One True Love

by Linda Kage

  Allera! That was it.

  Backtracking to my sister’s room, I pounded on her door before barging inside.

  She groaned and started to sit up in bed. “Urban? Wha…?”

  “Something’s wrong,” I said, grabbing her arm and manually pulling her off the mattress.

  “W…what?” she squawked, tripping after me and grabbing my arm to balance herself. Finally, she woke enough to ask, “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

  I shook my head. “It’s not me. It’s her. Something’s wrong with her. I can feel it through the mark.” I pulled her from the room and started leading her down the hall. “You need to go make sure she’s okay.”

  “What? Urban!” We’d just left our wing of the castle when she finally woke enough to dig her heels in, forcing me to stop. “Don’t be crazy. It’s the middle of the damn night. I’m getting married in the morning. I can’t just knock on her door right now and ask… I wouldn’t even know what to ask!”

  “Are you okay?” I supplied for her before nodding insistently as I dragged her up a staircase toward Vienne’s room. “And, yes, you can. All you have to do is ask if she’s okay. Simple as that. Blame it on a strange dream you had or something. I don’t fucking care. But we’re checking on her. Right now.”

  “Urban…” But before she could come up with a way to talk me out of such a crazy quest, a muffled scream echoed down the hall and around a corner just as my abdomen exploded with cramping pain.

  “Shit.” I doubled over, grabbing my gut, before I pushed past it and straightened again. “That’s her. She’s hurt.”

  I took off sprinting away from my sister.

  “Urban!” Allera raced after me. “Wait!”

  I didn’t slow down. Not until I reached the corridor that led to Vienne’s bedchamber. When I found the hallway already crowded with people, I skidded to a halt and swallowed, fearing the worst.

  Soren, Brentley, Nicolette, and even Caulder, along with a handful of servants, milled outside Vienne’s door, talking quietly amongst themselves. When they lifted their heads at my arrival, I pressed a hand to my heart and shook my head, not ready to hear the bad news.

  And yet I had to know.

  “What’s going on?” I croaked from a hoarse throat.

  “The baby’s coming,” Brentley said, approaching to take Allera’s hand as soon as she caught up to me and paused at my side, gasping for breath from her run. “I’m sorry, my sweet,” he said to her. “Did we wake you?”

  Allera began to shake her head, only to glance my way and say, “It’s quite alright. Is there… I mean, is there anything we can do to help?”

  I stared fixedly at the closed door that led into Vienne’s room. I even took a step toward it, needing to go in there, to check on her.

  She was in pain.

  But Allera clutched my arm hard, stopping me.

  When Brentley frowned between us, Allera offered him an uneasy laugh. “You know,” she said quickly. “I… I’ve actually helped deliver many babies at home. In High Cliff. I’m sure I can be of assistance somehow. May I… I mean, is it alright if I offer my aid in there?”

  I glanced incredulously at her. She’d never helped deliver a single baby in her life. But I guess if there was no way I was allowed to go into that room, she would try to go in for me.

  I kind of felt like hugging her for her consideration.

  “Well… Uh… I know Yasmin, two healers, and a couple maidservants are already in there, but…” Brentley glanced toward Soren just as another scream rent the air.

  The sound tore through me with a fury, momentarily blinding me and stealing my breath as more pain than before arced through my midsection.

  I swear, Allera’s hold on my arm was the only thing that kept me standing.

  “Yes,” Brentley said, nodding suddenly toward Allera. “Yes, I believe they could use all the help they can get right now. Thank you for the offer.”

  “Of course.” Allera glanced up at me, worry in her gaze, before she let go of my arm and hurried toward the doorway where Soren stepped to the side to let her in.

  When he glanced my way, he scowled slightly, probably wondering why I was here for the birth of his child.

  Brentley returned to Caulder, where they discussed whether it would be a good idea or not to postpone the wedding.

  “I don’t see why you need to postpone it,” Soren said, shaking his head. “If you insist on having it at all, just get it over with already.”

