Page 54 of The Kingdom of Eternal Ice
“To meet our witch.”
eighteen
The Prophecy
*AZADEH*
Aylin, the witch who has pledged her loyalty to Gillean, is living close to the castle in her own little cottage. I’m not sure what I expected. An elderly lady, maybe; a mysterious or even creepy old woman, but what I didn’t expect is to meet a beautiful, ageless-looking woman, sitting in a steaming hot spring when we meet her.
“The king,” she says lazily, stretching slightly before getting out of the water—completely naked. She has luscious curves and long, grey hair, and she doesn’t look older than thirty. Caelan groans in annoyance, grabs the towel that’s lying in a corner, and hands it to her.
“I would prefer it even more if you’d rub me dry,” she says with a wink.
Caelan blushes at her words while Gillean glares. “Aylin!” he huffs.
“Alright, alright, don’t be so grumpy. It’s about time that Sine returns. You need to get laid.” She grabs the towel and drapes it over her body, just barely covering her breasts and behind, with it. Her eyes gaze over us until she meets mine. For a moment, she just looks at me, a secretive smile curling her lips.
“All players have made their appearance, it seems,” she muses.
For a moment, it’s silent, then, Aylin ushers us inside her cottage, dropping her towel midway and walking to her wardrobe to get dressed. The men respectfully turn their gazes away, but I assume she doesn’t really mind the audience. When Aylin steps in front of us again, she is wearing the tightest pants and shirt I have ever seen on a person. In a way, she still looks naked. At the same time, I feel drawn to her confidence and to how she isn’t afraid of being herself. Somehow, her bold attitude and the way she isn’t embarrassed at all impresses me.
“You are nothing like I expected,” she says to me, sounding amused.
“Neither are you,” I say. “What did you expect?” I want to know.
“Someone who would be easily embarrassed,” she deadpans before a smirk curls her lips. “The prophecy just turned a lot more interesting.”
“The prophecy?” Endellion asks. He turns to look at his father. “Don’t you think it’s about time to fill us in on what you know? I think we can safely say that your announcement about how you will choose your heir was just an excuse to set something bigger in motion.”
“Announcement?” I ask them.
“Before you came, Dad told us he would make one of us his heir,” Flinn says. “But we’d need to melt your heart, as in make you leave behind your trauma, and show some true empathy towards you.”
I stare at him before turning to Gillean. “What?”
The tip of Gillean’s ears turns red while Beta Quinn just rolls his eyes. “It really was a bad performance, my king,” Quinn confesses.
“We didn’t even buy it one second,” Flinn points out with a glare.
“Even I didn’t,” Caelan says. “The moment I spent some time with Azadeh, I figured your little test, as you called it, would be impossible to win.”
Gillean looks seriously flustered while his sons keep glaring at him. I can sympathize with him, but at the same time, I can understand their frustration. In a way, he has played them like figures of a chess game.
“How about we start from here?” I say carefully. “I understand you are angry, but we are here now, and we have the chance to finally find out some truths.”
Caelan looks at me, his gaze softening. “Alright, I’m willing to listen.”
“But, no secrets anymore,” Endellion says, a hint of annoyance in his tone while he glares at his father.
“He is right,” Flinn agrees. “No secrets!”
Gillean sighs. “You have to understand that I don’t know a lot myself. Ever since you were born, your mother and I researched as much as possible. That’s how my lovely Sine met Aylin a couple of years ago.”
“Sine freed me from my chains,” Aylin clarifies. “Quite literally. A demon was holding me captive.”
“Aylin then joined us here, and from then on, our search was more fruitful.” He pauses. “But, for the longest while, we were just as clueless as you are.”
His explanation makes his sons relax their stances. Endellion turns to look at me, his silver eyes looking at me with warmth. “You set everything in motion.”
