Searing pain

Lorcan snapped opened his eyes when he heard someone knocking on his study room's door.

"Your highness?" Ryan called out after not receiving any answer from inside.

"Come in," Lorcan said after clearing his throat.

Ryan winters entered inside and frowned looking at Lorcan's tired eyes, "You should really get some sleep, your highness"

Lorcan ignored his words, "Tell me the reason for your visit and get out"

His aide sighed and decided to inform the news that he received about Conrad Campbell, "My lady's elder brother was found in the kingdom of Findara" and as expected, Lorcan looked at him with interest and urged him to continue, "But the exact location is still unknown and our spies are still working on it"

"Withdraw the spies" but the words Lorcan said surprised Ryan, "Pardon?"

Lorcan rested his hands on the table and explained, "It will become easy for the empress to find Conrad if my spies keep tracking him. His safety is more important than meeting him. Conrad must have already learned the truth about his parents' death and Astrea going missing, So he will try to find her by staying in Findara rather than returning"

Ryan nodded, "I'll do as you say, your highness"

"Is that all?" Lorcan asked and Ryan pursed his lips, "Please take some rest Lorcan" he was telling this not as the crown prince's aide but as a good friend, "My lady will feel sad once she returns and finds you in such a condition"

Tears threatened to fall off his eyes, but Lorcan held them back, "Get out"

Ryan looked at his friend with sad eyes and turned around exiting the study.

Lorcan clenched his fist and banged his table as soon as Ryan left the room. The table snapped in half receiving his heavy blow and he got up from his place with his seething eyes. Pacing out of the study, he entered his bedroom and slumped on his bed.

He tried to calm down his erratic nerves but it seemed impossible for him. The bed he was currently lying in didn't help either because it had too many memories of him and his Rea making love. Then he glanced around the room and felt him losing his mind, her traces were everywhere. His Rea's smiling face when she entered through the door, the couch where they had their first kiss, the closet which was filled with her dresses that she changed to when visiting.

Lorcan held his head and crouched on the corner of the bed, the place where he used to hide from his fears when he was young. He did not want to return to that time when he was weak and vulnerable, "Rea...I need you" he whimpered pitifully.

Following that, he felt those bad people once again in front of him. Black shadows surrounded him and whispered, "Avenge your beloved.....kill them all, Blood...their blood will calm you down"

He shook his head trying to erase those voices inside his mind, "Stop it!" his head seared with indescribable pain, "Ahhhhh!"

Lorcan was still clutching his head desperately when someone entered his chamber. Consort Liliane was shocked when she entered her son's room, "Lorcan!"

She rushed towards him and kneeled in front of him and spoke hastily, "Get a grip of yourself son...Please don't lose yourself"

He looked up to her with dead eyes making her flinch, "Rea...I want her"

His mother sobbed, "Astrea can never become yours...You should let her go"

Lorcan shook his head desperately, "I want her"

Liliane hugged her son tightly not caring about the bursting dark energy seeping out of his body, "Please son, stop this"

Her pleas fell deaf in his ears as his body started to convulse. She pulled away from him and widened her eyes looking at his red eyes turning into pitch black. A pair of black horns protruded from his head with fire on the tips of them, his blonde locks turned red and began to grow until they reached his shoulder.

His mother sat frozen in her place until he screamed when a pair of wings started to grow out of his back. She hastily got up from her place and rushed out of the room to only face the emperor. Tears streamed down her face, "Henrick...Inside Lorcan"

She was not able to talk properly because of her nervousness. Emperor Henrick embraced her and said in a soft voice, "I'm here..."

Liliane nodded her head and both entered the room and found their beloved son withering in pain because of the ongoing growth of his wings. Emperor Henrick gripped his scepter and stepped towards his son. His heart clenched in anguish seeing his son in this situation. Steeling his heart, he directed the scepter towards Lorcan and closed his eyes, "I'm sorry..."

A monstrous howl resounded inside the castle wall making the guards standing outside flinch in dread. They glanced at each other but remained silent, peering too much inside royal matters would cost their head and they did not want that.

Liliane covered her mouth to stop herself from weeping loudly. While Emperor Henrick clenched his jaw and continued to hold the scepter against his son.

"Stop!" A dangerously intense voice made the emperor frown, "Stop this before you lose your son completely"

Henrick narrowed his eyes, "Leave my son alone you bastard!"

A sardonic chuckle resounded inside the room following the Emperor's words. Lorcan lifted his pitch-black eyes and smirked at the emperor, "He is me and I'm him, we are the same soul with just different memories...You will lose your son if I'm gone" his smirk widened into a mocking grin as he continued, "That is also the reason why you are not getting rid of me completely, Am I right?"

"What do you want?" Emperor Henrick asked, "I can do anything for you to leave him"

"Anything?" Lorcan asked with raised brows and smiled eerily when the emperor nodded, "I want her"

Henrick creased his brows, he knew the 'her' that he was asking for, "She is gone, Astrea Campbell died after falling off of a cliff"

Lorcan clicked his tongue in annoyance, "But your son believes otherwise, he thinks that she is not dead"

"She is really dead!" said Liliane making the emperor frown, "I cast a death spell on her when she was young. She cannot survive from that"

The emperor looked at his wife with disbelief, "It was you?" he asked still trying to process the hard truth, "Why?" Death spell was not something ordinary, it was precisely death for both the caster and the victim, "Please say that you are lying"

Liliane looked at her husband with a bitter smile, "This is the only way I found to save my son...That girl must die for my son to live"

"Your conclusion is wrong woman" came the anger-filled voice from Lorcan, "The moment she dies is the moment I die and that means your son will also die"

"No!" exclaimed the emperor. He looked at his son and spoke, "The death spell is already gone, Astrea's parents' transferred her curse onto themselves and ended their lives. I will also make sure to find her and bring her to you, so please leave my son...I can't see him in pain anymore"

Lorcan closed his eyes and he started to return to his old self, "I promise that I will kill every one of you if she doesn't return to me"

Emperor Henrick sighed relief and caught his son from falling on the ground. He helped him to lay on the bed and tucked him to sleep. Then he turned towards his wife, "We need to talk"

Liliane just nodded her head and followed him out of the room.