ix

Caspian had told Ophelia to go wait in the throne room and he'll go look for him. She shook her head. "No. I need to talk to him immediately." Ophelia went to walk around him, but Caspian grabbed her wrist.

"Eli, don't. Trust me." Caspian pleaded. Ophelia looked at him, a fire dancing in her eyes. "I want to know what's going on with me. Why won't you let me find out?"

"You will, just not at the moment." Caspian said, pulling her to the throne beside her father's and pushing her to sit down. "Wait here, I'll be back with him."

Caspian turned and walked out, black cape fluttering behind him as he walked away. Ophelia waited until his footsteps dwindled into nothing before sighing, and started counting in her head. She would've gone after him, but she doesn't know her way around the castle the way Caspian does.

---

It was a while later when Abraxas and Caspian walked back into the throne room. Ophelia had left already, searching her way to her room. "Where is she?" Abraxas asked, turning and looking at Caspian, who shrugged. "I left her here when I went to get you."

Abraxas sighed through his nose and turned, walking out of the throne room where he ran into Anaieese. "Oh! I'm sorry, Your Majesty," She bowed. "What can I help you with?"

"Have you seen Ophelia, by any chance?" Abraxas asked, folding his hands behind his back. Anaieese nodded, telling him that she was on her way to her room before lifting her skirt in a curtsy. Abraxas called Caspian's name and started walking towards Ophelia's room.

Once they stood in front of her door, Abraxas knocked and took a step back, standing next to Caspian. Ophelia finally opened the door and peeked her head out of the doorway. "Hi, dad. I was looking for you." She opened the door and walked into her room and sitting down on her bed.

Abraxas and Caspian followed, shutting the door behind them and standing in front of her. "What's the matter, Eli? Caspian told me it was important." Abraxas cleared his throat and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Has your or mom ever heard anything strange? Like disembodied crying, by any chance?" Ophelia asked after a few beats, shifting to where she was sitting on her feet. She nervously wrung her hands together, waiting for Abraxas to give her and answer.

"Oh gods," Abraxas groaned out after a while, wiping a hand down his face. "I was hoping that you wouldn't get her powers." Ophelia cocked her head to the side, arching up and eyebrow. "Her powers? Do you mean mom's?" Ophelia gripped the post of her bed and leaned forward, eyes sparkling with wonder.

Abraxas nodded. "Your mother was a necromancer. You had never shown any signs when you were younger, so we always assumed that your Great-Grandmother's curse had been broken."

Caspian knit his eyebrows and looked over at Abraxas, but kept his mouth shut. No need to break into a conversation about family matters.

Ophelia slid off of the foot of her bed and walked to the multitude of bookshelves she had talked Abraxas into installing and pulled out a thick, black leather-bound book and set it on the table beside the fancy dark grey daybed that was in front of her balcony doors.

"That explains why this journal randomly showed up on my couch thing this morning," Ophelia gently trailed a finger down the worn-out spin. "What if this was my sign?"

Abraxas knit his eyebrows together and reached forward, picking up the journal. It had an emblem of a skull with a tilted crown: Natalia's family crest. "This was your mother's. How'd it get here?" He flipped through some of the pages and stopped at one.

It was a picture that Natalia had taped into the journal. It was of her and Ophelia, when she was first born. There was black wax surrounding the photograph, and a handwritten letter written in slanted cursive took up the bottom.

"She made sure it got to you." Abraxas said, looking up at Ophelia. Caspian took a step forward. "What do you mean, Abraxas?" He said, slowly.

"Natalia didn't want her book of shadows to fall into the wrong hands. She made it so that this journal - once Ophelia was ready - would show up in her possession." Abraxas slowly closed the journal and handed it back to Ophelia.

Ophelia rested her hand on the cover, a mix of emotions churning over and over. "Mom knew?" She looked up at Abraxas, who shrugged.

"If she did, she never told me."

---

Abraxas and Caspian were standing in the garden, watching as Ophelia sat on her balcony -which overlooked the garden and into the city - petting the crow that had flew its way into her heart.

"My king, where were you earlier?" Caspian turned and faced Abraxas, hands folded behind his back. Abraxas was looking up at Ophelia, not answering until she had walked into her room and shut the door.

"I was talking to our prisoners," He sighed, blinking towards Caspian. "Not that it did anything." Abraxas sighed and lightly kicked a rock away from his foot. "If only Natalia were still here."

Caspian nodded, stepping in front of Abraxas. "I know, but fate had other plans." Abraxas looked up at Caspian, his eyes glazed over with tears. "Fate is such a fickle thing. It changes like the water changes in a river."

Abraxas turned his head towards the sky. The stars seemed to taunt him, pulling his heartstrings as he yearned for his lost love. Caspian stared up at the same sky, with a different feeling. A feeling of hope blossomed in his chest, a strong desire to push through these obstacles they are all facing at the moment.

The men were silent for a long while after Ophelia had turned off her lights, staring up at the stars and hoping for every opportunity that they had ever seen - either missed of up-and-coming. Abraxas' sigh broke the tense silence. Caspian looked over at him just as he wiped away a stray tear.

Even a king can't be strong all the time.

"Well, I guess I will bid you a -" Caspian and Abraxas turned towards the garden doors as two guards rushed through them, panting and looking frantic.

"What's the matter, men?" Abraxas asked sternly, standing straighter and glaring at both of them. They looked to one another before the man with the shaggy, ginger hair spoke.

"The prisoners. They're gone!"