  “But Vienne won’t be able to attend if they have it tomorrow,” Nicolette said. “She’ll be on bedrest for at least a fortnight after giving birth.”

  “As if that’s a valid reason.” Soren snorted. “All the guests are already here. It’d be stupid to reschedule just because of her. Might as well not have it at all.”

  I glared at him, pissed that he was such an ass, and because he acted so cavalier about Vienne’s pain. Why did he not seem worried? Why did no one seem worried?

  They were all fucking idiots.

  A low moan came from Vienne’s room. I gulped, trying not to vomit all over the floor.

  Finally, Nicolette showed some concern, but not for Vienne.

  “Urban?” she asked, instantly moving closer. “You don’t look so well. Are you okay?”

  I shook my head and brushed her hand away when she reached out to check my brow for a fever. “I’m fine,” I mumbled, only to glare at Soren when he rumbled out a laugh over something he’d just said to Caulder.

  Something about my inability to handle the sound of childbirth.

  “And you seem awfully nonchalant about the fact that your wife is suffering right now,” I growled, unable to control my glare or the venom in my tone.

  Soren glanced at me, his surprise tangible. Then he narrowed his eyes and shrugged. “Probably because I’ve been through this before. My first wife supplied me with three before dying on the birthing bed.” He shrugged again as if her death were no big deal. “Pushed out too many strapping boys, I suppose.”

  I wanted to punch him. Right in the face. But I also thought I might pass out. The idea of Vienne in distress because her babe was too big and strapping to birth filled my limbs with panic.

  If Soren had killed his first wife by putting a too-large baby in her, then why the hell did no one seem concerned at all about the fact that he might be doing the very same thing to his second?

  I flashed my teeth at him and actually took a step in his direction, but a piercing pain lit through my mark and then to my stomach, sending me to my knees. My vision went black as the deluge of agony made me grunt and gnash my teeth.

  I reached out blindly, vertigo swamping me. My hand found the wall, keeping me barely upright and on my knees. But by God, it felt as if my brain was trying to rip itself out of my skull, right through my temple.

  “Urban?” Nicolette’s voice came from what sounded like far away but was probably only right beside me, because a second later, soft, worried fingers clutched my arm. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  I couldn’t answer, too trapped in the torture to comprehend speech. Clutching my head as waves spiked through me in unrelenting gusts, I could only hold on through the worst of it.

  “My God. Brentley, his skin’s ice cold, and he’s white as a ghost. Should we fetch a healer?”

  “Bjorn?” Brentley’s concerned voice filled my other ear. “Can you talk, mate? What’s going on?”

  I shook my head. “No,” I gasped. “No.” I looked at him, barely seeing his face through a thick fog. “I think… I think… She’s dying.”

  Brentley merely squinted. “What?” He shook his head. “Who? Who’s dying?” His eyes widened with alarm. “Allera?”

  “Oh my God, Brentley. Look.” Nicolette’s face filled with horror as she pointed at me. “His love mark. It’s fading.”

  “What?” Dread consumed me as I gaped at Nicolette, watching the horror on her face.

  Beside her, Brentley gasped as he gaped at my ma
rk before he stumbled a step backward away from me as if I were infected. “My God. What’s happening to you?”

  “It’s fading? It’s really fading?” I asked. “No! No…” I clawed at the mark, worried they were right. If my mark was fading, then Vienne was dying.

  And then, just like that, it was gone. The pain disappeared as if it’d never been there, and I shook my head as if trying to capture phantom traces of it.

  Through the doorway of the bedroom, the sound of a baby’s wail lit the hallway. But Vienne…Vienne was no longer screaming out her birthing pains. Any sense I’d ever felt from her was gone.

  Everyone exchanged startled glances, before Soren gave a proud smile.

  “Well there we go,” he announced, “I’ve a fourth to add to my brood,” only for Queen Yasmin to scream her sister’s name with a terror that turned my bones to jelly.

  My stomach dropped. “No,” I whispered, stumbling to my feet.

  It couldn’t be true.

