Chapter 12

  I stared at the door for a long time before finally making my way over to the bed. I was so confused. What had just happened? I moved my gaze down to my arm where my tattoo was, visible even in the darkness. I wanted to rip it out of my skin. I squeezed my eyes shut. Everyone always acted like something was wrong, but they never told me what was actually wrong. Everyone always left me in the dark. And Rayne of all people. I expected him to have at least explained. I opened my eyes and grabbed my sweatshirt angrily from the bed, pulling it on. I didn’t care if I was breaking the trust Rayne thought he had with me. I was leaving.

    I opened the door and looked outside for any guards before stepping out on the hard tile. It was cold, so I zipped up my sweater and crossed my arms. I walked up the hall Rayne had run me down during the attack. I slowly looked down at my hand, a soft tingling spreading through out my fingers. I snorted and frowned. And he expected me to forget; forget that kiss, forget him all together. But how could I forget the enchanting taste of his tongue as it danced with mine to our rhythmic breathing? I shook my head. This was all so unreal.

   I followed the hallway until I was facing the front of the castle. I stared at the grass only a few feet away, where I had seen so many dead bodies, human and demon. I tried hard not to imagine the scene. I heard the crunch of the grass as I stepped off the stairs and began walking forward, towards where I saw the mirror image that the humans had come out of. It felt weird, walking away. I didn’t know why, it just did. I wasn’t that far when I heard someone say my name.

 

   “Constance!” They called again.

 

   I swung around to see Christian running towards me.

 

   “Christian?” I asked a bit surprised. Why was he chasing after me?

 

   He had a huge smile on his face, though I could tell he looked a little scared.

 

   “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe you’re….” He looked at my arm. “Your tattoo.”

 

   I pulled my arm out of my sleeve to prove to him the tattoo was there.

 

   “Oh s**t. Oh my god.”

 

   “Will you please explain to me what’s going on and stop your meaningless self-chatter?”

 

   “You’re my sister,” he said.

 

   I nearly choked on my oxygen. “Your what?”

 

   “My sister,” he repeated, as if somehow he didn’t believe it yet himself either. “You’re my sister.” He rolled up his sleeve, which allowed me to see the scar ran from his elbow to his shoulder, just like my tattoo did.

 

   “What is that?” I asked.

 

   “My tattoo, or at least what’s left of it.” He nodded towards mine. “Mine used to look exactly like yours did.”

 

   I stepped towards him, extending my arm and running the tips of my fingers over the scar.

 

   “What happened to you?”

 

   He smiled slightly. “Looks like you get to learn about my past after all.”

 

   I looked up at his face. I couldn’t help notice the resemblance; the brown hair, olive pale skin, the shape of our faces. Not to mention we talked like siblings. I suddenly wanted to burst out in tears. I had a family, at least part of one.

 

   “I guess I do,” I whispered in reply.

 

   Christian stared at me for a moment. “I can’t believe I actually found you.” Then he turned to look back behind him at the castle. “It won’t be long until sunrise, but I think we can spare a walk.” He turned back towards me, and then casually began to walk towards the trees.

 

   I followed. “Who were our parents?” I didn’t want to waste time.

 

   He smirked. “How about we start with the tattoos. There are three different tattoos for our world. One goes for the first generation of the royal family, meaning the direct child of royalty. The second goes for the second generation, meaning a cousin or an aunt or uncle. The third goes for peasants.” He glanced down at my covered arms. “The tattoo for peasants would just be the symbols. It marks you as a demon.” He paused. “Besides your eyes of course, and of course the fact that you have nothing in common whatsoever with the royals. The second tattoo consists of the symbols with a wisp of smoke that forms into one pair of blue eyes with back stripes.”

 

   I was immediately reminded of the tattoo I had seen on Lihendria’s arm.

 

   “The first tattoo,” he began, slower this time, “looks exactly like the second tattoo, except there are two pairs of eyes instead of one.”

 

   I slowly took in what he was saying. “My tattoo looks like the first one,” I told him. “The first tattoo means you come directly from royalty.”

 

   Christian glanced in my direction. “Our father was the last king to rule,” he answered for me. “Our mother was a peasant. Our father had been-”

 

   “Seeing our mother secretly,” I interrupted. “He got her pregnant, with you and then me. The king’s guard found out-”

 

   I froze.

