Chapter 3 3: His Maid

VALKIRA

I wiped the sweat trickling down my forehead, rubbing the back of my hand against my brow. My arms burned from hours of hauling firewood, but I couldn't stop. My father and I needed to gather enough to sell. Money was tight... always tight. So we worked, and we worked hard.

My father had taken the left side of the forest, and I was on the right. There was no need to talk; we both understood what needed to be done. I bent down again, the sound of branches snapping under my weight almost comforting in the quiet of the trees.

But then there was something else. A sound, hooves pounding the earth in a desperate rush... and it made me pause. My heart raced. I froze. Was my father behind me? Did he hear it too? I turned quickly, expecting to see him. But he wasn't there.

My chest tightened. I swallowed hard and turned toward the sound, trying to track where it had come from. The forest was dense, the trees thick enough to hide what lay ahead.

And then I saw a man. His body crumpled in the dirt, his head resting on a fallen tree. His horse was nowhere to be seen. I didn't know why, but I couldn't ignore it. My feet moved before I could think. I ran to him, kneeling beside his still form.

He was breathing... barely, his chest rising and falling, but there was something wrong. His forehead was smeared with blood. I touched his head, my hands shaking.

His eyes fluttered, weak. They were half-open, struggling to focus, to see me. His breathing quickened, as if he were trying to say something, but no words came. I didn't know why I said it, but I whispered anyway, the words leaving my lips almost on their own.

"You're going to be fine."

Then something happened.

It was like an invisible force coursed through my body... through my hands. I felt it as it pulsed through my fingertips, into his skin, deep into the wound on his head. My breath hitched when I saw his wound start to close, his skin knitting together before my eyes. The injury healed... just like that.

But there was still blood staining his hair and face. I pulled my hands away, stunned. What had just happened?

Before I could gather my thoughts, a voice shouted through the trees.

"My prince!"

I didn't think. I just ran, bolting into the underbrush, my heart pounding in my chest. I crouched behind a thick cluster of trees, the sound of hooves growing closer. I dared not peek out, my hands still shaking as I pressed them to my chest.

Through a crack in the branches, I saw the one I had helped. He was being lifted, placed gently onto a horse by another man.

They rode off together, disappearing into the distance.

I stood still, trying to steady my breath. My eyes dropped to my palms. My heart thudded against my ribs as I stared at them... at the smoothness, at the power that still seemed to pulse there. I turned my hands over, feeling the difference- the strange sensation that lingered.

I healed that man. But how?

PRINCE ZEROTH

I blink my eyes open, slow like the world is just forming again. I try to recall. Something happened. Something... strange.

"Darethor," I croak, my voice foreign to my own ears.

"I'm here, my prince," he answers quickly, stepping out from the corner like he never left.

I shift, feel the weight of the sheets, the softness under me. "What the hell happened?" I ask, my head aching with confusion more than pain.

He looks at me like he doesn't know whether to be relieved or alarmed. "You should be the one telling me that," he says. "You had blood all over your head, down to your neck. But when I checked..." His brow tightens. "There was no wound."

I blink, confused. "No wound?"

"None."

"But I fell," I say, the memory coming back in bits. "From the horse. I hit my head... hard, on a tree."

He nods once. "That's what I figured. But the physician examined you- he said you're fine."

"Fine?" I echo. "The pain... it was blinding. It knocked me out. But now I feel no pain."

My chest tightens as the memory claws deeper. Trees... wind... the thud of the fall. And then... her.

"And then she came," I whisper, sitting up fast. "She touched me."

"Who?" Darethor asks, his voice edged.

"I don't know," I say, shaking my head. "A girl. She was there. She knelt beside me. She touched my head and told me I'd be fine."

Darethor tilts his head. "You sure you didn't imagine it? The hit might've-"

"No," I cut him off. "She was real. I remember her voice, but not her face."

"So you mean she healed you?" he asks. I can hear the disbelief swimming behind his words.

"I don't know how," I admit. "But I felt something. Warm..."

I look down at my hands as they tremble slightly. Not from fear. But from knowing- that girl in the woods is my mate.

"I need to go back," I say, climbing out of bed.

"Back where?" Darethor asks.

"The woods."

He moves toward me. "Your Highness, you're still recovering..."

I shoot him a look. "Recovering from what? Didn't you just say the physician found nothing wrong with me?" He pauses.

"I know what I felt," I say. "And I need answers. I need to find her."

Darethor opens his mouth to argue, but I cut him off before the words come.

"I'm going back to the woods," I say, grabbing my cloak.

"And that's final."

But the knock on the door stopped us.

"Did you tell anyone what happened to me? My father?" I asked, anger bubbling in my throat.

"I spilled no word, my prince," Darethor replied, his eyes honest.

"Then who the fùck is knocking?" I growled, tension crawling up my spine.

"I'll check," he said, already moving. He reached the door and pulled it open.

"Oh, it's you..." he muttered. "Come in."

A petite maid stepped in. Her steps were small, soft- almost too careful. Her eyes met mine briefly... then dropped to the floor with practiced grace. She wore the omega scent. Still... something about her made my breath pause.

"I got you your personal maid, like you requested," Darethor said.

My attention was locked on her. Not in lust... though she was beautiful in a quiet, aching way but in familiarity.

Her presence stirred a memory I couldn't catch. "What's your name?" I asked, my voice lower than before.

She lifted her gaze and answered, "My name is Valkira."