บท 14: Reliving Death

"Father..." The dying heiress' expression softened into a sad and lonely look as she fell into the ocean. As she fell backwards towards the ocean, Ellsie watched her red locks fly up either side of her dirty torn wedding gown, tears fell from her face as she realised just how much she hated all of them. As she looked defeated and broken, she watched as her father was being held back by Henry and Mara's spell.

"Ellsie!" He screamed with a distorted and grief-stricken expression.

She felt the splashes of waves hitting the cliff wall, the sound of crashing of the waves were getting louder and louder. Ellsie watched as her father's expression turned blank as Mara spoke, then his expression turned guilty and they disappeared together. Another spell.

Suddenly the tears became impossible to control as she grew closer to the surface of the rushing waves, knowing that no-one was going to mourn her death.

"Lucian." She wasn't quite sure why at this last moment she wished to see him, but she felt a sudden pain in realising she'd never see him again. She cried as she felt her back violently hit the water, an excruciating pain filled her body, as a reflex her back arched and she cried out in pain. "Lucian." Ellsie felt insanity reach her as she could've sworn she saw Lucian and a woman, that looked a lot like her younger self, appear at the top of the cliff, but that was impossible. As her body sunk into the broken surface everything became quiet. In that moment, everything changed, the world seemed clearer, more peaceful. It was ironic that only in her final moments could Ellsie find serenity and that only then did she realise how many people had betrayed her.

~~~

Both of them ran over to the edge of the cliff just in time to hear her call his name again. Ellsie cried silently in Lucian's arms, when they heard her voice scream his name. As she watched in horror as she relived her own death, slowly the memories were coming back like a wall had been knocked down. Everything that had happened, Henry, Clarissa, Mara and everyone that had betrayed and ridiculed her.

Ellsie buried her head in Lucian's chest, as he pulled her into his embrace placing his chin on top of her head and rubbing his hand up and down her back comfortingly, he watched in horror as the young, naive girl he'd once known sunk into the ocean. Even though he also held the girl in his arms he knew she was only here because she'd been through that. He turned to look at the duchess with the cold, hostile eyes, in that moment he decided 'I will kill you Mara if it's the last thing I do.'

"Ellsie, how did Mara coax the Duke into believing you jumped, even though he saw you being thrown?" Lucian pulled his head away looking down at her curiously.

There was a long silence and Ellsie didn't meet his eye contact, she looked at the ground hiding the hysterical look in her eyes. "Mage... she's a mage... she's a mage..." Ellsie repeated in whisper, her whole-body trembling in his arms.

~~~

Meanwhile back at the palace, it had been hours since Ellsie had arrived and Jonathan had yet to see the heiress leave. Curious about what was going on, he peered into the office what he saw shocked him.

"Mother, Alissa, Lord Aiden, what is going on here?" Jonathan stepped into the office to see what appeared to be his brother and Lady Rosewood asleep on the lounge, however seeing the three mages in the room he knew better than to believe they were simply sleeping.

As Alissa shamefully explained what happened, blaming everything on her, then closing her eyes, awaiting his wrath. Nonetheless the longer she waited nothing happened, she opened her eyes to see her eldest brother's annoyed expression, he pinched the space between his eyebrows. "Alissa do you have any idea what you've done?"

"Brother, I know it was stupid, but I know they can handle it, I know they can." The wise and calm princess he'd always seen had disappeared and suddenly replace with a child trying to prove her certainty.

The room had fallen into a terrifying silence as they all looked at the prince who was thinking about what to do. Suddenly a loud gasp and the sound of crying filled the room. Everyone turned towards the lounge to see Lucian and Ellsie had woken up, but they were definitely not fine. Ellsie looked horrified, was crying, trembling and whispering something. Lucian's expression both that of horror and anger, he instantly looked at Ellsie and pulled her onto his lap, rubbing his hand on the side of her head.

"Lord Aiden get some calming tea right now!" The empress instantly looked at the purple-haired mage, who was already making his way to the kitchen.

"What is she saying?" Jonathan walked slower.

"She's a mage... she's a mage... she's a mage..." shaking in Lucian's arms, as he rubbed her head comforting her.

"It's okay, you're okay." The second prince reassured the girl in his arms, they both completely ignored everyone in the rooms.

"Who's a mage Ellsie?" Olivia knelt down in front of them, looking gently at the heiress only to be met with a look of insanity.

"The duchess!" Lucian looked his mother dead in the eye with all seriousness.

Crash! Aiden dropped the tea when he heard what Lucian had said. "That's not possible!"

"Do you think Ellsie would be like this if it wasn't true!" Lucian yelled protectively at Aiden, like a man protecting his wife. Olivia waved her hand cleaning up the tea, putting it all back together and pouring a cup for Ellsie, placing it in her hands and forcing her to drink it.

After a couple of minutes Ellsie stopped shaking, calmed down and looked around shyly. Her cheeks went a shade lighter than her hair as she realised she was sitting on Lucian's lap, quickly pulling herself away from him, while avoiding his gaze.

"Ellsie can you tell us what happened?" Alissa shyly asked. Compared to the confident young lady she'd always known, Ellsie almost thought this timid child was someone entirely different.

"I had to relive my death..." She said with such a traumatic look in her eyes that it filled Alissa with immense guilt.