Lycandra's Pov:
"Why don't you play anymore?" Leonard perked up from his painting, holding his brush in the air as he waited for my answer.
I shrugged, "I just– stopped."
The midday sun streaming in through the dome shaped window shined on my mini knitting iron.
"I dunno sister, I feel there's more. You play the harp better than my governor." He replied, sloshing ultra marine acrylic paint on the white paper.
I blushed. Leonard was right. The harp was my favorite instrument. After Ma passed away I used to play it every night for my baby brother until he fell asleep. Avada Acwulf was the best mystre in Kosmos, gifted with stringed instrument. Playing it consistently for many years after her death was my way of honoring her memory but as time went by it became a source of pain and not comfort. That's why I stopped.
But I couldn't tell him that.
He would try to emotionally blackmail me into picking up that instrument again.
"What are you painting?" I asked him, putting my knit aside, smoothing my dark blue toga and securing my golden sash around my waist.
We were hidden away in my bed chamber trying to have all the sibling time we could. If indeed I was to leave Kosmos with Nathanael spending all the time I could with Leon was the least I could do.
I got up from my bed aclove– it was dome shaped with a similar shaped glass and iron bars window. Perfect for raining and full moon nights. Leon had stationed his easel and canvas right in the center of my space, my dusty untended shelf and drapery covered harp to his left, my vanity and bath to the right and my door behind him. My trunk laid at the foot of my bed draped in my brown sheets and my clothing dresser opposite my bed.
"It's not finished yet." He responded, his arms dangling in the loose brown shirt that he paired with sage green trousers and sandals.
My baby brother was a talented artist as skilled as our Mom was with any stringed instrument. Everyone in the royal family had a particular gift. Chief Acwulf could speak to animals, not that he had a fondness for them anyway. Lexandrea was a master at manipulation, maybe that was her gift or She was just born wicked like that.
As for the late bloomer who unfortunately is me, all I had was heightened sensibilities maybe I would be able to unlock my gift when I had my rebirth or maybe not. Maybe there was just nothing special about me.
"You've been sloshing paint for hours, Leon." I smiled, feeling the leaves of my shelf lotus.
"That plant is going to die soon, Andra."
I gasped dramatically, turning away from the potted plant, "I beg your pardon!"
"You don't take care of it, Love."
I rolled my eyes and scoffed at him.
"Don't worry I've added it in my painting so when it's gone you can remember what a precious beauty it once was."
"Aww thank you." I beamed and tried to kiss his cheeks.
"Ew, stop!" Leon giggled.
His painting held me in a trance the moment my gaze fell on it.
"Who is that?" I questioned in awe, staring at the perfectly white Lycan in the background.
Leon looked up at me and smiled from his grey eyes, "Well Lycandra Love Acwulf, I think she is you."
I could hear my own heartbeat as the tears unwittingly welled up in my eyes, "What if my Lycan isn't white?"
"What is the color of your hair?"
I pouted, "Platinum."
It wasn't to say that a person's hair color influenced what their Lycan complexion looked like but there had been several cases.
He gave me a knowing look and said nothing.
"Smarty pants!" I laughed, ruffling his scattered hair.
Dabbing his paint brush in a mix of red and black paint, he began to swirl it in half circles.
"There you go, Andra. Your precious lotus."
The painting was ethereal. The Lycan howling at the full moon, the night sky occupied by stars and flying crows and the surrounding field covered in lotus.
"This is beautiful, I'll cherish it forever."
"Thank you too for being my muse but if you do not mind I'd like to hold unto your painting for a while longer."
I hugged him tightly.
Leon's presence had a way of giving me reassurance and I lavished it.
"As much as I'd love to stay here with you all day, I must go train."
"Right, you're going to be the Queen of Winter Pack and you're going to do wonderfully, I'm sure of it."
"I prefer female alpha but thank you, brother."
"Chief Lycandra Acwulf might I tag along with you on your training perhaps I could learn a few things from you as well." He said standing up from the wooden stool.
"I shall like that very much, Prince Leonard the second!"
* * *
"I figured you'd be hungry." I said, smiling warmly at him with the silver tray balanced on my left palm.
It was well past midnight and a bad dream had disrupted my night and I could no longer return to sleep. The longer I remained in the darkness of my bed chamber the more it felt like I could hear someone playing the harp, my sanity was dwindling.
