt for a second, and Aurora absentmindedly rubbed her chest until she realized that Sandra was looking at her sympathetically.

“I’m fine, really,” she smiled, trying to reassure her friend. “We should go out tonight. Have dinner at Guido’s, maybe have a drink somewhere… Just you and me. Who knows, maybe we – and by we, I mean you – will get lucky?” Aurora wiggled her eyebrows to make Sandra laugh, and she was happy when it worked.

“Alright, princess, but only if you let me get back to my steamy novel now. I have to get Patrick here out of my system before meeting my soulmate,” Sandra agreed, her attention already back at the book in front of her, and Aurora finished her meal to get downstairs where her aunt was waiting for her.

The afternoon lessons passed quickly, and Aurora went upstairs to remind Sandra to get ready for their night out, only to find her sobbing on the couch.

“Sandra, what’s wrong?” she ran over to her friend and pulled her into her arms, holding her until she stopped crying.

“He… he realized he was in love with her, but…” Sandra sniffed and leaned over to grab a tissue from the box on the coffee table. “But it was too late, she had already left. And now he can’t find her anymore.” She loudly blew her nose.

“I’m sorry, who is in love with who? And who is gone?” Aurora drew her eyebrows together, trying to figure out what her friend was talking about.

“Patrick and Lara, of course!” Sandra wailed, new tears streaming down her face.

“Are you talking about the book?” Aurora asked, wondering why someone could get so worked up about people who didn’t really exist, but her friend just nodded, wiping her tears away.

Aurora sighed.

“They’re going to be fine, Sandra. Look, there are still about fifty pages left, it’s not over yet, there is no need to be upset. Let’s get something to eat, and later on you can finish the story and you’ll see I’m right.”

She caressed Sandra’s hair with her fingers as if she was comforting a child who had scraped their knee.

Finally, Sandra calmed down enough to get up, and Aurora walked her to her room to take a shower and get dressed. Thankfully, her aunt didn’t object much to their plans, as long as she promised to stay safe and only go out in disguise, so as soon as they were ready, Sandra changed their appearance and they got out.

“Maybe we should check if we could invite Vanessa again,” Sandra suggested on their short walk to Allabona, Guido’s restaurant. Vanessa had visited a couple of times in the past year, even though Altea wasn’t able to come anymore. She said it was because she was busy at university, but Aurora knew that wasn’t the entire truth. There was just so much politics standing between them, that it had become increasingly difficult to ignore it.

Altea’s family was allied with the person, who killed Aurora’s family, and Aurora was now trying to overthrow his throne. She wasn’t angry at Altea for not visiting her, after all, she didn’t want to put her friend into a position where she might have to choose between her and her family. Aurora had already done that to Altea’s brother, she didn’t want to repeat that experience.

They did keep in touch, however, even if it was only over the phone, and they never talked about anything remotely political, or about Matteo. They had silently agreed to keep those topics out of their conversations. But Aurora missed her friend, she missed having someone who understood her and could help her with her training, just like they used to back in Dorf Tirol.

“Sure, I’ll check with Sofia tomorrow when we’re going on our next trip, and then we’ll check with Vanessa when she has time for a girl’s weekend,” Aurora replied as they walked into the restaurant to greet Guido.

They froze when they saw the owner of the restaurant rush towards them, his white apron stained with fresh blood.

“Guido, what’s wrong?” Aurora asked while checking for injuries, but she couldn’t find any.

“Princess, quick, he’s in the back,” he urged her and she followed him into his little office next to the kitchen.

“Who is this?” she asked with a look at the figure lying on the floor in the corner, while Sandra quickly went over to see if she could help.

Guido hesitated.

“Maybe we should call your aunt and Lorenzo.”