The next time I wake it is to Caspian's side of the bed being empty. After a brief moment of panic I realize it is still quite warm, and a few moments later the door is being opened.

Caspian has a tray of food in hand and I sit up, stretching and yawning. I smile at him as he approaches the bed. "If I didn't know any better I'd think you actually like me."

He chuckles, sitting next to me and balancing the tray on his lap. "I've shared my bed with you for several nights now, Dove. I think you would be safe in assuming I like you. Here." He doesn't give me a chance to respond, not that I would know what to say to that anyway. A plate is being pushed into my hands. "Eat before it gets cold."

After a thankfully uneventful morning, we are joined by Ronan and Gemma for lunch. Instead of the dining room, we eat at the gazebo once more. Though they aren’t quite feeding each other yet, Gem and Ronan play their part of lovey-dovey couple impressively well. She is sitting so close to him she may as well be in his lap.

Though the same can be said for Caspian, who hasn’t left my side since breakfast. And as much as I don’t mind the attention, it is admittedly too new to me. Gemma, of course, notices and jumps to her feet. “Let’s go take a walk Love Dove.”

Ronan pouts at Gemma, who rubs his chin and grins. “We’ll still be in the garden Ro. No need to worry.”

“Ro?” Caspian raises an eyebrow.

Ronan huffs, crossing his arms. “What? It’s cute. You’re just jealous because your girlfriend doesn’t call you cute names.” His pout only deepens when Caspian begins laughing. He stands abruptly, stomping off in a random direction. Caspian stands as well, following after him.

“Hey Ro wait up!”

“Piss off!”

Gemma laughs, looping her arm through mine. We begin walking, and a glance in her direction shows she’s giving me a look.

“What?”

“Caspian didn’t deny you being his girlfriend.”

“We’re engaged, Gem. We’ve kinda skipped past the whole boyfriend/girlfriend stage.”

She hums, patting my hand. That’s when I notice the new ring on her finger. I stop walking immediately, taking her hand in mine and holding it up to my face. “And what is this?”

“Oh. Right.”

“Oh right? Gemma!” I hit her arm, dropping her hand with a scoff. By the grin on her face, she was all too excited about the news. “So that means you agreed to the mating? When’s the wedding? Oh Gem, this is so exciting.”

“I dunno yet. Ronan wants to have it soon. Start a family and all.”

“Family? You? With kids?”

“Shut up.” Gemma takes my arm again, pulling me behind her. “I’m good with kids. Besides, our kids would be super cute.” She pokes my side, causing me to flinch away from her. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You and Caspian thinking about kids yet?”

We in fact have not broached the subject of children. Obviously we would have to have at least one, I couldn’t sit on the throne forever. But we were just starting to get to know each other, and talk of starting a family in the midst of my learning everything else was a bit too much on my table. I don’t answer right away, and we eventually make it back to where Ronan and Caspian ran off to, slowing to a stop when we notice Caspian has Ronan on the ground, twisted and in a headlock.

“What the…” Gemma lets out a sharp, almost unbelieving laugh and even I have to shake my head.

“Okay okay I give! Let me go!” Ronan shouts. Caspian releases him immediately, standing and brushing off his pants before reaching a hand out to help Ronan up. Gemma and I watch in amusement as Ronan takes Caspian’s hand, immediately yanking him back down to the ground and pouncing on him. There is a shout of laughter and they are back to wrestling.

I once again find myself alone. Gemma and Ronan have returned to the Pack and Caspian is off catching up on work he didn’t do during the day. Sleep does not come easily to me tonight. After almost an hour of tossing and turning I finally decide to slide my slippers on and shuffle to the dining hall.

The trek is quiet, halls are eerily empty this time of night, and surprisingly dark. I make my way quickly through the Palace, not wanting to linger longer than necessary.

Like the hallways the hall is pretty empty as well. I make my way to the kitchen, intent on grabbing a snack. The door swinging open startles me. Daphne nearly collides with me. She also seems startled by my presence.

“Oh! Princess, what are you doing awake so late?”

“I was just coming for a glass of water. I’m having a hard time sleeping.”

“Oh, alright. Well, there's a bottle in the refrigerator already chilled if you'd like.”

I thank her, heading into the kitchen. Finding the bottle is easy enough, and I grab a glass from the cabinets. I hadn’t noticed anything off about the water, but about halfway through my throat begins to burn. A wave of dizziness hits me. The last thing I hear is the glass shattering before my vision goes dark.

