Chapter 13.2 Tick

Vera's POV

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I was nine years old, when I was first introduced into the courtesies of love in pursuit to comprehend mates.

Their purpose intrigued me so greatly that when I had breeched the age of fourteen, did I come to learn they weren't just this impairment that needed to be studied, or taken into deep memoir...but instead they were almost naturally impossible.

The first story I remember reading was called 'Sleeping Beauty' and I was told the two lovers casted, were indeed soulmates. I swear to you on all things heavenly, I couldn't overthrow the image of Prince Philip being the first thing Aurora breathed, and the first thing she fixated her eyes upon after withdrawing from the void of a sleeping curse. I could only imagine what she was dreaming of on repeat before breathing again for the first time upon seeing this male.

So much need they'd shared. So much passion that felt to be undying that did yet to cease.  I didn't have to picture the burning want because I felt that...

I felt it damn near every day of my life.

I tried to plaster a brave face, I really did because I was so sick of crying. I'd probably looked a mess and immensely ill. I mean anyone should understand that. I was asleep for four days all because... fuck that, I was tired of thinking about the one predicament that easily got me into this mess. "We need to find Alexander and tell him about his brother." I said this so sure of myself. I felt like time was rushing out and had intentions of abandoning me.

I didn't know what to say and if I did, I didn't know where to start. My thought process was slowly registering what was going on, I felt alerted and on the high end of a ledge. Darkness would soon consume me if only I allowed it.

I cocked my eyebrows at her, at Heidi, as she began walking away, leaving me in front of the manor without the answers that I sought. Becoming pissed? I was more than that, I was furious. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" My voice was calm but my patience was thinning.

It was almost as if she walked with her feet barley touching the marbled floors so gracefully, until she reached the stairs she finally turned to me. My hands fidgeted at both my sides before I would plead for her not to move. She wouldn't.

Damnit, she did!

Before I could blink again Heidi sprinted into a fast jog up the stairs until it quickly became a full on run. Her hair was swinging behind her backside with each and every chastising turn she made. Was she going to go find my mate? There was an uprising right around the corner and she was acting unusual. Still without reasoning I remained sharp on her tale up the stairs, gaining distraught— I could still hear the panting sounds I made out of fatigue, like a freaking lap dog.

"Heidi get back here!" I shouted from the top of my lungs.

The blonde haired daredevil soon disappeared behind a door to which she left creaked open at a minimum, just for me. This felt familiarly vague like I'd seen this before in some other reality but when I opened the door hastily, what I found next left me weirdly mundane.

We were in a...

"Do you know what this is?" I felt a budding hand clamp to my side which Heidi clung to with weary anticipation rising, it painted her cheeks an excelling red that was so deep I couldn't describe it. I suddenly got the feeling I wasn't suppose to be here and pushed her hand gently away, "Do you know where we are." She demanded me to know but I couldn't help but to flavor in cluelessness.

In a giant room I felt strangely claustrophobic like someone had stuffed cotton balls mixed with gin down my lung pipe, I felt trapped within a house of mirrors.

"Anything I can say probably wouldn't come close," I remarked. I looked at Heidi in defeat, resting my butt against the nearest stool. In this action, she slit her eyelids at me. "Temple? Foyer? Go ahead and say, because I know you're going to tell me anyways." A small smile glittered the mischievous blonde's face until she soon perched her hands upon the table.

I hadn't even noticed before that the table was decorated in photographs, pens and paper, which I took into my palm eagerly.

What exactly are we doing here and a potential war was brewing?

"Vera Lee, we are in the chambers of Solars," The picture in my hand was barley coherent and so particularly blurry that I found myself squinting my eyes in efforts to make out the faces on it. I scratched my fingernail to remove any debris, which to my dismay, everything in sight seemed to be collecting dust rather quickly that I'd probably been inhaling it in.

"But this one's special."

I gulped silently while eyeing this girl, who appeared young but still had the impending mystique of a teacher. "Eons ago Solars were made for jurisdiction. Throne rooms kind of - only without the swords and knights," I glanced more at the picture in my hand when realization subsisted above me. Previous kings and queens were once gathered inside of this room, and no wonder I felt oddly out of place.

"Heidi who are these people in this photograph?" I tried for asking but just as the words slipped from between my lips, Heidi replaced the image in my hand with something that was both plush and scabrous at the same time. Olden that lacked color. It held little to no service in all the ways that mattered, and you wanna know why?

It lost its tick.

I sighed impatiently. Tapping my foot I scoffed, "A clock Ms. Hart, what am I suppose to do with this?" I couldn't help but laugh. She's insane. She'll always be that persistent school teacher to me, some things never changed.

This clock was noiseless by the likes of me, even the hands on it were timelessly frozen as minutes flew by, it still hadn't moved. It couldn't possibly function and where the numbers should be there were Roman numerics.

Soon she presses the grey picture I previously held against my chest before leaning in so close to my face that a shimmer of white invaded the irises within her blue irises that were doe and inclined to discoveries and foresight. Internally I bared with her because If she's insane, I'm no better at all, "This lady? Yeah she's my mother." Heidi smiled so bright pointing to the lady conveyed on the picture, whom looked exactly like her.

