Her Merciless Prince

by Daniella Wright

  It is blue. With a few clouds dancing lazily around it. A beautiful ball in space, welcoming to all. It is exactly as I knew it would be.

  I glance sideways. My parents are still here. The villagers we brought with us are still all here.

  “Are we safe?” I ask Starz.

  He waits a few beats. He’s looking at the planet too. At its fresh beauty.

  “You are an anchor, Sybil. And you should be able to keep them all here, safe. But we won’t know until time resets. Until we reach the point in time again where that time trap was set. After we’ve done that, we’ll see. But until then, you have three years to enjoy yourself. I suggest you make the most of it.”

  He walks away, but says before leaving the room, “Time is a strange commodity. We never seem to have enough of it, and yet we rarely know what to do with it.” His eyes meet mine.

  “I trust that you, Sybil, will know how to make the most of it.”

  Space isn’t that interesting once you’re off planet. It’s vast, and empty.

  It’s Eron’s home that I’m eager to see, and we should reach that today.

  I’m excited to see it, but I still linger in bed, my head leaning against Eron. Part of me still doesn’t believe that I’m in space, that I’ve left my people behind, that everything I’ve known is gone. But, not everything.

  My parents are still here, some of the villagers are still here, familiar faces in the sea of strangers. And Eron. Eron has always been there. Everything feels so real to me, in a way that the old world never felt. I feel so anchored to everything around me. So loved.

  But Starz has made it clear that time offers no assurances. And we may yet vanish. We’ve barely seen Starz. He’s in constant consultation with his Time Agent partner.

  I suppose that time doesn’t even wait for Time Agents.

  There isn’t much time left. But there is still enough to create new memories. I lean down and kiss Eron’s lips. He wakes up, and kisses me back, pulling breath into his lungs. His arms come around me, and hold me tightly.

  I don’t know what will happen when we meet the time point again, but I do know what will happen in the next few moments. And I intend to enjoy every minute of it.

  Chapter 23

  Eron

  I can’t remember a time when home felt so much like home, yet so foreign. Everything was the same as before I left after my parents’ death, except Sybil was here, and her parents. The villagers were already scattering within my werewolf planet.

  But my parents were still here… or should be. I walk up to the palace, Sybil beside me. Her parents trailing behind. It looks exactly the same as when I left it.

  None of the flags are at half-mast. All of the shutters of the castle windows are open. They would be closed, were there no king or queen on the throne now.

  The guards simply nod at me when I enter. Nobody runs to me to ask where I’ve gone, where I’ve been, why I wasn’t sitting on the throne yet. It’s exactly as I’d left it.

  Miama is walking in the corridor, chattering to some servants. No grief streaks her face.

  “I have to see if my parents are there,” I tell Sybil.

  “We’ll wait for you,” she says.

  I look into her eyes. The same blue eyes that I first saw in my dreams… I still can’t believe that she’s actually here. Now, being home, it was even stranger. At least on her planet, it felt like an extended figment from a dream. A place I’d never seen before, with multi-colored lightning. A planet ripped out of time by a trap where I hunted down my parents’ bones, centuries dead, though it had barely been weeks.

  It had all seemed like some type of strange dream sequence. A nightmare that I couldn’t break out of… But now… now here she was. But I was home. The familiar sights and sounds dancing all around me. The lilacs on the trees, howling in the distance. The nearby spaceport’s ships passing by. The flags furling and unfurling in the soft breeze. The bees dancing from flower to flower.

  It’s home. It’s home more so than ever, now that she’s here.

  “I’ll be back,” I say. And I head into the castle, down the large corridor that leads straight to the throne room, for no wolf king or queen need fear their fellow wolves. Or shouldn’t. They could take care of themselves. Unless it was a time trap, of course. In space.

  I try not to think about my parents’ deaths. About their bodies. I try not to think about their final moments, and what they must have thought, the second that they knew they were doomed, and embraced each other as they fell to their death, or slowly asphyxiated in the failing life pod.

  I don’t know the details, nor do I want to. Their bones vanished the moment that the timeline reset.

  I cross the threshold into the throne room. A few individuals linger in the room, speaking to the king and queen. But the king and queen sit upon their ornate moonstone thrones. The blood moon unites both thrones, in a chiseled marvel, celebrated by artist-scholars across the world.

  My mother sees me enter, and she smiles at me. My father winks. They focus back on the supplicant before them. The individual needing their help— and that person would get it. Because that’s how my parents are.

  I look at them, being who they are and what they are. Being a king is less frightening, now that I see my father doing it. Now that I observe how he is still himself. He is just more himself than when he’s simply with us. I could do that too, someday.

  But not today.

  The week passes by as though in a dream, possibly because the girl from my dreams is now walking the streets with me. We travel to the nearby royal docks. Starz’s ship is still there. The Time Agents have not left. Why would they? They were there the day that my parents died. They were there the day that I snuck on board to reset the timeline and save my parents. Something that I’d accomplished, perhaps at a cost I wasn’t willing to pay.

  Starz stands outside his ship, as though he knew we were coming— and maybe he did. Maybe this is all a repetition for him.

