Chapter Seventeen - The Kindhearted King

Chapter Seventeen – The Kindhearted King

That night I barely got any sleep. Their thoughts of Jurah playing in my head the entire night. Different sinerios involving me and him budding each second. It was hard to tell what I was feeling. One part of me was sick of what I had let Jurah do to me. The other part was strangely growing more and more attraction for him. But why?! What was wrong with me?! I thought I liked Saeron. I thought I cared for him. Why was this new guy filling my head out of no where?!
I clawed at my sheets to brace myself against the wave of thoughts in my head. I turned around several times in my bed, but my emotions were far to mixed to fix at this point.
I got up the next morning tired and miserable. Everything in my life was going to ruins.
I asked Melony to bring my lunch to my room in hopes that I wouldn't have to see Jurah. I had to stay away from him. My only hope was that he didn't come to my room.
I jumped each time I heard a knock at the door. Every time it was a false alarm. Only Melony. No Jurah. Thank God.
Later that day I heard a knock at the door. This time it wasn't Melony.
“I just wanted to check up on you.” It was Annie. She came to sit next to me on the bed where I had been resting all day, staring outside hoping that maybe Saeron would come back. “How are you doing? I haven't seen you all day?”
“Oh, I'm fine I guess.” I stole a glance out the window.
“Are you sure?” Her voice was soft and somewhat concerned. Almost motherly.
“I don't know.” I sighed. I didn't want to talk about Jurah.
Annie looked at me for a moment with worry in her eyes, then turned away, looking off somewhere, thinking to herself.
“I saw you and Jurah talking by the pond the other day.” She started. I quickly looked at her expression then looked back to the window. Her face was one of a concerned mother. “I could tell he's taken a liking to you.”
“That doesn't mean I return the liking.” I said softly. “I care about Saeron.”
“Yes, I'm sure he knows that. But that won't stop him from trying to pursue you.” I caught a glimpse of her half smiling. “You don't exactly have a ring on your hand.”
“That's still no excuse.” I got a little louder. The was a long pause as we both stared out the window, trying to gather our thoughts.
“Please try to understand. Jurah's not bad. He's just lonely.” She stated. “There's only so many of us left and besides me there are no other female Jyot's Jurah's age.” She sighed. “I'm married to Zayn, Melony's married to Horus. Cromwell doesn't have a Jyot wife, but at least he has a family somewhere that he visits from time to time. Jurah's the only one left.”
“But I'm not Jyot.” I reminded her. “I don't see why Jurah would even like me.”
“To him it's not a matter of you being Jyot. It's a matter of finding someone who can stay here, who will be with him.”
“But I'm not that someone.” I hugged my knees tightly to my chest.
“Maybe he'll realize that with time.” She said before hopping off the bed. “For now I would just wait till Saeron can come back to fight for his girl.” I sighed. What if he didn't want me? What if he had decided he was better off without me? “Cheer up. I think you should get out of this stuffy room for a bit. Come with me. I wanna show you something!”
She lead me down the halls passed the dining room and down another large hall just before turning to two big doors.
Upon pushing open the door the room revealed it's contents: Hundreds upon thousands of books.
“Whoa.” The words dropped out of my mouth.
“We've gathered quite a few books from the many generations of our people, and from other lands. Go ahead, check em out!” She smiled full heartedly.
That day I spent most of my time looking through books. I went through each one with an idea in mind to find a book about the Silvani.
Finally, a small leather bound book revealed a little bit of information about Silvani. But none of it was information I didn't already know.
I grabbed for another book. This one was leather bound too, but it was bigger than most of the other books and it's cover carried with it a moon symbol. I opened it up and looked through it's pages. Inside I found the history of the Jyot people. A strange, yet remarkable discovery.
I looked through the pages and found a family tree. The branches extended everywhere and the people were many. The tree went on from page to page to page. Finally it got to the end. The last names were, of course, Jurah's, Annie's, Zayn's and all the rest currently in the kingdom, including Saeron, only his name was stated as Taj. Had Saeron been sent to my town with the name Taj? And all this time I had thought it was made up for him.
I flipped through more pages and pictures began to come up of the royal families. Considering there had only been a few royal families the pictures only went for a few pages. The last page interested me the most.
“Annie?” I called her from where she rested on a love seat.
“Yeah?” She made her way to where I held the picture of a royal family in my hand. She looked closely at the family. At the king, his queen, and their two children.
“This boy.” I pointed to the little boy in the picture. “He looks like Saeron when he was younger.” Suddenly the book was ripped from my hands.
“I know.” Annie looked at the picture. “That's because it is him.” She let her hand rest on the little girl. “That girl is me.” I gasped in shock.
“Your Saeron's sister then.” I was put a hand over my mouth. Why hadn't she said anything? She had known all this time and she didn't even tell Saeron. “Why didn't you tell him.”
“Shh, you can't tell him either.” She said quietly. “Jurah told us not to say anything to him; me and Zayn that is. The others don't know. Jurah doesn't want Saeron to know he's the rightful heir to the thrown.”
“That's terribly greedy.”
“I know. He also feels like since his uncle, the former king, was a terrible ruler that Saeron will rule just as he did.”
“Wow, and Jurah's his cousin too.” I rubbed my head. “This is crazy.”
“Please, don't say anything.” Annie pleaded. “Jurah's threatened bother me and Zayn if we tell. We could lose our lives.”
“Why don't you fight back?” I replied. It sounded logical. “There's two of you.”
