Declared as his

Chapter 7

“Whoo! Where are you going?” Bricriu jumped in front of me trying to stop me.

“I’m going out there to kill ‘The Beast’. No one else seems to f#cking care that it is still out there!” I said pushing him out of my way. When I came from the infirmary everyone was still sitting in the drawing room. They should be out there hunting this thing. My father gave his life for this. So I grabbed my fathers shotgun and that brings us here.

“All you are going to do is get yourself killed. Didn’t you hear what they said? It’s fast and almost impossible to see at night. They were an entire hunting party and they couldn’t touch him.” I looked at him furious that he was right. I’ll have to wait for daylight.

“I can see your gears ticking! You can’t go out there on your own! You are going to be the King now which means you have sh!t to do. You need to announce your fathers death, arrange the funeral and most importantly you need to give yourself and the town time to mourn. Then you also need to be crowned as the new King. You don’t want someone to come take over, do you?” He finally got up from the floor knowing he has talked sense into me. I was still pissed so I pushed him again before storming off. Now I am all alone.

One week later

I looked in the mirror to see if I’m presentable. I barely pass the standard. I’m pale, my hair is a mess and I have bags under my eyes. I can’t find myself to care enough though. This has been a long week, a week of me doing official duties when all I want to do is go out into that forest and get some revenge for my father and this town. He wasn’t meant to die, I wasn’t meant to become King yet. Life is unfair and unjust. It’s like I’m seeing with new eyes. I was just fooling around living so carelessly. I always thought I had more time for everything, now everything is immediate. I was so angry in the days following my fathers death that I started to blame everyone it wasn’t until Uncle Jared told me how proud my father was that he could trust me with the official royal duties, so that he could handle this. I wanted to be there with him, I should have been and I was blaming the carnival, but after hearing that I knew I was where I was meant to be. Nothing would have been different if I was by his side. I might have died along with him and that would have been worse. All I know is I can’t go back to being who I was. I have to be different now. I walked out the front door, into the courtyard that leads to the road from here to the town. I’m dressed in my royal attire while everyone else is dressed in black. I walk to the coffin that is in the middle of the courtyard where everyone is waiting. We’re going to carry my fathers coffin down to the town where he will be buried. It’s going to take a while it’s about 2km of steep road down the mountain. It will take us about an hour and a half. I take my position at the head of the coffin and everyone joins in. We pick my father’s coffin up balancing it on our shoulders. Then we start walking. I keep my face straight fighting the tears that want to escape. I will not show anyone how weak I am. I will never be weak again. We reach the road and along both side of it as far as the eye can see is people, all of them here to honour my father, each holding a candle in their hands. As we pass them they start to follow us down the road. I look straight ahead past all the sad crying faces. I look into the future. We finally made it to the cemetery where we place his coffin in the ground. The priest continues the ceremony, before we can bury him everyone goes over and put a flower in for my father. I wait for them to finish, I pick up a hand full of dirt and throw it on the flowers. Giving them permission to bury him. All of us stay and watch them finish. I then finally turn to the crowd and thank them for joining me in saying goodbye to my father. Lastly I state a new deceleration where no one is allowed in the forest and if caught they would suffer punishment.

Calla POV

I’m waiting anxiously for my letter from Marcus. I usually get it on Wednesday. It’s always perfect timing since it gives me the strength for the rest of the week. It usually comes in early so I wake up super early get ready and then go down to the marina and wait for the boat carrying it. It’s late today, which is unusual it hasn’t been late once this entire year that I’ve been locked up here.

“Calla, you need to come inside.” Madam Chari said from behind me. I looked over my shoulder frowning. I’m sure I still have some time before breakfast.

“I’ll be on time. I’m waiting for my letter.” I told her looking back at the lake hoping to see a glimmer from a boat approaching.

“I don’t think a letter will be coming today. Something has happened. Come on let’s go inside, it’s cold out here.” I felt my heart falter at her words. I keep staring out at the water as I speak to her.

“Is Marcus okay?” I almost don’t want to hear her answer. Did something happen to him, is that why there is no letter today.

“Prince Marcus is fine, please come inside then I’ll explain.” I let go of the breath I was holding in. I follow her inside. She tells me to sit down and then she tells me about the Death of King Kalon. I couldn’t help the tears streaming down my face. He was a very kind man and a great father. I remember Marcus boasting about his father in his letters, they have grown very close over the last year. They were close even before that, King Kalon was the only family Marcus really had. After his mothers death they only had each other. Now he has no one.

“Maybe I should return. I think Marcus will need me now. He doesn’t have anyone else.” I told Madam Chari, I was ready to pack my bags and leave to go and support him in his time of need.