  “Good morning, Prince Eron,” he nods to me, turns to Sybil. “Sybil.”

  “Good morning, Starz.”

  “I take it you’ve been enjoying your time on this planet?” he asks and looks at Sybil. She blushes slightly.

  “I have been. No matter what happens tomorrow, thank you for this time.”

  “Of course,” Starz says. He seems to hesitate but continues after a beat. “It’s not time that you need to thank me for. It’s time that was given to you for reasons which are unclear. You were time-locked. And now you are time-lost, Sybil. I’m afraid I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.

  I look at Starz. I have so many questions I want to ask him. Tomorrow is the day my parents die. They’re here now. What if I stop them from going? It wouldn’t work, they had a diplomatic mission to accomplish. They would never listen to me.

  Starz had been clear about the fact that we couldn’t mention anything about the different timelines. It would only confuse people unnecessarily. It might also end up triggering the events that led us here, to this moment. We could get stuck in a time loop unless we let time unfurl the way they were meant to. Without a time trap.

  “So, you were here?” I ask Starz, intending to break free of my own dark thoughts, “Because you brought us back from the other planet originally?”

  I’m not quite sure that question makes sense, so I end with a raised eyebrow.

  Starz laughs. “I’m not sure Prince Eron. Even Time Agents have to keep some secrets. Many of them. Time is a wily thing. But, probably, on some level. We were here beforehand, because we brought you back, or because we needed to be here to stop the time trap. It’s why we’re here. But, tomorrow, we leave, and hopefully this time, we leave without you.” He speaks the last words kindly.

  “Thank you for everything, Starz.” We shake hands.

  I hope it’s the last I see of him. Although I’ll miss his friendship, I would miss this life more.

  Being outside of the time trap is a strange thing. Th
ere’s no double of me on this planet, although I thought there might be. One of me from the original timeline, and another me from now, who’d gone to the destroyed earth and come back. But no, there was just me, unable to speak about what I’d seen. Unable to speak about where Sybil actually came from.

  An earth girl… my parents had been happy when I’d introduced her to them. She’s pretty, polite, funny. There was really no reason that she would displease them. She wasn’t our kind, no. But our blood was strong enough to mate with humans.

  Tomorrow morning, my parents would be gone. They’ll leave for their diplomatic mission. Depending on what happens, I might lose Sybil again. She might only become part of my dreams once more.

  “Come with me,” I say, and take her hand. She follows me, her beautiful silk gown trailing behind her as she laughs. I take her up to the tallest castle tower.

  “We don’t have lightning waterfalls here,” I grin to her, “but we do have this.”

  We climb the stairs to the top. The tower is covered, but around its circular edges are tall windows with carved stone fences reaching up to about my chest. The view from here is unlike any other. You can see 360 degrees around. From Hunter’s Lake to the west, all the way to the Whispering Mountains in the south. The sun is setting, and our sky is turning a dark pink.

  Sybil walks around slowly, admiring the view, and I look at her, admiring the view also. I see the land, and her standing before it, and it’s as though the two are meant to be together. Wild, seeming a bit out of place. Too magical and beautiful to be held in one time. With endless possibilities. Endless futures. Bearing all the hopes of the people.

  I can’t imagine a land without her. I can’t imagine my life without her.

  “If I need to,” I whisper to her, and she turns to face me. “I will climb aboard that ship again, and again, and again… until we find a way to break free of this. If a time loop is what we need for me to enjoy a few weeks over and over again in your company, then that is what I will do.”

  She smiles, but her smile is sad. “I don’t want you to be trapped like that for me, Eron.” She shakes her head. “Promise me that you’ll live your life to the end of its natural days.”

  I look up to where the blood moon is rising perfectly over us. The roof above us is also carved in stone, with a circular opening where the moon can be seen in the center at the right time, as though the castle held up the moon, or the moon held the castle. I hold out my hand, and she joins me in the center and looks up.

  “I’ll promise you no such thing,” I say, “But I promise you that I will capture every moment that I can.”

  She leans her head against me, and I kiss the top of her head. She smells of jasmine and hope. I don’t intend to ever lose her again.

  But I might.

  I might, and that’s a reality that I can’t ignore. I want to. I want to live in this moment forever. Let all of the time traps go off now, and that we just embrace under the blood moon, until time vanishes, and we are left here, alone, with only the echoes of our love surrounding us.

  But all I have is this moment, and maybe only this one time.

  “Sybil,” I whisper. She turns to me. I take her hands in mine. “I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I know that I want to spend every moment I can with you. Regardless of whether you vanish and I can never find you again. We only mate once, for life. And my heart will always be yours. Will you be my life mate, Sybil?”

  Her eyes mist up. At first, I fear that they’re tears of sadness. Sadness for what might never be, for what she would have to turn down. But then a smile turns her lips, and a single tear runs down her face.

  “Of course I will. Yes! Will all of my heart, in all of time and space, in dreams and in reality, Eron. Yes!”

  She stands on her tiptoes and kisses me deeply. We hold hands, and watch the twilight fall upon the land, until it turns to night. And still, we sit there silently, holding each other and watching the stars.

  In the morning, my parents leave for their diplomatic mission.

