The Scarlet Phoenix and the Prince of Winter

Chapter Seventeen

It was both the best moment of my life and the worst moment of my life. That's the only way to describe what I was feeling right now about this glorious situation.

It is the best moment of my life because my eyes have been blessed by his well-built naked body and I am here for all of it while it is the worst moment of my life because the Crown Prince was quick enough to cover his 'thing' before my eyes could go down on it. His eyes were bulging too when he saw me, and common sense would have dictated me to immediately get out of the bathroom but my feet seemed to have attached themselves to the floor.

"I'm sorry!" I said to him and I covered my eyes despite the inner protest of my heart. This was the rarest of all the rare objects in the whole of Aure and maybe in the whole world, so I was actually making such a waste of a great opportunity.

"Rainha, at least let me finish my bath first," he told me and I nodded at him. But because I dropped my hands that were covering my face when I nodded, it meant that I have seen his flawless body again. My eyes and mouth were both open wide because of this, and it amused him as he has this smirking face with raised eyebrows as he sees me off to the door.

I was the one who shut the bathroom door too and I made it a little bit louder than usual to let him know that I actually shut it close. Who knows what he was thinking in there right now. The Crown Prince probably thinks that I am a p*****t by now because he saw my expression when I saw him naked.

Goddamn.

Heat instantly rose to my head and I had to fan myself from it. (This was a rare occasion too if I think about it for I could not remember any other circumstance where I have to fan myself from heat.) God, this was better than basking myself in a room filled with columbars of coalstones. I guess it was really logical when I started yearning for the Crown Prince because he can make me feel hot better than any volcanic rock out there.

I went to the kitchen to drink some water to cool myself down from what just happened. As I drink the water which is warmed by exposing it near a Heatcatcher, (so that we can drink it warm and not icy cold) images of the Crown Prince naked were swimming through my mind and I don't have any plans of scolding my brain for it.

It was unbelievable how Prince Kao looked majestic and beautiful even without a single clothe on. Of course, I knew that he has a great body because it was obvious from his built, but actually seeing his body like that had shattered my expectations.

I could not say that he was all muscles and that, but he was lean enough to become a Royal Guard. It might be because of his training with them, but still, as he is not required to train that much it was impressive how he has that kind of body. Any girl would kill just to see his body and now I can become a murderer.

I did not really expect him to be still here, as from what I understood he was just going to rest here until he was okay. It was not easy to shake off what he just learned about his mother after all, so he needed a place to clear his mind. And when I agreed to let him stay here I was not expecting this blessing to appear. What a nice day this has been so far.

I heard the bathroom door open and immediately went to the sitting room. He came in with full clothes on now, and I could tell that he was not awkward at all by what just happened between the two of us. "You came back here earlier than expected. I'm sorry I used your bathroom without your permission."

"Oh, it's okay!" I said waving my hands off. "That's not a problem. You can use any room here if you want to."

"Thank you for the generosity, Rainha."

"Thank you too," I replied because he was generous too for showing me his body. That image would be engraved in my mind forever.

By the way, I am going home. Thank you for letting me stay here."

That made me drop my high spirits. "Oh. O-Okay..."

"I'll be going back to the castle through the Station, so if you want to come with me then that would be fine with me."

My mind went blank by what he just said. "C-Come with you?"

He nodded. "Don't you have to go to the bakery where your Aunt work to check if she's there or if the people there know where she is? I mean, we both know that those men that were here last night had something to do with your Aunt's disappearance but still, you have to check her workplace. You might get a clue from there."

"Y-Yeah... You're right. I might get the reason why those men took her."

"And why they attempted to get you too."

That made me come with the Crown Prince and I am not complaining. It was like my wildest fantasy has been extended again. We walked back to the neighborhood, casually dropping by the Royal Guards stationed here to talk about what just happened. They promised me that they will look into what happened just like what Calyx told me about. But knowing how hard it is to determine who were those men, I did not put too much hope in them.