When I wake, it is to Rosedriah and Gemma hovering over me. It takes me a moment to come to fully, and even then I feel groggy.

“Someone tried to poison you again.” Rosedriah says before I can ask. “Silver nitrate this time. Do you remember anything?”

I shake my head. The last thing I remember is going to the kitchen for something because I couldn’t sleep.

Rosedriah mutters something I can’t understand moving away from me. Gemma pulls the cover so it’s tucked under my chin, clicking her tongue. “How many times are you going to almost die?”

I let out a half laugh, shifting so I can sit up a bit. It would be nice if this were the last time but I now know whoever is after me will not stop until they succeed.

Though I am in his room, Caspian is suspiciously absent. “Where’s Cas?”

Gemma snorts, sitting on the bed next to me. I don’t understand why she seems so amused until she says, “He’s currently storming the castle. Looking for who poisoned you. He was pissed when Daphne found you unconscious, and after bringing you here left right away.”

“Pandora, when were you going to mention these troubling dreams?” Rosedriah asks, catching my attention.

“How did you know about those?”

“Caspian mentioned them. And he’s right, you could very well be having premonitions. Especially since you’ve been poisoned twice now, we can only assume these dreams are telling of a possible future.”

My heart slams in my chest. Knowing someone wanted me dead has me wishing I had stayed back in the human realm. Back when I wasn’t the target of someone angry at me for simply existing.

“Pandora!”

Rosedriah’s sharp call breaks me out of my thoughts. “What happens in your dreams? You need to tell me so I know how to help.”

I take a deep breath. After a moment I finally tell Rosedriah in detail about what happens in my dreams. From waking up in the cabin to hearing Philip’s voice and it ending in a fire. She seems concerned by the end of my speech.

She seems to think about what I said, wordlessly dropping the book on elementals into my lap. “Study this. Honing your skills may come in handy faster than I thought. In the meantime, I am going to see if perhaps I can trigger the same vision you had.”

Rosedriah leaves not too long after, leaving me and Gemma alone.

“Ro is worried about you.” Gemma says, patting my hand. “He nearly stormed the castle along with Caspian, bless his heart.”

“I can’t believe he got so angry.”

Gemma stares at me, disbelief written all over her face. She hits me on the arm with a huff. “Are you kidding me? The man’s practically in love with you!”

“What? No. Caspian doesn’t love me. Like me maybe, but he’s just being so nice because we’re getting married.”

Still in disbelief Gemma huffs a “whatever” before standing. “I should go back sure Ronan isn’t throwing a fit. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

Once Gemma has left I open the book Rosedriah left with me. The stone is tucked between the cover and the first page. I pick it up, watching as the otherwise clear stone begins shining multiple colors. I keep it in my hand, rolling it between my fingers as I begin to read.

I don’t realize I’m dozing until the book is plucked from my hands. Capian pushes me onto my back, telling me to rest. Instead of complying I shift on to my side, watching as he begins undressing.

“Where were you?”

“Looking for any clues. I want to get to the bottom of who thinks it’s acceptable to poison you. So far I’ve got no leads.” He lets out a sharp sigh, brows knit together.

“I heard you were storming the castle.”

Caspian laughs. “Who did you hear that from?”

“Gemma.”

Still laughing, Caspian disappears into his closet I assume to finish changing. He returns to bed not too long after, immediately pulling me against him. “Gemma has quite the imagination.”

“Tell me about it.” I grumble. I shift a bit, getting more comfortable against his side.

He wraps both arms around me the moment I finally settle, rolling us so I am mostly on top of him, my head now on his shoulder. I feel my face heat up at the new position. This is more of an intimate position than we’d ever been in. Even though we’ve been sharing a bed for several days now I can’t help but be embarrassed. Unfortunately, my attempt at moving away is met with his hands flat on my back, pressing me against him.

“From now on you will have someone with you at all times. Ideally it will be me but in the event I cannot you will be appointed a knight.” I am able to sit up this time, practically straddling him. My hands are on his chest, his falling to my hips. I try not to think about the position I've just placed us in.

“I have to have a bodyguard?”

Caspian raises an eyebrow at the pout on my face. “Someone has tried to poison you, Dove. Twice. If you hadn’t been found in time, who knows what would happen. Your options are a bodyguard or I’m locking you in my room all day.”

