The Lycan King's Healer
The Lycan King’s Healer – Chapter 67

Aldrich soon bounded into the room a couple moments after I did. I did not turn to look at him, too busy staring at the doctors with my arms crossed tightly. I was not afraid of the answers they had evident all over their faces, and I was even slightly agitated at the concern in their eyes. I wore the same nightgown for seven nights in a row, only leaving my bed to occasionally bathe, and had not eaten or drank much. I probably looked more like the corpses they have been examining rather than their hostess.

“My lady,” our main doctor, Dr. Laurence, regarded me. His lips were set very tightly; he was not thrilled about the news either.

“Have you come to a conclusion?” Aldrich inquired from behind me, the worry in his voice further irritating me.

“I’m afraid we have,” Dr. Laurence answered, nodding curtly. He looked at us warily over his thick glasses. “We have deemed the victims’ causes of death as all poison.”

“Poison?” We both echoed in unison. I glanced back at him to replace his eyebrows pinched together, not quite believing it.

“Doctor Laurence, you know I trust you and your team with my life,” Aldrich prompted, shaking his head, “but how could this be?”

“How could most of the staff be mass poisoned, while others are okay?” I demanded, feeling the thick rings under my eyes more than ever. Maybe Aldrich was right about me hitting my breaking point.

The doctor sifted through his paperwork as he relayed the information to us. “I’m not an investigator, just a doctor. I have concluded that the servants were poisoned with Murder Toxin. That of course is what it is generally referred to as, the medical term being Tisneisium.”

Murder Toxin. It was a poison nicknamed after its most popular use; to kill people. Someone deliberately murdered the victims.

I simply shook my head before storming out of the room. I was going back to bed.

Aldrich followed me upstairs. I guess he decided I had enough time alone. Whatever his reasoning was, I did not wait for him. I ventured up the stairs through the foyer and into our chambers before curling back into the bed. The only place where bad things didn’t happen.

“I don’t know why you blatantly refuse to confront issues at hand now,” he said, standing at the foot of my bed. Excuse me–our bed. I had forgotten, since he had not used it for a week. “Why are you relinquishing right when I need you the most?”

I simply laughed at that.

“Oh, that’s funny? My wife is forcing me to deal with this jarring issue in the estate on my own and that apparently is a good joke to you.”

I sat up, glaring at him before sneering, “It’s your turn now.”

He raised his eyebrows at me. “My turn for what, Cathy?”

“You act like I don’t know exactly what you’re going through,” I snarled, “when I lived it. Not for a week, but for months.”

“What?” he demanded now.

“When there were notes taped to your son’s back and placed on my nightstand, and arrows shot at me in the gardens, I had to deal with that all on my own,” I said coldly, sinking back down to the pillow. “You can handle yourself for a week.”

“I can’t believe you’ve grown completely jaded to this,” Aldrich scoffed, looking at me incredulously. “Do you not have any care for the men being killed?”

“I tried to heal him, Aldrich,” I spat, frowning at him, “but I know I can’t. I can’t control or fix anything happening around here anymore. So what’s the point?”

He shook his head at me in disbelief, and even with slight disgust. “This is not the woman I love,” he said before leaving me alone in my bed to wither and fall back asleep, the only place I had left where people weren’t dying.

The next morning, Theo woke me up and tried to coerce me into the grounds to train with him since Alan and Aldrich were busy. I was sure it was a ploy from Aldrich to get me out of bed, but so be it. I wanted to spend time with my son, and maybe it would provide some form of escapism to merely focus on the arrow in my son’s hand and his cries of victory when he made the targets.

Danika stopped us on our way. She looked at me with thick concern, like I was going to drop dead at any moment. I rolled my eyes. “Good morning, sister,” I said teasingly, placing a hand on Theo’s shoulder.

“Are you doing alright? Alan said you haven’t risen from bed since the night it snowed,” she said, frowning.

“Since when do you gossip with Alan?” I teased, but she didn’t laugh or smile. I then sighed. “I’m fine, Danika. Thank you for taking care of Theo as always. I have just been tired these past couple days.”

“It’s unlike you,” she said.

“I know, but I’m feeling better today. Theo and I are going outside to the grounds, isn’t that right?” I looked down at him.

“Yup!” he said with a grin that indicated he was absolutely oblivious to the dead body that was just on those same grounds. I was so glad his innocence was preserved through all of this, not one person letting it slip. Those grounds were all that boy had.

“Alright, whatever you say,” Danika said with a nod. She knew not to push or question me, but would also never be stifled as far as her concerns.

I ventured out to the back grounds with him, the guards watching us closely.

“Let me see all you’ve been boasting about,” I teased with a tired smile. This prodded him on with ease. He immediately got to practicing, and it admittedly impressed me with how much he has learned since the last time I watched him. He was able to shoot while running, jumping, behind his back, and even with his eyes closed.

The grounds were still covered in a sheet of snow, but it was slowly melting, soon becoming sparse as the hair on a balding head. It looked like streaks of icing on a plain cookie, smeared through the grass scantily. The trees were my favorite part; the snow had frozen over the leaves, making them sparkle like diamonds in the daylight or powdered gems. Today, the sky was pale, but blue enough to contrast against the milky landscape.

Being in nature was the one thing that made me forget everything happening. I even felt less tired, my eyes feeling more alert and open. There was still a weakness in my bones that made me rather sluggish in my movements, but my face no longer felt heavy.

I watched him as he experimented in hitting the target with his eyes closed while doing a twirl, but he missed the target board, and we both watched it fly through the field.

“Mommy, can you get that?” he asked sweetly. I nodded with a smile before making my way over to the arrow in the snow.

As I walked, things became more shadowed. The trees were blurry, like I was seeing them through a film of tears. Exhaustion suddenly seized my entire body and as that happened, the shadows in my vision then became opaque, completely enveloping me in darkness.