  The door to her room burst open, and a wild-looking Allera appeared in the entrance, her hair ragged and tears streaming freely down her face. When she caught my eye, her entire frame wilted.

  “Urban,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

  “No,” I said a little more loudly this time, before I bellowed, “NO!”

  I surged into the room, streaking past my sister.

  “Urban!” Allera tried to grab my arm, but there was no stopping me. Not at a time like this. I brushed her off, lying, “I can still feel her. The mark’s not completely gone yet. There’s still a chance.”

  The truth was I felt nothing from my mark. Not any longer.

  But Allera looked to my left temple, and her eyes widened. With hope? I think so, because she grabbed with my arm, trying to pull me and shove me at the same time toward the bed. “You’re right. Hurry. Hurry! See what you can do.”

  I stumbled past her, only to lurch to a halt when I beheld the limp and pale, lifeless woman on the bed, smeared and splattered with blood.

  A few feet away, two women quietly cooed over the bundled infant, already getting it to quiet its wails.

  The queen had stopped screaming and stood on the other side of the bed, covering her mouth with her hands, a look of shock and horror contorting her features. And Vienne… Vienne looked as if she’s been drained of all life.

  Because she had.

  My one true love was dead.

  Chapter 15

  Urban

  At first, I couldn’t move. Couldn’t respond. I’d spent the last few weeks, obsessing over this woman, driving myself mad with thoughts of her, wanting to please her, and honor her, and learn more about her, and just live my life for nothing but her. But now… Now I stared down at the stranger she still was, numb with shock. There was nothing. All that hopeless longing, the blind devotion, the unbreakable bond I’d felt for her… It was gone.

  Maybe I should’ve felt free.

  Except I didn’t.

  I wanted it back. I wanted to feel as if I belonged to my mate—my one true love—once again. I wanted her in my blood, in my soul, in the very air I breathed.

  Besides… I glanced toward the crib where the newborn was squalling again, filling its lungs with fear as it demanded to be returned to its mother.

  Had I cried like that when I’d been born and my mother lay dead a few feet away? I’d never gotten to know the woman who’d borne me; Vienne would not want the same fate for her child.

  Soren shoved past me, bumping roughly against my arm so he could stumble to a halt next to Yasmin and peer down at his lifeless wife.

  “What..?” He shook his head, staring at Vienne’s body in confusion, before he glanced up, scowling. “What the hell have you mad bitches done to her?”

  The healers tending to the babe whirled and gaped at Soren, clearly fearing for their lives. “We…we tried to save her, sir. We swear. But the babe was so big—”

  “And it was turned wrong,” the other one chimed in.

  “We had to cut it out.”

  I gulped, feeling sick to my stomach. The blanket covering Vienne’s midsection was so soaked with blood I could tell they hadn’t bothered to stitch her back together again.

  “Oh God,” I croaked, finally stumbling toward her, one wobbling stiff-jointed step at a time.

  I needed to feel her presence inside me again, needed to feel bound to the other half of myself.

  “Hey!” Soren growled as I fell to my knees at her side. “What the hell do you think you’re—”

  “No!” Allera jumped in front of him, blocking his path. She clutched his arms and tried to reassure him. “It’s okay. Don’t worry. Urban may be able to save her. Just let him try. Please.”

  “What?” Soren transferred his scowl to Allera, only to blink and shake his head. “What the hell do you mean? Is he some kind of healer? She’s already gone. Does he possess some kind of magic, then?”

  “Magic?” the king boomed as he entered the room.

  I could practically hear Allera gulp as she looked my way, not ready to tell them the truth.

  “Do it now, Urban,” she urged. “There can’t be much time left.”

  “Wait! What the hell is he going to do to my sister?” Now, Yasmin was hurrying around to my side of the bed, ready to interfere.

  Allera let go of Soren so she could stop Yasmin.

  “No, just let him…”

  There was a scuffle after that, more people in the room, all of them arguing, yelling, shoving. None of them wanting me near my one true love.

