Once Upon A [Stolen] Time (Stolen Series Book 1)

by Ahsan, Samreen

  In my month of training, I had gained the trust of my father, who had now started considering me his own son. He never brought up Veronica. He’d never loved his daughter—shedding a tear was out of the question.

  After dinner, I was summoned to his room for a meeting. A message was passed to me when I was in the stables grooming Ulysses that King Stefan wanted to see me. The castle had already retired. He had never invited me into his chamber before. I had not seen the royal wing in my own castle, which was only meant for reigning kings. I knew where it was, but no one except the servants was allowed to go there. It was our forbidden zone.

  I reached his door and knocked on it. The sound echoed in the empty wainscoted red and maroon corridor.

  “Come in, son.” I heard Stefan’s voice. He had started calling me his son now. This was the title I gained in exchange for Veronica’s murder.

  I opened the door and stepped into the majestic room. The entire room smelled of cigar smoke and alcohol. It was a dark room, walls made of deep brown wood, accented with black candle sconces. His room had large windows all around with almost fifty candle sconces, along with the tiered chandelier that was burning a hundred candles at one time. Still—the room was decorated in darkness that had been buried in the walls for centuries.

  At the center, there was a huge four-poster bed made of ebony that stole all attention. Black velvet drapes surrounded the bed—the air in the room screamed of cursed souls screeching down from claustrophobic walls. I wondered how many kings and queens had slept there. Had my mother ever slept here? I never knew what she looked like, but I’d heard from our servants that Veronica looked like her. Was that the reason Stefan disposed of her, because she reminded him of his deceased wife?

  The aura of the room brought to mind a large grave with windows, candles and royal furniture, but it was still a grave. I understood why he was the way he was. The room had made him dark.

  He was staring out the window, smoking his cigar. The look on his face was of a man lost in thought—he had something on his mind that transformed into smoke in the air.

  “Close the door behind you,” he said, while tapping the cigar on a crystal ashtray sitting on the windowsill.

  I obeyed his command and closed the door.

  “Sit.” He directed me toward the deep red velvet armchairs framed in ebony. He took a few minutes to finish his cigar, still gazing outside. The room opened to the north of the courtyard where the main entrance was.

  For the first time, in this quiet, I observed my father. He had withered with time. He was fifty-nine now and his beard had turned completely white. His dark brown eyes were still locked on the view, watching something in the dark. No matter how hard I tried, I would never fathom his thoughts. He could think of so many things that would render me helpless. I was still his puppet, who could be manipulated in any way he liked.

  He turned around and looked deeply in my eyes, as if he still had the power to read my soul. Ha! How lucky I was that now he would not be able to read anything. I was damn sure he would not be able to read a stone.

  He walked with royal grace to the armchair opposite me. No matter how much I despised him, I still admired the fact that his very aura oozed magnificence. Anyone could guess he was a king just by looking at him—the way he talked, the way he walked, everything about him was regal. His expectations from me were justified—any father in his shoes would want his son to take his place, and that was only possible if the son had the capability of carrying on the family’s legacy—even if it meant being cruel or a dictator.

  “Fancy a drink?” He filled his crystal goblet with amber liquid he imported from France. He was a cognac lover, and loved indulging himself in it. He’d never invited me into his chamber for a drink. I knew there was something important he wanted to talk about in private.

  Something worthy of a drink with his son.

  I nodded, appreciating the honor.

  He filled my goblet and placed it in front of me.

  “You must be wondering why I called you here at the end of the day.” He sat with haughty poise, cigar still sticking out of his lips.

  I watched him with keen interest. Surely it must be something important, but I didn’t want to ask.

  “I’m getting old now.” He rubbed his beard with his left hand. “And I don’t know how long I will live.” I didn’t know what to say. Should I show him sympathy? Or comfort him by wishing him a long life? I wanted him to die soon—not because I was looking for a throne, but because I wanted to end this pain.

  “There are things you should know about your family before it’s too late…” He tapped his cigar and took a sip from his goblet. “The legends that have been passed down from generation to generation. Since all your emotional strings have been detached now, it’s time for you to embrace the truth.”

  Hearing about my deceased sister and her innocent child as emotional strings twisted something deep inside me. The bastard still had the power to affect me. I remained quiet—keeping my temper at bay.

  He stood up, goblet in his hand, and walked about the room. I watched him, waiting for his acrid words.

  “Just over two centuries ago, there was a beautiful woman named Jasmine who came to England. She was not only beautiful, but was very kind-hearted. She heard that King Audrey VII was dying from a skin disease.” He kept his moves slow and steady. “Where everyone in Audrey’s kingdom abandoned him and avoided him, fearing they’d get the disease too, Jasmine was the one who came into his life like a miracle.” I was listening to him patiently. “She cured his skin disease. He had no heir, so out of gratitude he gave her his throne before dying. Over time, she healed others. People welcomed her as their new queen and savior. They rejoiced under her reign. She gave them hope, life and color.” He looked at me for a moment, but he kept walking. “Her palace was filled with colors. She was fond of everything tied to nature. Flowers, trees, plants, herbs—rainbows, sunshine, rain…anything and everything that was part of nature. She owned a beautiful garden with every possible flower and tree anyone could grow.”