We were now walking on the Tunnel again when Prince Kao mentioned Mitaur. "Do you think she was telling everything that she knew about what happened to my mother?"

"Why? Don't you now believe what she said to you?"

"It's not that I don't believe her. It is because of all that she said... It's just hard to swallow them all and accept that what she said is what actually happened."

"Yeah. I know that feeling, so I don't blame you for doubting her."

"I guess I still have to talk to your Aunt about your mother to complete the puzzle."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, Rainha. You have read the letter. It was your mother who gave that Phoenix Petal flower to my mother."

"Oh. That. I was thinking about that too. That was why in the letter your mother was asking my mother not to feel guilty about it."

"That's right. That is why I still need to talk to your Aunt. She might know about your mother and how she managed to acquire such a rare flower."

"Yeah. I wanted to know about that too."

Prince Kao seemed to be determined at this mission of his. "I think it might not be a good idea for you to join me at that. You might learn things about your mother that you might not want to hear."

I nodded. "I also thought about that. For all we know, my mother could have been the guilty one. And I think I will be really upset if that's what we are going to find out. But I still have to know the truth. If you can handle what you learned from Mitaur then I should be prepared for the worst."

"I guess we have no choice but to be ready," he said and I agree. That was something that was bugging my mind since last night too. It was one of the reasons why I was having a hard time sleeping because I found it hard to believe that my mother would have a hand in the Queen's death. But as of now, the evidence is against her. The letter is practically accusing her involvement of Prince Kao's mother's death even though she already absolved her.

And if it turns out that she really did have a hand in her death, that my mother knew that the Queen had to sacrifice herself if she wanted to use the flower for her son's recovery, then that would make my own mother a huge part of the reason why the Queen died. She had let the Queen die just like that even though every citizen in Aure is born with the duty of protecting the Royal Family at all times.

But my mother was an Outsider. Maybe that is why she did not care about the Queen dying. And if our theory that she was a Snow Gypsy is correct then that would also help us convince ourselves that she knew that death was coming for anyone who would try to purify that flower-made elixir.

But that if Mitaur had told us the truth because she could be lying too. But I believe her though. It would be ridiculous if she was lying, because by telling the Crown Prince that story that she told him she was also indicting herself to be part of the reason why the Queen died. I do not see the logic of lying to the next King in line and letting him know that you were part of what happened. Unless it was true and that Mitaur had been regretting everything since then, which what she actually told us.

The only thing that made me skeptical about what she told us was the part where she claimed that my mother could be still alive. Although I get it. I get why she was suspicious of what really happened to my mother. There was no body of her and it was only my father that told us that she was dead. That also made me so curious, because what the hell happened outside of the borders back then?

I have heard of the story of how my mother died (and my father shortly after,) so many times that I subconsciously have made a version of that story for myself to convince me that they were no longer coming back. In my younger days, I have always thought of how they died and pictured it as if I was there.

My mother for some reason decided to go outside of the borders. Maybe to go back where she came from, I suppose. But it was a bad move, as the Ruthless Blizzards are raging on just outside our borders. No one has ever survived it and that was why my father came after her. He wanted to rescue her, to make her come back and stay with us. My father loved my mother so much and that was a known fact by everyone who knew them, so it was not surprising that my father went after her even if it meant that he might not be able to return to Aure too.

That would have made my brother, Garreth, alone if my father never managed to come back. But he did, and he was the talk of the town because of it. Months later after he went outside the border everybody had assumed that he was dead together with my deranged mother. Garreth was already been taken care of by my Aunt who was not expecting my brazen father to return, so imagine the shock she got when she finds out that my father was found unconscious just a few steps outside from the border and he had a child with him, wrapped in a thick, (still) warm coat.

And that child was me. I was born outside Aure, and everyone at school picked me for it. They have called me several names because they think that I was some kind of a cursed child because no one survives from the Ruthless Blizzard. This is the reason why my mother being a Snow Gypsy makes so much sense now, and maybe that same type of blood lives in me as well.