Chapter 45: Chapter 45

45 Chapter 45 : The truth

The royal guards was a group of highly trained elite knights who were skilled in stealth, masters of disguise and had the killer instincts of a king cobra. This group of knights were trained in the harshest conditions and were kept a secret for security measures, only deployed on extremely sensitive missions of utmost importance like assassination, infiltrating enemy territory for information among others, and Nathan had gained the loyalty of these men by secretly funding their escapades and training, without the king’s knowledge.

They were his to command, him asking his father for permission to take charge of the royal guard was all for show, he would have them do his bidding regardless. The silver haired prince walked to stand before the two dozen men who instantly took a knee upon his arrival. They had gathered in the large training area that was situated a couple of meters away from the palace grounds, a good place to avoid any eavesdropping.

“At ease men,” Nathan spoke, and all the knights stood up straight and placed their arms behind their backs in unison, it was like an army of mindless deadly puppets.

“The time has come for you to finally show me your skills,” the prince announced, pacing slowly in front of the men, “there is a very important event coming up in a few days and I want nothing to go wrong.”

Nathaniel gave a signal to a guard who was standing behind him with a bunch of parchments in hand, the man bowed to the prince and handed each member of the royal guards two parchments. One parchment had paintings of four men, Bahram, Jonathan, Alexander and William Morrell. And the other had a painting of prince Adam Burchard.

“I want you to keep a close eye on the four men on the first parchment and everyone they may be associated with on the day of the wedding,” prince Nathaniel explained further, “as for the man on the second parchment..”

Nathan pursed his lips and took a deep breath, just the thought of Adam Burchard made his blood boil, he could literally feel the monster within him fighting to get out at the very thought of Adam even making the slightest contact with Ella. He had to hold back the urge to command the knights to kill Adam on site with every fiber of his being, killing him may only lead to his own demise in the long run seeing as he too was carrying the same curse as Ella and Nathan, so his only option was to capture him alive without Ella knowing and keeping him prisoner.

“For the man in the second painting,” Nathan continued, “capture him and throw him in the black tower, I’ll deal with him myself. Do not cause a scene, lure him to a place he can be alone and then apprehend him, do I make myself clear?”

“Sir!” The man all responded with a salute.

.....

“Dismissed..”

Nathaniel walked back slowly towards the palace with many thoughts in mind, he had a feeling that the reason Ella had delayed to return was probably because she was meeting with William like what the note said, was there a possibility that William had come to Meria with prince Adam? There could be a chance Adam and his bride were getting acquainted right this minute, Nathan couldn’t risk waiting around to find out, his only option now was to go to the Morrell residence and see the situation for himself.

“Get my horse ready!” Nathan called out when he walked through the palace door, “now!”

Several butlers and knights all scampered in different directions to do the prince’s bidding, they could sense the dark aura surrounding him and did not want to be caught up in it.

On the far end of the hall, Juliet Aldos stood behind a pillar and watched her son walk towards Ella’s chambers, she tightened the grip on her silver knife and cursed underneath her breath. She was hoping that while Nathan was having a meeting with the royal guard, she would sneak into Ella’s chambers and kill her, but she had lost the chance.

It hadn’t taken long for Juliet to know exactly what she was dealing with, the prophecy that her family had passed down through the generations from their forefathers and now to her, was about to be fulfilled. These inhuman creatures of the snowlands and the enchanted forests would soon rise and take over the continent, Juliet could not allow that to happen.

Nathaniel entered Ella’s sleeping chambers and placed the note from William carefully into one of her drawers, he then turned to leave but stopped at her door and firmly gripped the door post.

*I swore to never leave your side Ella, I made a promise and I am going to keep it even if I have to die trying*

The silver haired prince closed the door behind him and hurried through the castle halls to the courtyard where a knight was waiting with his steed.

“Get another one of your friends and the two of you follow me,” Nathan ordered as he hopped onto his horse.

“Yes your grace, right away.”

*

“What do you mean by Jillian and prince Adam are the same person?” William questioned his little sister, “didn’t you say that Jillian died?”

“Who the bloody hell is Jillian?!” Bahram spoke in frustration, he hated being left in the dark.

“Is he also giving it to you real good?” The twins asked their little sister.

“No!” Ella responded with an intense blush, “what kind of woman do you think I am?!”

William placed a firm hand on Ella’s shoulder, “Ella Morrell, what do you mean when you say Adam and Jillian are the same person?”

Ella looked to the ground and tightened her hold on the skirt of her dress, it looked like she didn’t have a choice, it was time to let the cat out of the bag. If she couldn’t trust her siblings with her secret then who would she trust it with?

“Yes, Jillian did die,” Ella explained, she looked up at her brothers and put on a serious face, “he died in a past life and was reborn as prince Adam Burchard.”

William narrowed his eyes at his sister, watching her facial expressions carefully to trace any sign of deceit but there was none. What?! She was serious?!

“Ella what on earth are you going on about?” Bahram commented, “you’re not making any sense.”

“I have been keeping this a secret for a long time, from everyone,” Ella continued “I have lived many many lifetimes, so many that I’ve lost count. Every time I face death, I’m reborn as a different person in a different family. At first I didn’t know what was going on, I tried going to sorcerers, necromancers, I tried spells and potions to get it to stop but it just kept going, I concluded that I was cursed, cursed to watch everyone around me die while I live on with my memories of them intact.”

The four men were all silent for some time, trying to contemplate what their sister had just said. Cursed to be reborn every time she died? Was she being serious right now?

“Ella,” Bahram spoke calmly, “are you pulling our legs? Cause the joke is not very funny.”

“She’s telling the truth,” William responded.

“She can’t be-”

“Look at her Bahram, you know our little sister, did you see any trace of lies and deceit as she spoke?”

Bahram knittied his brows in frustration, “I didn’t but this can’t be true.”

William returned his gaze to Ella, his brain had already connected the dots but he wanted to hear it from her mouth, “so how do Adam and Nathan fit into all this?”

“I first met prince Adam as Jillian in my past life,” Ella further explained, “he was the first man I ever loved, because of the curse I stopped myself from having relationships because I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle the loss of them dying and being reborn in some other place and having to forget about them. But I couldn’t help it with Jillian, it just happened, but he died trying to protect me.”

Ella’s eyes were now getting misty and her brother’s hearts dropped upon seeing the pain written all over her face, “After I was reborn as Ella, I fought hard to forget about Jillian and closed off my heart to everyone. But then I met prince Nathan, and I found out he too was cursed like I was, until now, I thought he was the only man I could ever be with because we shared the same fate.”

“So that explains why you fainted at the ceremony,” William added on with a thoughtful look on his face, “you saw Jillian and he saw you.”

“Yes, and that’s why I asked to meet with him that day,” Ella added on, “I wanted to confirm that it was truly him.”

“So this Adam fella is also cursed,” Bahram added on, “and Nathan knew that but kept it hidden for his own selfish needs, that bastard!”

Ella was shocked to see her brothers taking this so lightly, she thought they’d completely freak out and even shun her after finding out who or what she really was. Speaking of which..

“There’s something else,” Ella added on, she wanted to tell them about what had happened to her the previous night, and that she suspected that it might have something to do with the curse her, Adam and Nathan shared. But before she could speak any further, the butler walked over to the group of siblings and took a bow.

“Lady Ella, the prince is here for you.”