Then I remembered my best friend was right within the same walls as me and must be famished so I found my way to the Palace Kitchen. I came up to the tower after I'd filled the tray with various fruits; grapes, an apple and three bananas.
Lexa was smart hiding Nathanael in the Palace Strong Tower. No one ever went up this way for any reason whatsoever not to mention it was out of bounds to guards and servants. It was built by my great-grandfather and was intended for the protection of the royal family if the wars ever came close to home. During his time the wars had been fiercer and he made sure his family was protected until most of the treacherous races in Kosmos were banished to Orbis or so the story goes.
Placing the tray down while Nathanael regained his full consciousness, I bolted the iron door and secured the chain.
"Couldn't sleep?" He asked me, sitting up on the bed in the corner.
A candle was glowing on a stand beside his bed.
Since the tower wasn't in use, it wasn't furnished but it seemed Lexa had put a few things in place to ensure Nathanael was comfortable.
"I had a bad dream, well I can't necessarily call it bad just strange– yes, that's the word." I sighed, playing with my fingers as I recalled the dream.
He popped a grape into his mouth, "Do you wish to share?"
I paced around, "I dunno Nathan, I feel like someone is trying to reach out to me and I don't know how to let them know I can sense them. And I think I know who it might be."
"This tastes really nice but go on..." He gestured with his hand, savoring the fruits.
"Well I have two guesses either my Mom–"
Nathan paused, "Your mom?"
I sighed, "I miss her so much but I know it's not possible for the dead to communicate with the living. But there's something about the name DACIANA. From the moment I first saw it, I just felt a part of my soul was drawn to it or her."
"What do you mean from the moment you first saw it?"
I flung my hand around, "While I was in the dungeon of arts, it could have shown me anything else but that's what it did show me."
"What if you're just overthinking it? It cannot be that serious." Nathanael waved me off.
I gaped at him, perplexed, "I'm confiding in you, Nathan and that's what you believe is good to say to me?"
His sigh echoed as he came to me and took my hand.
"I know a place where if we did go we wouldn't have to worry about anything. You wouldn't have to be bothered about dreams you couldn't comprehend, questions no one had answers too, you would be free, Andra. Free of Kosmos and every responsibility." He poured out, staring into my soul.
I had a feeling no matter what world I was in, these dreams would still hunt me.
But still I willed myself to believe him. In the world where everything about my existence was question after question, I found myself holding unto whatever offered answers or at least a door to close away all the darkness.
"If we do this..." I trailed not finding the words to complete my sentence.
Nathanael massaged my palm in his and my stomach tightened, not with sensations or tingles but with dread.
"Then nothing else matters... Is that what you hoped to say?" He quizzed, holding my gaze intensely.
The look in his eyes frightened me and I could swear I knew what his next words would be. I gulped as my pulse quickened.
Please do not say it now, Nathanael.
I wished he could be in my head like Deucalion could and hear my thoughts but unfortunately he was regular Nathan and not the charming telepathic Prince Deucalion.
"I love you, Lycandra." He breathed, his eyes glowing with sincerely and pleading.
I held my breath unconsciously.
I knew he did. Nathanael loved me fiercely with every fiber of his being.
I loved him too but just not in the way he wanted– deserved to be loved and I resented my heart for it.
Deucalion had made me feel more things in five minutes than Nathanael had made me feel in nine years. Duke had my attention divided since our last encounter, he only could make my heart beat that fast.
I couldn't say the words back especially now that I realized whatever infatuation I had of Nathanael were fickle and not as deep as his affections for me.
But I had to say something, anything to wad off the tension that had risen in the atmosphere.
Thankfully my brain didn't fail me this time.
"How are we gonna use the portal without alerting everyone?"
Nathan smiled, "By the time they sense the energies and temporary inbalance we'd be long gone. They are all welcome to chase and hunt us through worlds."
No one had traveled between realms in almost two decades. The last visitor from Orbis Kosmos had was my cousin Lexandrea Deveureux.
"How are we going to find a witch to cast the spell? Are they even still witches in Kosmos?" I asked him.
"Trust me, Andra."
I nodded and gave him a tight smile, "I trust you."
Maybe.
* * *