  But I couldn’t focus on any of that. I was too busy staring into her pale, lifeless features. This was the first time I’d ever seen her without the effect of my mark telling me how stunning she was. She was so colorless with deep purple bruises under her eyes. Her face was slightly swollen from the birthing process, and beads of sweat had caused her honey blonde hair to mat itself to her cheek.

  Underneath all that, though, she really was an exquisite woman. She had a beauty from within that just seemed to shimmer out onto her features. Except the within-part of her was quickly fading.

  Panicked that I might not be able to recapture it, I trembled, my fingers shaking uncontrollably as I lifted them slowly to cup her face in my hands.

  Her flesh was already cold. I sucked in a worried breath.

  “Please,” I whispered. “Please come back to me.”

  I lowered my face and gently pressed my mouth to hers.

  At first, all I was doing was kissing a corpse, cold and lifeless. I shuddered and squeezed my eyes closed, pressing my mouth harder to hers. A tear slipping from the corner of my lashes.

  Why I wanted to recapture the torture of always craving her and never having her, I had no clue. But I did. I wanted it desperately. It had made me feel…complete. Fulfilled. Loving someone was better than feeling nothing and having no one. I could handle the miserable parts of it, I promised myself. I’d deal with all the downfalls if only she would return.

  Please, my soul begged hers from the pit of my being. Come back to me. I need you. Your baby needs you. We all need you.

  And just like that, I felt it. The tug, and then the warmth and glow of the bond. It sparked through me with a joy that had me sucking in a breath and pulling back.

  I saw her lips part as if breath was returning to her body. Color filled her cheeks and her lashes began to flutter before a hand roughly grasped my shoulder, jerking me away.

  “What the fuck?” Soren growled, tugging me in reverse until my back hit a wall. “How dare you touch my wife? You sick, perverted—”

  “Oh my God. OH MY GOD!” Yasmin chanted, cutting him off. “Soren! She’s alive. Oh my God, she’s alive!”

  “What?” He stopped pinning my throat to the wall with his forearm so he could spin around and face the bed.

  I was finally able to see past him where the healers had laid the babe down and were gathering around Vienne, tutting among themselves and pressing fingers against her cheeks as she
shook her head loosely, her eyes fluttering open.

  “My God,” Soren uttered, hurrying to her side. “Vienne? Vienne!”

  Seeing her try to speak and focus on the people hovering over her made a deep seizure of trembles overtake my limbs.

  She was alive. She was back.

  My legs gave out under me, and I sank to the floor, sitting there and watching everyone attend to my one true love.

  “Urban?” Allera appeared in front of me, kneeling before me and cupping my face in her hands.

  “You did it,” she whispered, tears shedding down her cheeks and a wide smile overtaking her lips. “That was fantastic. Oh my God, you actually did it!”

  For some reason, looking at her made me break. My trembling turned worse and my own tears thickened. When a deep sob took control of my chest, I shook my head.

  “Fuck,” I hissed.

  Why couldn’t I stop trembling? And why the hell was I crying? I’d brought her back. She was going to live. Everything was going to be okay.

  But we’d been so close to losing her forever. Too damn close.

  “No, it’s okay,” Allera reassured me. “It’s okay now. Don’t break, Brother. You did it. You brought her back.”

  I knew that. I knew I’d accomplished my goal. But I couldn’t seem to stop the attack I was having.

  I’d almost lost her. Holy shit, she’d been dead.

  “What the hell was that?” the king asked, suddenly looming above me so close he blocked the room’s light with his body.

  I looked up at him, still too dazed to answer. Vienne was going to live.

  “I need answers, Bjorn!” he boomed, the anger in his tone vibrating out his silhouette. “Do you possess some kind of magic? Are you another one of those goddamn wizards or soothsayers or whatnot?”

  “Caulder.” Brentley grasped his arm, tugging him back. “What the hell are you doing?”

  The king jerked his shoulder free of Brentley’s grip. “I’m getting answers.”

  “My God, Brother. He just brought Vienne back to life. Stop treating him like a villain.”