  I sucked in my breath. Why did I have a feeling that he was talking about the garden I saw in my dreams?

  “Then two brothers, David and Andrew, arrived.” The air darkened as he spoke their names. “They were lost in the woods when they met Queen Jasmine. Being kind-hearted, she invited the strangers to her palace.”

  My curiosity was piqued. But what did this have to do with our family’s secret?

  “Jasmine needed help in running her kingdom, so she asked both the brothers to help her. David was assigned to help people around the kingdom, whereas Andrew was assigned as the head of all the knights. Andrew was apparently the bravest and fiercest knight of all.

  “They both accepted their roles contentedly, without any hint of resentment between them. They loved, supported and backed each other—until the day Jasmine chose one of them over the other.”

  He coughed, but still took a deep puff from his cigar. My gaze was riveted on him as I listened to the tale of my ancestors.

  “David was as kind-hearted as Jasmine, and as time went on, something sparked between them. They both fell in love.” He paused and looked at me.

  “Although David and Andrew were twins, Jasmine fell for David. She did not know that Andrew had been the first one to fall in love with her. His passion for her chafed him, rather than making him happy to see her have what she wanted. He tried to earn her heart, but she’d already given it to David. The brothers ended up fighting over her, and Andrew was forced to leave England. David and Jasmine married and lived happily for a couple of years.”

  Stefan had finished his drink. He came back to his seat, sat across from me and refilled his goblet with amber liquid.

  “She gave birth to five sons and one daughter, but when David looked at his babies, he realized he hadn’t married a human.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What does that mean?”

  “She was a witch,” he replied quickly.
“David was deceived by Jasmine’s sublime beauty and never realized what she was, until she gave birth to Satan’s babies.” I held my breath. Was that the same witch I saw in the mirror the day V died?

  “Do we have a painting of her?” I asked out of curiosity.

  “The legends say she was so beautiful that no artist was capable of capturing her beauty.” He tapped his cigar. If he were talking about the same woman—I’d agree. I was mesmerized and entrapped, just as my ancestor had been. “No wonder both Hue brothers turned brutish to gain her love.” He crossed his legs and continued the story. “Afraid of his own children, he decided to leave his wife and reconcile with his brother Andrew. David sent Andrew a letter, asking him to come back to England, but when Andrew arrived, the witch had already killed David.”

  “You mean she killed the father of her own babies?”

  “Not just ordinary babies, son. They were black hideous beasts.” I stopped breathing as he mentioned the beasts. Were we all her blood?

  “But the daughter she gave birth to, David adored her because she was completely human, according to the villagers. When Andrew arrived, the villagers told Andrew how she burned her own husband, tied him to the tree on the west side of the tower.” I straightened my back when he spoke of the tree. It sounded like my dream…my back pushed up against the tree trunk, and her holding my sword. It wasn’t me in the dream. I’d been seeing the past all along. People said I looked exactly like David, so perhaps it was David in the dream and not me. But why did it feel so close to my heart? Why did I feel the desire burning in me, when it was David who longed for his wife?

  “David truly loved Jasmine, no matter how deceptive her beauty was. He couldn’t fathom the fact that she gave birth to Satan’s children and was involved in adultery.” He rubbed his cigar into the ashtray and lit another one.

  “When Andrew attended his brother’s funeral and looked at his brother’s widow, all his memories of his love for her came back in a flash. Despite the fact that she had already killed one man, he proposed to her.”

  “He proposed to the witch who had killed his brother?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yes. Not only did Andrew accept her beastly children from Satan, but he also accepted the human girl his brother adored.”

  Could anyone really do that?

  “Jasmine still refused Andrew’s proposal. Defeated and enraged by her rejection, he spread rumors across the kingdom that she’d borne Satan’s babies from her womb. He also said that he was the only descendant of King Audrey’s bloodline—claiming to be his cousin. He told people that Jasmine had hexed King Audrey in order to win the throne. The innocent people believed him. They rebelled against Queen Jasmine and deposed her. The priest of the village decided to burn the babies against that tree, since they didn’t want Satan to continue his legacy in their land. Andrew threw Jasmine out of her palace, stole her throne and power, and married a French duchess. Everyone in the kingdom supported him.” He paused. "This is how he became the king."

  I really didn’t like hearing all this shit. He was my direct ancestor, and he had betrayed the woman he loved.

  The tree held so many souls—no wonder we were cursed.

  “Devastated by the king’s atrocity, Jasmine cast a spell on the palace.” He chuckled. “Guess what—she was truly a witch.” I guess he deserved it. I listened to Stefan quietly, not interrupting his story. “This place was actually built by Jasmine, and since she filled it with colors, she named it Hue Palace. Coincidentally, the men that came into her life had the family name of Hue.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Later on, King Andrew made some structural changes, building the outer defenses, and made it into a castle.” The room began to feel claustrophobic, as I realized the Hues’ reign was built on betrayal and treachery.

