Royal Rebel

C H A P T E R 2 - Marcel.

It felt like an eternity passed, an eternity in which nobody on the boat knew whether or not we would manage to survive this—and when I said nobody, I included the crew, too. The uncertainty that we were all feeling, was as bad as the situation itself. But the boat finally managed to depart, finally managed to pull away from the dock, before anyone had directly started to come after us—but then again, would they even have been able to find us, was another question. But it was a question for another day, a question that we didn’t need to worry about anymore.

My eyes found their way over to the small group of people who were huddling around one another, and I couldn’t help but wonder what had gotten into them, what had made them decide to make a decision that was as reckless as this one. Surely, they knew what was going to happen by the time that we arrived back in the Kingdom? And if they didn’t know, then they were going to get a rude awakening, because it definitely wasn’t going to go well.

In all honesty, I wasn’t even sure of what was going to happen, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be good. If Aurora didn’t already know what had happened, and that we were on the way back, then she would be bound to find out soon, and I knew that she was going to be a lot more upset than she would be admitting—especially not over the phone. But the moment that she saw us in person, she would lose it. And the fact that the said group of people had joined our return party would only make the matter worse, would only upset Aurora more.

I ran my hand over my face, wondering whether or not it would be a better option for me to jump off of the boat and sink to the bottom of the ocean instead. Perhaps if I was lucky, I would be able to meet a few merfolk, and convince them to allow me to join their masses. Maybe I would have more luck if I weren’t a land creature.

Hades broke away from the group that I had been watching, from his mother and wife, as well as his children—who surprisingly hadn’t cried as much as I had been expecting children to cry—but that didn’t make me any less aware of their presence, any more oblivious to them. They were people who were on a boat that they had no business being on, people who were on a boat that they had no business being in. And even though I knew that Hades was on his way to me, and that he was most likely going to try and discuss the current situation with me, I didn’t want to speak to him.

Even though it was an irrational reaction from my end, I felt that it was somewhat justified. In some ways, if you looked at it from the perspective that I was looking at it, none of this would have happened if he hadn’t been so insistent on the fact that Hera needed to be at his wedding, that she couldn’t miss it. If none of that had happened, then she wouldn’t have been on the Continent, and she would have shifted someplace safe, like the Kingdom. Perhaps she wouldn’t even have shifted, because she wouldn’t have been in the company of individuals who would have upset her in this manner, to such an extent.

                “Do you have a moment?”

I knew that he just asked me that as a manner of being considerate towards me, as a way of showing that he wasn’t forcing me to have a conversation with him, to give him the time of day. But then again, it was not like I was in a position to say no, that I did not have a moment to spare and speak to him. He would know that it was lie, just as I would, and there would be no way for me to explain myself out of it. I had been standing up here just as long as they had, been trying to make sense of everything that had happened, despite the fact that there would be no way or point in trying to change it.

                “I guess that would depend on what the moment will be used for.”

He came to a halt beside me, leaning against the railing in the same manner that I was. I got the impression that he was tired—perhaps the more accurate description would be to say that he looked exhausted—like he hadn’t gotten any sleep last night. It would be understandable, considering everything that must be haunting his mind at the moment. I barely got any sleep, and I wasn’t even the person who was responsible for all of this. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he had spent the night thinking about, but I knew that whatever it was, it couldn’t have been good.

                “We need to decide what we’re going to do next.”

                “What do you mean by that?”

He was quiet for a moment, and I got the distinct impression that he was mulling over his thoughts, that he was trying to figure out whether or not what he was saying was accurate, or whether there was something else that he needed to say instead, something else that would be better fitting? He seemed like the type of person to over analyse a situation once it was too late to change it, and all that I could do about it, was to accept it, and hope for the best.

                “We need to decide what we’re going to do about Anna, and my children. Karen is going to kill me if anything happens to them.”

Even though he spoke of Anna, even though he made the effort to include his mother in his worries, I knew that he didn’t have any concern for her at all. They hadn’t spoken to her once during the time that they had been standing out here on the deck—but then again, they hadn’t really spoken much to one another either, other than having the plain old small talk—which was all the sign that I needed to let me know that the only reason that she was even standing with them in the first place, was because she must have followed them around like a lost puppy.

                “What makes you think that anything is going to happen to them?”

Once again, he went quiet for a really long time. I knew that he was thinking about his response to me, wondering whether or not it was accurate to say something like that, whether or not it was acceptable. I felt like he was more concerned about the latter than anything else—after all, I was his only ally at the moment, the only person who could stand with him and stand up for him against Aurora. I had not yet decided whether or not I would actually be doing that, but I was aware of the possibility that he could be seeing it that way. Which was why I needed to remain cautious and aware of his thoughts and feelings.

                “You tell me, Marcel. Is the Kingdom a place that I should be protecting my children from?”

All that I could do, was to lift my shoulders in a shrug, was to make sure that he knew that regardless of what I was going to say to him next, I had no idea whether or not it would be the right thing to say. I needed to make sure that he knew that he shouldn’t rely solely on my word, that he should wait to make his own judgements, that he should see the Kingdom for himself before he cast his judgement on it. Because if he cast his judgement before we arrived there, then that was how he would view it. There would be no way for me to change it without it leaving the damage that it had already done behind.

                “I think that that, is something that you have to decide for yourself. I can’t make your decision for you. The Kingdom had been the only place that I have known, up until now, so my opinion on it, may be biased. So, I don’t want to influence any of your decisions.”

