“Adeline, I heard the banshee’s cry.” The whisper pierced through Adeline’s sleep and woke her up in an instant.

Adeline gasped sharply and her lashes batted open in terror. She was unsure if she was dreaming or if Theodore had whispered to her for real.

She glanced at Theodore to see that he was looking back at her. She felt a sting in her heart upon seeing him awake. Because it could only mean that she had indeed heard Theodore giving her the warning that she wished she never heard.

Even in the dim flickering light from the lantern, she could tell that he was serious. However, Adeline was still in denial. She furrowed and kept on giving a pleading look to Theodore as if she was asking him to say that he didn’t mean what he said.

But Theodore had spoken but the truth.

He tightened his grip on Adeline’s shoulder and gravely urged her, “Adeline… we have to go. Now. I’m sorry to say this but…” it was very hard for him to say the next sentence but he forced it out of him anyway, “We don’t have much time with him.”

In the very next moment, Adeline’s heart rate spiked so high that she was able to hear her heartbeat.

A chill shiver ran down her spine and down to her toes. Her tears were stuck in her throat. Her lips curved downwards. And her breathing sounded forced, almost as if she was choking.

“Okay,” she managed to breathe out a single word and nodded.

Theodore sat up on the bed and gave a hand to her, “Come, let’s go.”

After Theodore urged her, all she could do was feebly take his hand and agree to him. She didn’t want her father’s soul to drift away from his body before she would reach his room.

She wanted to properly say goodbye to her father.

She wanted to be with him in his last few moments here on Earth.

She wanted to hug him and say that she loved him. In fact, there were so many things that she wanted to say to him that her head started to spin as she tried to wrap her mind around those things.

“Adeline, hurry up!” Theodore urged her again and grabbed his shirt.

Adeline gathered her emotions that were already going haywire. She swiftly got up on her feet and climbed down the bed. She gazed at Theodore who used his magic to dress in an instant.

And in the next moment, he held Adeline’s hand and teleported inside the King’s bedchamber.

Adeline glanced at her father’s bed. Dragomir was sleeping so peacefully that Adeline had to stare at his stomach for a while to check if it was heaving.

She breathed in shakily and sighed. He was still breathing… at least for now.

Theodore leaned close to Adeline and whispered to her, “I will call the others. You should wake him up and tell him what’s about to go down.”

Adeline didn’t want Theodore to leave her alone. She didn’t think she could tell her father that his time was about to be up if she was left alone. But she knew that she couldn’t be selfish and keep Theodore from going.

“Be quick,” Adeline whispered back to Theodore and he instantly disappeared from the room.

Adeline turned her gaze towards her father again. She took a deep breath in and took a step towards Dragomir’s bed. But when she did, she realized that her knee was barely holding up. Her legs were violently shaking and so were her hands.

So she called her father from where she was. “Father…” she spoke but her voice disappeared before it came out of her lips.

She cleared her throat and tried calling him again, “Father!”

“Hmm…” Dragomir answered while he was still half-asleep. He turned his head to where Adeline was. “Adeline?” He furrowed his brows and blinked several times to get a clear view.

And from the look of horror on his daughter’s face, he didn’t need to guess why she was there in his room.

Still, he was as calm as the midnight sea. He sat up on the bed and shifted to make some space. He then gave a soft smile to Adeline and held out his hand. And he asked in a calm and soft voice, “Adeline, why are you standing there? Come here.”

Adeline clasped her cold palms together to stop them from trembling. Her heart was already hammering inside her chest and the pain of having to lose her father was slowly taking over her. She could feel her whole body turning cold.

Up until now, she was doing everything in her power to stop herself from breaking down in front of her father. She was trying her best to put on a brave face.

However, the moment she heard her father’s loving and warm voice, a dreadful thought ran inside her mind. “I’m never going to hear his voice again! I’m never going to see him… ever again!”

The stinging pain in her heart became unbearable. She couldn’t pretend to be brave anymore.

“Father!” She cried in despair and ran into her father’s arms one last time.

Adeline buried her face in her father’s chest and bawled in agony. She wanted to say so many things to her father but all she could do was cry.

Her loud cries garnered the attention of the Royal Guards and they came running inside to check on their King.

“Your Majesty, are you al–”

Dragomir gestured to them to keep their voice down. And he asked them to stand where they were so that they could witness that there was no foul play in his death.

Though the guards were confused, they did as the King had ordered them.

Dragomir then lovingly caressed Adeline’s silver hair and kissed her head. His heart got crushed upon hearing his beloved daughter crying hysterically. She was already out of breath and was coughing and choking while clinging onto him.

His eye rims were glistening with tears, ready to roll down like a waterfall. He wanted to ask Adeline to stop crying but he couldn’t speak a single word because of the nasty lump in his throat. So he tightly hugged Adeline instead and looked up to control his tears from falling, but to no avail.

Adeline felt the warm drops of tears on her scalp and the pain and guilt in her heart that she was trying to suppress multiplied exponentially.

The guilt of being the cause behind her father’s death swallowed her whole again. “Father, I’m so sorry for–”

“Shhh…” Dragomir already knew what she was going to say and didn’t let her ask for his forgiveness. “There is nothing you need to be sorry about, my child. This was God’s will and his will alone.”

Dragomir pushed Adeline back to look into her eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes were swollen and red. He wiped the tears off her face and asked her, “Adeline, consider this my final wish. Don’t blame yourself anymore if you wish to let me rest in peace.”

“But–”

“No buts!”

Dragomir heard commotions outside. He had previously asked Theodore to call all the Royals when his death would be near. And he wondered if Theodore had informed all of the Royals by now.

He had asked to spread the rumor that he was having heart failure. Dragomir had to act the part before the others would start to swarm in.

But before that, he wanted to show his one last smile to Adeline so that she would always have a good memory of him.

He wiped his tears and smiled as brightly as he could.

He held out his hand again and asked his daughter, “Adeline, promise me that you will be a great Queen.”

Adeline took his hand and nodded her head, “I promise to protect our people and our Kingdom.”

Dragomir patted on his daughter’s palm and asked again, “And promise me that you will not drown yourself in grief. Or else I will become a ghost and come to tickle you.”

Adeline gave a wistful chuckle but her eyes were filled with tears again. She looked into her father’s deep blue eyes and whispered in a voice full of sorrow, “I love you, father.”

Dragomir wiped a drop of tear that had managed to escape again and wrapped Adeline in a warm embrace. “I love you too, my beautiful child. I will keep on watching you.. So, don’t you dare be sad.”