  “Under Jasmine’s curse, Hue Castle darkened so that no plants or animals could grow there, the sun would never shine on it, and no one would ever see their faces in the mirror.”

  I swallowed my drink, trying to absorb all these facts. Because of King Andrew’s betrayal, we were still suffering from Jasmine’s hatred.

  “The witch also cursed the Hue bloodline, so that only the firstborn would live a healthy life. The second child would bring a further jinx to the family.” The world around me spun. I didn’t want to think about what he was trying to tell me. “Andrew had two sons, and his beloved wife died as soon as she bore the second child. He was grieving for his wife when the witch came back to him, saying it was the curse that killed his wife. She was not supposed to bear another child.” He took a deep breath. “So after that, Andrew swore never to love a woman, because it was not worth the risk of falling for a witch.”

  “Not every woman is a witch,” I commented.

  “Yes, but all women know how to spin a web of wickedness. The more you fall for them, the more they will trap you in their invisible spinning wheel.” He dabbed his cigar on the ashtray and took a sip of his drink. “A beautiful woman is a disease that paralyzes your mind.” He looked at me. “So you see, generation after generation, we followed his legacy by locking our hearts against the women who would try to spin that web.”

  “So you never fell for Mother?”

  “She gave birth to two children and died because of that jinx, son.”

  “You’re trying to say—”

  “Exactly what you thought. Veronica brought more curses to this family. Moreover, she married an outsider and bore another child. I’m glad you removed them from your life. I know she was your sister, but I saw she paralyzed your mind regardless.”

  I ignored his stabbing at me with his words. “How can we end the curse, then?” I was curious to know.

  He stood up and started walking again in his huge room. “There is no end, Edward. If we got lucky and encountered Jasmine one day, we might convince her to end it. Otherwise we just live here, marry a woman to continue our name, and never father a second child, for our own survival.”

  “Our name? Wasn’t our name something we stole from Jasmine?” My voice was layered with sarcasm. He didn’t bother answering me. The bitter truth of our family was no longer a secret. I hated my origins now.

  “And not only was the natural world forbidden to us, but also love. We are not allowed to fall in love. Love is as hazardous to us as any poison in this world. And it’s not just the love of your life—it could be love in any form.” He pointed at me. “You loved your sister. Now you know what happens. So that heart always needs to be in a cage, son.”

  His words did make sense. I had a soft corner of my heart for my sister and her child, and I could see what fate brought to all of us because of it. My love for them stole Veronica’s life and Emma’s only hope.

  “So David and Andrew never belonged to the royal bloodline, but stole the throne from a woman?” I changed the subject.

  “Not just a woman—she was Satan in disguise. She ran a cult that was responsible for doing things that should not have been possible,” Stefan argued.

  “What kind of things?”

  He stopped walking and gazed outside the window at the barren ground. “Taking the colors from this lavish garden.”

  “Didn’t the garden originally belong to her?” I asked him without hesitation. I didn’t know why I was defending her actions, but I truly felt sorry for what Andrew and David had done to Jasmine. We were all suffering due to their actions. “She only took back what was hers.”

  He didn’t comment on that. “She took our lives and happiness too. The reason I never allowed you to stay long outside the castle was because confinement to this cursed castle is our lifeline. If we decided to leave the grounds—we wouldn’t survive.”

  “You mean if we slept outside the castle overnight?”

  “No, son. It means wandering outside the castle. The more time one of us spends outside these walls, the more his heart would mellow.” He was still looking outside, perhaps gazing at the stars. “Like a cold freezing wind withers a flower—love is also a c
urse on us that would wither our existence.” He blew another puff. “Veronica risked all our lives to fulfill her desire.” I held the goblet tightly—waiting to see where this conversation was heading. “The reason I killed that baker was that I knew she would leave this castle one day. And in order to keep her inside this castle, I had to cut her ties to the outside.” He blew another puff. “Plus, she fell in love without my consent.”

  I watched him for a moment. “Love doesn’t need consent or someone’s approval. It is as inevitable as life and death.”

  My comment broke his gaze toward the star-filled sky. He tried to read my face for a few moments, and then turned back to watch the sky and continued smoking.

  “Love is a necessary evil that traps you in illusory gossamer.” He blew another puff of smoke from his mouth. “Love is a camouflage of beauty. You feel free in love, but in truth, you’re trapped.” His words hit me hard and again rendered me speechless, but I was still curious about Jasmine.

  There was so much he had revealed today that I had never known. He’d confided more in me than he ever had before.

  I didn’t know if I was supposed to believe his story. The room nestled in deep silence after he finished talking. If what he said was true, that meant we could never get away from this curse. We could never see ourselves in the mirror and would never enjoy nature or touch it. If we fell in love—it would lead us to death.