Long hair that I could easily assume was blonde, and she had these eyes that were shaped like a faun's, the same as Heidi's and her younger sister. How come that hadn't clicked?

"She had me and Clarity, and my three other brothers inside this very room." I watched intently as she spoke with so much pride that leeched onto me, "She delivered five babies all on her own. All of her births were compromised yet unnatural." We shared the same look of disbelief, as if the story she's retelling is a surprise even to herself.

"Including Alexander's?" I found myself asking. I don't know why my hands felt like suddenly they became two clams; moist and shaky.

"She loved all of my brothers the same." Heidi enforces this statement with a sharper tone. She shielded her eyes from me behind heavy eyelashes while maintaining a level head. Soon she'd be clutching the picture once again against my chest while this time her finger pressed upon another place, a different face of a boy that was unrecognizable. "This boy well the same way he was furnished here he had died, with only this stilled time device in his hand." Heidi sniffled before rubbing at her nose gently.

In this moment I could feel all of her sadness, remorse and grief, pouncing on each and every caliber of my being.

My mouth laid agape once she tapped the clock that I'd been holding unimaginably tight inside of my hand this entire time, as she swiped a tear from her chin. "She held this clock in her hand. The same clock that my brother, held the same day he had died." My heart had fallen and it was fully submerged inside gallons of condensing pressure. Did she know I was no longer breathing?

Just as fast as she had muttered those words it was an instinctual thing that I had thrown the clock simultaneously back on top of the table. This felt so wrong. Now I definitely felt like I wasn't suppose to be here. I couldn't even collect myself well because every impracticable word I could muster came out in shambles.

Turning to the direction of the door, "I should go." I murmured and I seceded to the door with blood warming inside of my ears all the while my vision began to blacken with dots, my urges to sleep had grown a ton, to the point it had became unbearable. I needed to find my Alexander.

"His name was Achilles. I know this is going to sound vague but he was my eldest brother." Heidi pursed her lips more as her voice shook from a heart sedated to havoc, "A renown hero. He's the rightful king! If he were still alive, he'd be the one to rule without exception. It wouldn't be up for debate between the other lycans. None of this would be happening like it is now." Heidi fisted her hands throwing them around in the hair as she spoke, little did she know she was teasing my mind.

Heidi half stepped in my way; kicking my foot oppositely to slam the door shut following it with a clicking noise. She'd successfully locked it.

Heidi draped her arms around me, begging, she whispered something along the lines of a story in which she needed to say. This was becoming more than confusing and I wanted no part, "No, because why are you telling me this?" in attempt to shove her away, my advances were futile.

We'd endured a cycle of me trying to push her away and open the door but I failed every time. I know she possessed the physical strength to subdue me if she wanted but that's something her and Alexander had in common. This game they would play with their inferiors, like pac man; fully knowledgeable that they could dominate one carelessly.

I was getting more and more angrier as my hits became harsher and more driven off temperament. I was crumbling on the inside and I've irrationally been picked apart by the the people around me; I'm no longer the same and no one is to blame but the inadequate royals and egoistic jerks with god complexes. "You wanna know what the Malediction is? I suggest you stop right now, Vera." Heidi shouted. I was too distracted but I had no choice but to relax, I was taking in large amounts of oxygen and I didn't want to fight anymore.

I crossed my hands over my chest looking around the room. The walls had sported victims of taxidermy, furs and coats of animals. Wolves but it was much more than that.There were books, portraits that aged with the millennial of former residency of the royal family. "No," I yelled. "You are going to tell me about the other alpha and who is he to Alexander." I demanded with so much frustration, all she could do was stare me down in the eyes while I did the same.

"That's all you wish to know?" I nodded.

I can tell she's been stalling for some time now and had dug even more gaps around the truth, I could see straight threw her empty lies and when I had received a glimpse of what she was trying to convince me of — I had to shut it down. I was scared and scarred; afraid.

I couldn't bring myself to wrap my head around what she'd been suggesting, if only I was blind to see; a trespasser to reason.

"Adonis." Heidi played with her fingertips and she muttered his name so quietly I almost couldn't decipher what she possibly could have said. His name was spat like poison coming from her mouth. As if a name had power of its own, and I so desperately wanted to harness it. "He isn't an ally to us, in fact he wants to kill us all." She toyed with me before but now the truth splayed around her, I could now digest her words.

"All except you..." I gulped harshly before nodding for her to continue.

"Him and Alexander had always hated each other even as kids. See, the malediction isn't just an undoing of our future but it is even a ghost that has haunted our past." I moved around her and maneuvered my way to the window that was dimmed. But I needed fresh air, I needed more space.

The Malediction seemed to have it's own principals. I knew it was something other worldly and I wanted to dive it it, I just didn't exactly know how. I must've played a bigger part in this and that's what I wanted to know so desperately that it clawed at my stomach with nails of iron and steel.

"Why is that?" I had so many questions and every answer Heidi gave me only increased the intensity of my headache. My chest felt so heavy, god I needed a relief and only one male could give it to me.