  And I pray that the turquoise lightning never finds them again.

  Chapter 24

  Sybil

  Watching the king and queen walk to their ship feels a bit like watching a funeral march. Starz salutes them from the front of this ship. They nod to him and continue walking, hand in hand, up the long path.

  I’m here with Eron, waiting. Waiting to say goodbye to them before their journey. Maybe goodbye to everything, for me.

  Eron stands beside me, resolve clear in his proud bearing. Resolve to what, though? Saying goodbye? Pursuing me through time? To becoming king should they not return and giving up the hope of living with me?

  “Eron,” his mother says as she reaches us. Eron hugs her, and she kisses his forehead.

  His father clasps his upper arm. “You didn’t have to come to see us off, son,” he says. They’re dressed in travel wear, not the beautiful garb they died in, ready to land for a diplomatic mission. I see them dressed as they were, regal, proud, focused.

  At first, when I looked at them, the sight of their decayed corpses haunted me. But no longer. In the few weeks since my arrival, I’d shared meals and laughter with them. They are very much alive, and I never want to see them any other way.

  I take Eron’s hand in mine, and he squeezes it. A smile tugs at my lips. Our connection only grows deeper. I know that he shares the same worries I do, and I want to take both of our fears away and cast them up toward his blood moon.

  “Sybil,” his mother says, focusing on me. She kisses my forehead gently, then looks me in the eye. “We are happy to welcome you and your own to our pack. Eron has chosen well, as we always knew he would.”

  I’m certain that I’m bright red. That blood moon’s got nothing on me.

  “How did you know?” I sputter. I mean, we share a room, so I assume that they know we’re involved. But Eron just asked me last night to join his pack. We haven’t exactly made it public.

  Not yet. It’s our secret. It’s our personal link and hope to hold on to until the end.

  However, or whenever, that end may come.

  Eron’s eyes are as wide as I’m sure mine are. His dad looks from his wife to me, his eyebrows about halfway up his forehead.

  “A mother always knows,” the queen says, and winks at me. She gathers Eron and me in her arms and hugs us. “We’ll celebrate when we return.”

  “Yes, we indeed shall!” his father exclaims and joins the hug. I’m held by all of them, feeling safe and warm. Loved. By a family not of blood, or even the same species, but still my family.

  By the people I’m getting to know and love. By those who are willing to open up their arms and hearts to welcome me among their kind.

  We break the embrace, and they board the ship, seeming genuinely pleased by our engagement. Eron wraps his arm around my shoulders as he watches the hatch close, and his parents vanish from our view.

  Possibly forever.

  I wanted to celebrate the engagement with them. But I wasn’t even sure I’d still be here. Or that the time trap wouldn’t catch them and kill them again. Not that Eron wouldn’t go after them, and me, all over again.

  And we’d meet, over and over again, until the last star in the sky perished.

  I don’t want that. I want to stay here forever. To be with Eron, and grow old with him. To bear his children, and to share dreams. To discover his home and his people. To get to know his parents better, and support them in their own pursuits, regal or personal.

  I had a home, here. It was more of a home than I’d ever had, even back on earth.

  Eron gathers me in his arms as the ship pushes away from the dock, the sleek exterior shining gold in the sun and one moon. For a moment, it’s too bright to look at, reflecting that light back onto the world.

  They would never know how dark that world had become once they’d departed.

  I hold Eron back, and close my eyes, letting my senses take in all of him. His hea
t, his wild scent, the sound of his heart. And the planet behind him, teeming with life. Dockhands trading jokes and laughing, ships arriving, birds chirping the day away... I didn’t want to lose any of it.

  I would miss more than Eron, I realize.

  I would miss this entire world.

  My home.

  The ship vanishes up ahead and we walk back to the place in silence, holding hands.

  “Prince Eron,” a guard steps up. “The Ambassador of the Ruthol planet wonders if you could join him for tea?”

  Eron grimaces, and I laugh. He gives the guard an apologetic look.

  “Of course,” he says. “If you’ll tell them that I’ll head over shortly?”

  “Your Highness,” the guard says, bowing before taking off.

  “What’s that about?” I ask. The affairs of the court are still fascinating to me. I’m not a politician, and some of the connections were as intricate as cellular myosis.

  “Dad warned me about this. They’re a new alliance and want to discuss a favorable trade treaty. Dad already had to bump him twice for urgent matters. They did not appreciate that.” He gives me a quick grin. I love those lips. I never want to part with them again. “He asked me to make sure I pay some attention to them.”

  He looks apologetic. He wants to spend every moment with me, as I do him. I kiss him gently.

  “The world will continue,” I insist, holding him. “We have to continue as though it will.”

  He looks into my eyes, grief lining his already. He

  “By tomorrow morning, everyone I love might be gone,” his voice is a whisper.

  I don’t know what to say. It’s true. I’ll just vanish or have never been. He might wake up alone, to the news of his parents’ death.

  I have so many questions and so few answers.

  I kiss him again, this time lingering in the moment longer. I want to protect him from the pain that he might have to face, just as much as he wants to protect me from vanishing. From being ripped out of the timeline.