“Calla he will send for you if he needs you. You aren’t ready to re-enter society, especially not now. Now will be a very difficult time for King Marcus. You won’t be going back as his fiance, Duchess calla. When married you won’t just be his wife or a princess, you’ll immediately be a Queen. We will have to work a lot harder now, your royal highness.” The reality of it all sinking in. I got up and cleared my throat.

“Due to the circumstance of today’s events, I will retire to my room. Breakfast will be moved up and hour, all classes and training will be canceled. We are going to mourn the late King Kalon today. Make sure the staff is dressed for mourning.” Madam Chari curtsied to me as I left. It was strange. Here on the island they treat me as I will be treated when I return, so now they will treat me like a queen, but I’m not, I’m only 15 years old. I quickly washed my face I can’t have a tear stained face when I go down stairs. I did my make-up tied my hair back with a black ribbon and put on a skin tight black midi dress that comes down to my calf, I paired it with ankle strap black heeled shoes and then I went downstairs.

Today is the kings funeral and I still haven’t heard anything from Marcus, I’m a little hurt. I just wish he would at least contact me telling me that he is okay. The funeral is televised so we will be able to watch it. This is the first time in a year that I’m being allowed to watch TV. I watched the screen intently wanting to see a glimpse of Marcus. They came walking down the road with his fathers casket. He looks very serious, just staring out in front of him. Other than that it was beautiful, they zoomed out from the town and you could see all the candles moving in unison down to the town. It’s a great honour given to King Kalon. He had touched so many people in his life. It’s evident by how many people showed up. I like to think that he’d be very pleased with it all.

“Miss it’s time to get back to your class.” Miss Cambry said. The TV was switched of and put in storage again. I guess life goes on.

Two weeks later

I still haven’t heard anything from Marcus and it is really starting to worry me. I’m completely isolated on this island and all news I get is from Madam Chari. All I know is that his coronation is tomorrow. I don’t know if he has forgotten about me. He hasn’t mentioned me to Madam Chari in these three weeks. A lot of things have happened. He might have changed his mind about me. If that is the case I need to know, because I’m still stranded on this island until he says otherwise. If he forgets about me will I have to stay here indefinitely, because I’d rather swim to the shore. These are my concerns and why I am doing this, sneaking out of my room in the middle of the night to a phone. I saw one in the kitchen. It’s the one Madam Chari receives her information on. I just need to talk to him, even if it’s only for a second. I dialed the number the king gave my mom a year ago and waited. It rang for a very long time before anyone answered.

“Evening?” I heard a voice on the other end.

“This is Duchess Calla, I’d like to talk to prince Marcus.”

“It’s very late miss, the prince is sleeping. His coronation is tomorrow. Can’t you come and see him afterwards.”

“No, wait! Sorry I need to talk to him now!”

“Miss it midnight, the prince will not want to be disturb.”

“As Prince Marcus Fiance I demand to talk to him, right now.” Please let this work. I can’t just go and see him, I’m isolated on an island for goodness sake.

“Fine, I will take the phone to him.” I took a big breath readying myself for the worst. I could hear the guy moving and door opening.

“Hello?” a very groggy Marcus said. It’s nice to hear his voice.

“It’s Calla.” I said nervously, not sure if he wanted to hear from me as is.

“Calla why are you calling so late, it must be 2am in Italy?” at least he acknowledges where I am.

“I’m sorry, I know you were sleeping, but I had to wait for everyone to be asleep so that I could sneak out to the phone. I just haven’t heard from you in a long time…I just wanted to hear how you’re doing with everything that’s happening?”

“I’m sorry, love. You must have gone crazy with worry.”

“I thought you might have forgotten about me. I was hoping you’d call on me and bring me back for the funeral or your coronation at least. I want to be able to support you and be there for you.”

“I could never forget about you. You consume my every thought and dream. You know how much I need you in my life, but I also need you to be safe and far away from this circus at the moment. Things have been crazy. There is so much I’m now responsible for. I hardly get time to sleep.”

“I’m sorry and now I’ve woken you up. I wasn’t thinking.”

“No I’m glad you did. It’s so great to hear your voice. Your voice makes all this worth it. All this hard work will ensure our future together.”

“I’m happy to hear my disturbing you has its benefits, but I’ll say goodbye now. You need your rest.”

“No don’t go. I’ve missed you so much. I just want to hear your voice. If I close my eyes I can imagine that you’re here next to me in bed. Just tell me everything that has been happening with you.”

“Okay I’ll talk as long as you want me to.”