“…he became the last of their kind and not once had he stepped out of his castle since.”
Lucero smiled as he set the volume of fables aside and gazed into his sister’s probing stare. Her locks of black danced freely around the small of her pink cheeks, only a dew shades paler than her large red eyes.
Lucero casted a sideway glance at the book in his hand. Red roses adorned its cover of old gold. Though he had not seen a rose in the shade of blood himself, he was convinced the rare flower of Noxsidus would not differ too much with the eyes of his sister.
Rowan continued to trace the lines of his face with a curious glint in her eyes, seemingly trapped by what she found there. Even her favourite music box, one that had never failed to capture the little one’s attention, paled before her brother’s deep blue eyes.
“Is there anything on my face, Rowan?”
The tiny elevens between the toddler’s brows deepened. “Why can’t my eyes change colours the way yours do?” She reached up a small hand, fingers a tad too short to touch her brother’s face. “No one has eyes like yours. Da doesn’t, neither do Mama and Nana.”
Lucero smiled and lowered his head. His eyes closed as the toddler ran her fingers across his face, raising a collective gasp from his young wife and her handmaiden. He shot them both a disapproving glare and shook his head. The child has yet to know what her touch could do.
At times he had wondered if it would have been a better idea to have kept his sister from his princess in the first place. But Lucero Lockhart was not one capable of lies—especially not in front of his beloveds.
“It’s not exactly a good thing to have your eyes change colour every now and then, you know?” Lucero sighed. A weary smile curled the edges of his lips. “Gives too much away.”
His reply only confused the little one further. “Why do they change?” Rowan asked with the prelude of a pout.
“Well,” he tapped his chin, considering. Though a Magus himself, the workings of his blood was a mystery as big to him as any others. “Let’s just say they’re light when I am…full. So when I am hungry—”
“Hungry?” The little one stood abruptly, nearly head-butting into her brother in the process. The princess consort gasped again.
Lucero only laughed in return. “Yes, my dear sister, hungry. When I am hungry, they turn dark. Which reminds me…”
He lifted Rowan into his arms and tapped her nose lightly. She crinkled it, earning a soft chuckle from him. “…how are you feeling now, my little princess?”
Rowan opened her mouth, about to say she was hungry too but stopped. The crease between her brows deepened after a few blinks. She craned her neck to one side and stared at her brother.
“I thought I was hungry but…” she shook her head, brows knitted narrower. She had not fed as her nanny had instructed in the morning, how could she feel full all of a sudden?
“Good to hear that.” The expression that contorted her face caused an endearing smile to appear upon her brother’s lips.
The toddler pouted, her lips puckered into a rose in full bloom. “But Mama said I should eat when I am hungry…” She stuck her tongue out at the thought of all the food Queen Leora had coaxed her to eat. No matter how much she forced herself to swallow, she had never felt full. Yet, she was never allowed to leave her seat if she had not cleared the dishes.
“No one should tell you what to do.” Lucero leaned in and placed his forehead against hers, his dimming eyes with orangey-gold hearts stared right into hers. Where their skin met, a strange warmth began to spread, lulling her to sleep.
Her eyelids felt suddenly heavy. She was reluctant to let them fall. For just a moment longer, she wanted to stare into her brother’s pale eyes, to figure out the magick within them. Yet, she was too tired. Her limbs too numb to sit straight.
“Remember, you’re special. You always had been and always are,” her brother’s voice echoed in her ears.
She opened her eyes again, expecting to see her brother’s warm gaze. But where his eyes were supposed to be, only two hollowed gaps remained. Pure silver poured down his face and flames erupted from behind him, sending her across the floor.
“Rowan…run…”
Her vision spiralled before her. Her small frame trembled, eyes widened with terror as she watched red and orange enveloped her brother, slowly devouring his flesh.
Clawing at her own face, she screamed.
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