It came as no surprise when he didn’t say anything straight away, and I knew that he was storing away my response, putting it away in the archives of his memory so that he would be able to recall and remember it when the time was right, when it was actually needed, when it mattered. But I knew that this wasn’t the end of our conversation. If it had been, then he would have said his farewells and left me be, left me to my own devices, as I had been before, but that was not the case. No. That was not the case at all.

He was still standing here, as present as ever, which made me know that there was more that I needed to put him at ease about, or to remind him that he needed to rely on his own instincts, rather than mine. He was a werewolf, for goodness sake. His judgement was supposed to be just as good as mine, if not better.

                “How do you think your Queen is going to react when she sees Anna?”

That right there, was a very good question. It was such a good question, that I honestly had no idea how I was supposed to answer it, how I was supposed to respond. And that was because I genuinely had no idea what I was supposed to say, how I was supposed to answer him. Aurora was a difficult person, and that was something that everyone knew. No matter how much I hated her as Queen, I knew that if she had been just an average Luna, a leader to a pack, I would have enjoyed her company.

But fate hadn’t been so kind to me, and had chosen to make her my nemesis instead.

                “If I gave you an answer to that, there would be no guarantee that it would be accurate. I don’t get along with Aurora. I never have and I doubt that anything I think that she would do, would actually be done.”

I was slightly surprised with myself, with the amount of honesty that I was showing towards him. Never in a million years would I have seen myself being so honest and straight-forward with someone. I didn’t even share this level of honesty with Hera, and she was one of the few people who I actually trusted, with many things—especially my more intimate emotions. But this? This was something entirely different, I believed. I just didn’t know what to call it.

                “I’m sure that you can give me a good idea of what to expect, though.”

                “No. I actually can’t. I’ve bee trying to overthrow Aurora for the past few years now—and as much as I know her, there is not a single thing that I know about her as an individual. If anyone on this boat knows her, then it is Hera.”

Almost as if speaking her name had been a bad omen, silence settled over us, and I knew that I had said something that I shouldn’t have. The wound of what had happened was still too fresh, still untreated, and saying her name was almost like rubbing salt into it. I knew that we were all exaggerating, but we couldn’t be blamed. None of us had seen her since we had departed—but I did know that she was definitely on the boat with us. Her scent had remained with us, had travelled with us as we went along.

And even though all of us were dying to see her, burning to know how she was feeling and what was going through her mind, we all knew that she needed to process it all on her own, first. If we just barged into the space that she had claimed as her own, that she had gone ahead and claimed as a protective space, the chance that she ripped us to shreds was very great. Newly-shifted wolves tended to be out of touch with reality, tended to be a lot more rabid than the rest of us. The fact that she had managed to remain grounded enough in the first place to be able to make it to the boat had been a shocker in itself.

There was just so much that had happened, so much that we needed to think about and consider before we returned home. It felt like there simply wasn’t enough time left before we returned to the Kingdom for us to get through it all, and once we were back, there would be a completely different set of problems that we needed to work through.

And I just didn’t think that any of us were ready for it, no matter how much we were trying to prepare for it, no matter how much we were trying to tell ourselves that we were.

                ”Have you heard anything from her?”

I could hear in his voice that he was just as worried as I was, that he was curious to know what she was going through, what was going through her mind, just as we were all curious to know what was going on in one another’s mind. It wasn’t the easiest thing to speak to one another at times, but I believed that it was making it slightly easier for all of us to cope, for all of us to deal with what was happening.

                “Not a single thing. I’m assuming that you haven’t heard anything, either?”

                “No. It’s like she’s not even on the boat.”

I nodded my head in response to him, not knowing what else I was supposed to say. It was difficult to talk about Hera, especially since a part of me knew that she must be listening to everything that was going on around the boat, which essentially meant that she was able to hear our conversation. It would have been highly inconsiderate of us to speak too badly of her while she was in our presence, although not directly.

                “She’ll come when she’s ready.”

It was something that I had been telling myself since the moment that we had departed from the dock, from the moment that I had realised that she had gone to find herself a place of hiding, a place where the world wouldn’t be able to bother her. And no matter how much I had wanted to go and see her, to go and find her, I knew that I couldn’t do that. It simply wasn’t possible to do so, without invading her privacy, or possibly freaking her out even more.

                “I hope so.”

And with that being said, Hades finally walked away from me, finally decided that he had had enough of my company and had decided that he would be going back to his family. I felt that I was strangely relieved by what I he had said, strangely relieved, considering that I had been under the impression that we were getting along so well, that we were understanding one another better than you would have expected us to.

But the fact that we got along, felt like it meant nothing. The conversations couldn’t last for more than a few moments at a time, not without becoming awkward or difficult, or forced. We had learnt that yesterday, and I was thankful that Hades had noticed it too, or else, the chance that the conversation would still have been going, would have been a thing.

But for now, I was left to my own thoughts, left to figure out what it was that I was going to do from here on out, in regards to Hera, the throne, Aurora, and the new developments that would arise from Hades’ presence. There was so much going through my mind, so much that I needed to figure out for myself, that I wondered whether or not I was feeling as bad as Hera did—but then I remembered that I wasn’t the one who had shifted in front of humans, without any knowledge that I was actually capable of shifting.

And just like that, the person that I started feeling sorry for, was Anna, because she would be the one forced into the position of explaining what she should have explained years ago. I didn't know the woman all that well, but I was sure that at the moment, she was kicking herself for what she had done, for what she had allowed to happen. 

And if I was the one who was in Hera's shoes, the chances that I would forgive her, were slim to none. I would have done the exact opposite, in all honesty, and gone ahead to do something that would have avenged me, that would have made me feel better about what had happened. 

But that wasn't who Hera was... 

And the chances that she reacted in that way to the woman who she would find out was her mother, wasn't all that high...