"I think you know already, Vera."

It was my turn to curse underneath my breathe and I instantly snapped my eyes towards Heidi who was trying to project emotions of sincerity but I felt like my entire being was fading. How could I save it?

"The hell does that mean Heidi," My insides were turning from anxiety, it's like everything I am — knew deep down when I was livid, even when I tried to hide it.

My facade had been broken without warning and I blinked the tears from my eyes. "Look. This isn't something I can just tell you. You have to figure it out on your own!"

Screaming, "Why?" I turned back to the window focusing my line of vision until it traveled around. My optics landed on a group of meaty hormones enveloped in male testosterone. There couldn't have been more than sixty men outside my mate's manor and he was nowhere in plain sight, "There's rules." I observed as they trained, they fought. I wondered did they know of what they would fight against.

"To what?"

Before she could make some informal declaration, a lie, I persecuted her with more questions. "Why do I have two mates? Why does Adonis essentially hate his brother," And finally for the one that surfaced bile from the bottom of my throat. "You said your mother had delivered her own three sons but one died, how is that possible?" I probed more with zero sensitivity, I didn't typically pry but now was the time that I started.

Unless...

"For starters,"Heidi was nervous and it was evident. She tugged on the ends of her blonde hair and her eyes widened with scarcity but something told me I had more to worry about than her, but I was itching for knowledge not sympathy. "You have two mates because of the malediction. My brothers are your suitors and you have to choose, this is suppose to happen." 

A barrier had made its way on top of my shoulders and suddenly I regretted prying in the first place. "But why though? Why is this suppose to happen?!"

Heidi shrugged and my hands fisted at the length of my side. "It was predetermined because of some evil roots within the royal family. Holding of secrets, you knew this since from the very beginning." Actually I didn't.  I don't know if she had been paying attention but all of my life I spoke and thought so highly of the royal family. In my eyes they were proper, misjudged but rich by blood.

This reminded me of a scenario a long time ago that was now a distant memory but it purged all densities of a flashback in the depths of my head, easily did a faint prolonging of a certain devil invade my senses til it became readable.

More prominent since we did share the same face.

"Andy," I mumble. I couldn't believe myself, no I couldn't believe her. Heidi's eyes were twinkling with the brightest of stars in a sense, I felt more awoken. My mouth fell so wide that a gasp surpassed the confinement's of my parted lips. "She-" Andy was right, but I didn't need to say that because Heidi had already confirmed my suspicions. "Greaatttt. You are finally catching on." I scoffed even more, I'm sure my face was coloured in raw, utter astonishment.

"They've lied to our ancestors and have been lying to us for decades." My twin spat with so much tension and I debunked her notion down, Mrs. Hart had made both of us appear stupid.

"Since they've been in power they've been fighting with each other over the iron crown." It was only a matter of time before that fell, and starting with me that time was upon us, that time was now. An unbecoming of lives and a distressed King.

"So what you're telling me I- I was given two mates, but isn't that common?" I wanted to ask why were the brothers wanting to kill each other... all because of me. I mean there is something so simple as rejection. Why was I suddenly getting the eerie feeling though that it couldn't have been easy as I had hoped? God, nobody had to die and I refuse to let anyone perish under the significance of me. I was merely,

Nothing.

"Because they are lycan princes for the race of the throne. To them? In our eyes of pristine,  love is a damnation. A weakness, did you honestly think it could go any other way?" Heidi was infuriated with me all of this time and now it was recoiled behind a catastrophic storm riveting in her irises. Directed towards me.

"Vera you are the future queen. Everything that has and will be done is because of you," Heidi took dangerous strides toward me. My back pressed cooly against the glass of the window. In this moment I wondered what it would be like if I were to disappear, "And you want to know the irony of it all?" Cold hands met the shaft around my neck in contrast to the heat that left my body.

"It has to be done. By you." She stated. God I think I'm going to be sick. I'm only a child, a human nevertheless, and she wanted me to do it. She wanted me to kill one of her brothers.

I couldn't hold back any longer. She didn't even spare me the details as I gagged and was now hunched over with my hand placement being my knees. "How do you think I'm going to do that huh? How am I suppose to do it?!" I collapsed to the floor and let my hands wrap around my legs in a fetal position. I was ill and distraught. Adonis and Alexander, that's all I can think of.

The Malediction was barking up my esophagus with a steady hand on the nape of my neck.

Heidi is chuckling as if the thing she said next was it's own backlash and punchline. The truth was equally as antagonizing as it was Grimm.

Something hard fell in front of my feet but I refused to see the thing because I wouldn't remove my hands that were cupped over my eyes.

"With that." She kicked the hard object closer to me this time, and I paled at the face as I came to the conclusion; fate had a ill way of foretelling magic. It told magic, blood shed, and a unholy providence that I had no desire to implore.

I looked at her. I really looked at her like she had just told me a sick very poor joke, and it wasn't comical at all. I wanted to tell her to stop the front and reveal the camera and the crew that were filming.

What she had expected me to kill a full adult Lycan with, was that precious tick-less thing that I noted was old but held a whole new purpose all at the same time.

The clock.