 

   “You’ve heard this story before?” Christian asked, almost in shock.

 

   “Rayne,” I breathed. I remembered the look of hurt and horror I had seen on his face after our kiss, when he had discovered my tattoo. My father had killed his.

 

   Christian let out a long sigh. “You asked him about his father.”

 

   I nodded numbly.

 

   He looked down at his feet. “In some ways I feel honored being his friend. He doesn’t blame me for his fathers’ death, not anymore. Nether does his mother. I still feel guilty though, like in some way it was my fault, like I still cause him pain.”

 

   “He looked at me so horribly,” I whispered in response. “After he discovered my tattoo he looked so hurt.” I shook my head, trying to erase the image of his facial expression. I turned back to Christian. “Christian, if the last king was our father doesn’t that mean you should be ruling instead of Lihendria?”

 

   I saw his lips upturn into a smile. “I should be, yes. But that’s where my personal life comes in. When our mother was almost due with you, she sent me away. She told me I needed to be here, in our world, so that I could grow up as I was supposed to be. When I got to the age where I was old enough to be able to rule, Lihendria blackmailed me into burning off my tattoo so that nobody would know I was the next in line. If I was pushed aside, she was up next.”

 

   I gasped. “She burned it off?”

 

   He looked down at the ground. “Lihendria is a very stupid person Constance.” He looked up at me. “I was waiting for you for years in hopes that when I finally found you, people would see your tattoo and know that you were next in line. They would know Lihendria was a fraud and make you queen.”

 

   I gulped. “Make me queen?”

 

   He nodded and I shook my head.

 

   “Christian you can’t possibly think that when I suddenly turned up I would take upon being a queen. I’m just a girl, I don’t know much about this world. I’ve spent my whole life in the human world and I can’t just take that onto my shoulders. Christian can’t you be king now? Now that I’m here isn’t that proof?”

 

   “No,” he said, a little anger in his tone. “The tattoo is the proof. Not you. Obviously my tattoo is gone, and so are our parents. There is no way for me to be king.” He stopped walking and turned towards me. “Constance our world is in chaos. Lihendria is doing one hell of a s****y job. She is not fit for queen.”

 

   “And neither am I!”

 

   “This isn’t about knowledge,” he replied. “It’s about the heart. You have one, you have a strong one. Lihendria doesn’t. And I know that you still side with the humans on most part but maybe that’ll help us. We can all get a viewpoint on both sides and help make us understand. That’s really all we’re trying to do Constance, just to understand.”

 

   I bit my lip and looked down at the ground between our two bodies. “Christian I really don’t think this is the time for a new queen.”

 

   “No, this is the perfect time for the real queen.”

 

   I looked back up at him. “How are we supposed to do this?”

 

   He half smiled. “When everyone wakes up I’ll go to the council. We’ll, go to the council,” he corrected. “By the end of the day you’ll be in Lihendria’s place.”

 

   I thought about it for a moment. How could I do this?

 

   “There will be people who can help you. I’ll help you.”

 

   “Okay,” I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut. “Okay.”

Reviews

[Preston]

ohmygodzoe.
at first i was like all, i wonder if this is gonna be a normal story about a normal girl, then a got to the bottom of the page and i was like OMFG. :0 i love how well you described things, and how advanced your characters were. i've always seen demons as evil creatures (way too much darren shan) but this puts them in a whole different light! >.< the emotions are displayed perfectly and omjesus i cannot stop gushing. theres alot of "s/he wet his lips" but its kinda soothing (weird right? XD i'm such a freak)
MOREMOREMORE.
...of your story.
o.o ...that sounded realllly sexual.
WRITE MORE OR I'LL KILL YOU IN THE NIGHT.
ps.
rayne=sexy sexy beast
rayne+benedict=totally hotty party :D

[r]

O_O OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!! I WAS NOOOOOOOT EXPECTING THAT!!!!!! OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!

*screams* I COULD FREAKING SCREEEEAAAAAM!!!!!

[Aimee]

This story, so far, is amazing!
I love how it sucked me in and captures my interest.

Can't wait until the next chapter. [: