Amory kept his eyes on her injured leg. She was handling the situation rather pathetically; what with all her whimpering and stuttering.
He mentally sighed and poured the alcohol along her cut.
She jumped and hissed loudly. He grabbed her soft flesh and pinned her back down.
"What was that?"
He finally looked up and saw that her eyes were wide and filled entirely with fear.
He sighed, "It was alcohol. It cleans the wound."
She nodded. Her heart was still racing. He brought the bandage up to clean it when he looked again at her skin. It would be so easy to just sink into it and drink. She was weak, she couldn't stop him.
He narrowed his eyes as he thought back to the urgency he'd felt when he'd smelled her blood. The need to see what was wrong. As soon as he had appeared in front of the building he'd heard her whimper and he'd felt furious.
He still couldn't distinguish who had injured her.
He blinked away his thoughts and began cleaning it. He heard her inhale sharply.
"Who did this?" He asked.
"I-I don't know." She whispered, "Douglas was in there when I returned the book but he left and the fire went out. Then I heard things and was grabbed," He glanced up when he heard the hysteria in her voice, "Then I called for help and he cut me and then I-I-I-and then you came."
He nodded and listened as she tried to steady her breathing.
He could think of many people capable of doing such a thing. His brother came first to mind, followed by a few of his cousins.
The idea that they could harm his wife caused his blood to boil. If this had been Mirella, he'd have burnt down the entire castle to find the perpetrator. He couldn't stand the idea of her being in danger.
"What book?" He asked to distract his thoughts that raced to his beloved. He began to wrap the bandage around her pale thigh. He still wondered who this woman was. Was she truly a distant relative of his Mirella, or was she a whore from the street that King Absolom hired to be his daughter.
'Foolishness.'
"Epics of the Kings." She answered in a small voice.
He stood when he'd finished and sat on the couch across from her. He rested his chin on his fist; if she had been reading that, Douglas was no doubt filling her head with myths about the curse. By her naive demeanor she likely believed it all.
He opened his mouth to speak but his words were replaced with a hiss. His eyes snapped to look at a feline staring at him with malice.
He tilted his head at it curiously. Most cats loved him, it was a strange part of the curse. Felines tended to love the kings. Canines, less so.
But this creature appeared to not view him in the same light as others of its kind.
"Wolfgang, come here." He glanced to his wife who was making clicking sounds to beckon the creature.
Amory didn't trust the green of its eyes.
The cat jumped up and onto her lap. He watched as her shaking hands stroked its peculiar silver hair.
With his eyes still on the cat, he asked, "What did you speak of with Douglas?" He asked in a low tone.
He saw her hands stop moving and her back go rigid. He heard her swallow and only then searched the room for her maids. He's not sensed any other forms in the room which was odd.
"I asked him what the curse of the Nothad kings was. H-he didn't quite answer me."
"And what do you mean by that?" He needed to know if she'd been told anything convincing. Or if she believed it.
He caught her annoyed eyes flit up to meet his from beneath the veil, "He said the curse was not King Horst's thirst for blood but an entirely different thirst."
He raised his chin at her firmer tone and at her words. "What do you think of the curse?"
The cat hissed again and he narrowed his eyes at it.
His wife only stroked it again and it silenced. She answered with her eyes fixed on the glowing fire, "A-at first I thought it was similar to Queen Uttara the Star Lady or Mister. Droll of Mushrooms land, which are simple fairytales. But… but after reading about the history and hearing all Douglas had to say, it seems so real. And what about the library?" His brows raised at the sudden rise in her voice, "What happened in there? And how did we get here? And why did he cut me?"
He sighed boredly and stood to walk across to her. The cat hissed loudly and its hackles raised.
"Hush, Wolfgang." She said in a semi-firm voice.
Amory grabbed the cat with little care and was tempted to wring its neck, but he instead tossed it onto the couch behind him.
He heard her gasp before he caged her in his arms. He met her frightened eyes and watched as they glazed over and relaxed. "You will only see this night as a dream."
She blinked drowsily.
He opened his mouth to order her to sleep but he heard a loud yowl and turned too late to stop the cat from mauling his arm. He groaned at the sting of pain and from the annoying creature.
He was about to crush its neck but he was stopped by his wife jumping up and rushing to grab it.
"Wolfgang, no!" She grabbed its front paws and they unlatched from his skin. She glared at the animal and he scoffed.
"I'm sorry, your majesty. He's new and I don't know how well he's been trained."
He looked away to the door and began to walk away. He needed to get out of the confined space.
"Your majesty?"
He sighed tiredly and turned to see she was only a few steps behind him. Again, he asked himself where her maids were.
"What?"
He saw her swallow, "I-I don't know who to tell but I know I need to tell someone and it's driving me insane-"
"Spit it out." He said, his temper flaring up.
She flinched and clung tighter to the cat in her arms; which was glaring at Amory with cruel intent.
"Last night, after I fell asleep I woke up and couldn't move. And someone was in my room."
He made no indication the information interested him, but it did.
"How did you know someone was in this room?"
"He said he was your brother a-and that…" She glanced up and he again grew frustrated with her hesitancy, "That he wanted to taste me."
He narrowed his eyes at this new information.
"Would you…? Could you stay the night? Please, your majesty?"
He glanced down with something akin to disgust on his face. Her wide eyes stared up at him from beneath the veil.
"No." He answered and exited the room.