I bite my lip. “That might not be a bad idea.”

There is silence for a moment before Caspian presses his hands to the middle of my back, pushing me so I’m forced to lay on him once more. His voice low as he says, “Be careful, princess, I might misunderstand you.”

I try to sit up in an attempt to ask him what he means but he doesn’t let me budge. Instead his arms are once again wrapped around me, and he tells me to sleep.

Much to my relief, the next couple of weeks go by fairly quickly. The next sparring match with Ronan after the attempt is 90% him gushing about how glad he is I’m okay and me assuring him that we can train as normal.

Less enthusiastically but still very much concerned, Dmitri and Sereifa both express how they are relieved this second attempt was not successful. Dmitri in particular seems fascinated by the idea that I am immune to poisons and I almost expect him to begin testing my reactions to various poisons during our future lessons. In fact I'm positive the only thing stopping him is the fact that Caspian would more than likely murder the vampire if he tried.

My lessons with Nathaniel have been going as normal as well. The lesson last week was a review of the cities found in Sedalia, which I did not do very well in memorizing. This lesson has us going over my family tree. I will admit I expected my family to be bigger for how long we’ve supposedly been in power. Altair VonMerlyn, despite having lived nearly two thousand years ago, is only my great-great-great grandfather. I suppose being mixed with the blood of vampires means we live longer than normal.

Something that catches my attention as I’m re-reading the family tree is that it seems each heir has only had one child. Willow is Altair’s only daughter, and she in turn had Faelan. He and his Queen had grandpa Julian, who then had my father Claudio. As far as I am aware I have no siblings.

“Hey Nathaniel?”

“Call me Nate, Princess.”

“Nate...why has there only been one birth per generation?”

“Each heir has only ever been capable of having one child.”

“Wait, what?”

“Well,” Nathaniel sits at the table next to me, looking at the family tree stretched in front of me. “It is believed that there has been a curse on the VonMerlyn bloodline from the beginning, one that only allows one birth per generation. Attempts at having more than one result in stillbirths, miscarriages or just the inability to become pregnant after the first birth.”

I look at Caspian, who has been sitting off to the side since the start of the lesson. He meets my eye. His expression is neutral, making it hard to tell how he feels about this newfound information, and even harder to wrap my mind around it. What would happen if the baby didn’t survive the birth? Did that mean the end of the VonMerlyn line?

Was there a cure, or a way to break the curse? Just like that, I feel as if life has been incredibly unfair to me.

The lesson ends shortly after, and Caspian holds his hand out, waiting for me to take it. “Does the knowledge of only being able to have one child bother you?” He asks as we leave the library.

“Kinda. I mean, I’ve always wanted a big family. Finding out that’s never been a possibility for me kind of sucks.”

Caspian looks down at me, seeming to mull over my words for a moment. He seems surprised, though I don’t understand why until he asks, “You still considered having a large family after being engaged to me?”

I stop walking right when we get to the doors of the dining hall. Caspian’s eyes are focused on me as I tap my chin thoughtfully, pretending to think hard about his question. At the prolonged silence his hand tightens around mine. I grin up at him, pulling him into the dining hall. “Why not? I think we’d make cute babies.”

“Who’s making cute babies?”

I am not surprised to see Gemma and Ronan sitting in the kitchen, already helping themselves to dinner. If I didn’t know any better I would think they lived here with how often the pair show up unexpectedly and unannounced. Not that I mind.

“Nobody, Gem. What are you guys doing here?”

“I’m not allowed to see my best friend?” Gemma pouts. I raise an eyebrow at her theatrics, taking a seat across from her. “We came to tell you something.”

“What are you pregnant?”

“No! At least I don’t think so.” Ronan’s head snaps in her direction, and I can’t help but snort at his expression. Aside from the obvious excitement dancing in his eyes, he seems shocked too. His imaginary tail is wagging as well. “I’m not pregnant.” Gemma reiterates. She kicks me under the table. “Anyway Ronan’s pack has this annual ball coming up. We wanted to invite you guys in person.”

“Every year my Alpha throws a birthday party, and tends to way overdo it. Actually, Casipan comes every year but he usually comes with--” Ronan stops talking abruptly, and I look to see Caspian all but glaring at him.

“We’ll be there.” Caspian says simply, returning to his meal.