“Jurah's too strong. He could take anyone of us out if he wanted to. Especially me. That's why you have to promise not to tell.”
“Okay okay. I promise.”
“Good.” She sighed with relief then smiled. “I really do care about Jurah you know. I think he's just scared is all. Don't think ill of him because of what I told you. He really does have a kind heart. He's just a little cold to my late father. Eisner Forge wasn't exactly the kindest father figure to him.”
“What do you mean father figure?”
“Jurah's parent's died when he was younger and Eisner unwillingly took on the burden of raising another son.And when Taj disappeared Eisner made sure to put Jurah in his place to make sure he would never take his crown away from him. As bad as it sounds Eisner would have killed to keep his crown. That's why my mother, knowing Taj would surely die if he grew old enough to become king, took Taj far away to your land. Now I'm afraid that Jurah is suffering from the same greed my father once suffered from.”
“That's terrible.” I rested a hand on Annie. “I hope this all works out. I'd hate to see another war break out among your people. That's the last thing you guys need.”
“It'll all turn out.” She smiled. “Like I said. Jurah is kind deep down. He'll go the right way.”
I was heading back to my room and the day was drawing near to end. The sun was just setting in the sky and the halls were beginning to grow dimmer. I walked with a happier note in my step. Hanging out in the library with Annie had made me feel a little better about myself.
I stopped walking at the sight of a familiar figure.
“Haven't seen you all day.” Jurah's voice carried with him as he walked into the light of the window I had stopped at. “You would happen to be avoiding me would you?” He circled me. His eyes cat-like, grinning mischieviously.
I kept quiet, and looked down at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact. He pulled my face up to looked up at his. He smiled warmly and I forgot all my worries. His gold eyes calming and soft. I felt him caress my chin and neck as he talked to me.
“It's okay beautiful,” His eyes taunted me. They just begged me to fall into his arms and be with him. His touch was another thing altogether. I began to fight the urges more and more as he caressed my neck, and then shoulder. “I have been looking forward to when I'd see you though. I've been so busy though. I hope you don't mind.”
“Not at all.” I tried to hold back the smile, but it forced it's way out.
“Good.” He took my by the hand and began leading me down the hall. “It's just about time for dinner. I'll escort you there.”
During dinner I kept thinking about what Annie had said. Jurah was truly kind, even if he didn't always show it. I began to notice how kind he was at the dinner table with Melony, Annie, and Horus. It appeared to me that Annie was right. Perhaps Jurah was only scared of losing his crown. He had come a long ways to get it. Did he really think Saeron would take the crown away from him? Would Saeron even want the crown?
“More green beans?” Jurah asked me nicely.
“No thanks.” I smiled.
After dinner, Jurah followed me to my room and we talked normally for a few minutes.
“I like to hunt large game from time to time, but its not really a hobby of mine.” He responded to the comment I had made about the animal heads in the dinner. I was trying to make the best of him being in the room with me. I had to admit, I was a little nervous he would try something. But he kept to himself and it made me feel a little at ease. At least until he asked me a certain question.
“Would you marry me?” His voice echoed throughout my room. My heart started pounding loudly in my chest. Had he just...had he... “You'd be queen. You'd like that wouldn't you?” He was genuinely asking me to marry him and be his queen. Right on the spot! We hardly knew each other!!
“But,” I could see the look of rejection coming across his face. “We barely know each other.”
“But I care about you. I want to be with you for the rest of my life.” He protested. My heart began beating louder and my breathing became uneven. His next word nearly made me faint. “I love you, Dante.”“Jurah, you don't love me. You barely know me.” I stated truthfully. How could he even say that?!
“I know I do. I'll prove it to you.” He brought a hand to my face and brushed his fingers against my cheek. “You'll see.”
I stared back at him, into his beautifully manipulative eyes. For a second I actually did believe what he was saying was true.
He turned and walked out the door, and I let out a sigh of relief.
Later that night I stood in my closet trying to find a suitable outfit to wear to bed. I looked through my options. Pajama shirts with pants and a gowns. I hadn't worn a gown in a while.
I picked out a soft satiny light blue and slipped it on. Then I brushed my teeth and got into bed.
I lay there for a while, recapping my whole day and staring outside at the bright moon.
I heard the faint noise of a door sliding open, but was to tired to check what it was. Perhaps a Zayn's iguana had found it's way in or Melony was checking to see if I was asleep as she did sometimes.
“Theres a storm coming tonight.” A seductive voice came from the other corner of the room. “I'd hate for you to be alone.”
I was nearly asleep when I felt someone slip into my bed. I was so sleepy, but I was awake enough to want to find out who it was.
A hand reached up and caressed my neck giving me a good clue of who the intruder was.
“Mind if I sleep with you tonight beautiful?” Jurah spoke softly in my ear.
I didn't know what to say. He had asked so nicely, confusing my original thoughts on what I would say to him. Now I just kept quiet.
I looked up and nodded. What was I thinking? Was I just being nice? No! What was I doing? This was all screaming “I'm your's, take me.” Arg!
He positioned himself to where he was resting mostly on top of me, only allowing a little room for me to breathe. I tried to turn away, so that I didn't have to look at his soft manipulative eyes, but his weight kept me pinned down. I was lucky it was dark. His eyes were only shadows, even with the faint moon light coming from outside.
He continued to caress me. His hand going from my neck to my hair. And though it felt good I continued to tell myself it was wrong and scold myself for even getting into this predicament.
Then he got up, hovering over me. I could see the glint in his eyes despite the lighting. I could tell he wasn't looking to just caress me the entire night