Katarina awoke the morning after rescuing Prince Eric Reyes feeling exhausted to her bones.

Despite not having used a significant amount of her magic, the strange man who had been the ringleader of keeping Eric hostage had performed something unlike anything she’d ever experienced before… 

Slowly opening her eyes, Kat stared at the smooth marble arched ceiling of her chamber, and continued to lay still for several long moments.

Her index finger was tapping the crisp sheets beneath her despite her weariness… which was abnormal. Usually if she was tired, there wasn’t any energy for her tics to show themselves. 

Just what… is so wrong with me…?

Taking a slow, steady breath, Kat closed her eyes.

She searched her being for her magic, searched for the burning magical hum that always was present whether she wanted it to be or not, and found…

She flinched.

Her magic was pouring through her like thick, searing molten steel.

Her heartbeat quickened.

Shifting her focus, Katarina shifted her awareness to the aggressive swell of her power in her chest that she had locked away a long time ago…

Her eyes snapped back open and a cold sweat broke out along her brow.

Her aura was already flickering wildly about herself.

“Gods. No, no, no!” Katarina sat upright, tears rising in her eyes as she jumped to her feet and immediately began running around her chamber in her chemise.

She needed to burn it away as soon as possible! Even though her body felt heavy, how was her magic more alive?!

As her fifth lap was coming to a close, Pina appeared in Katarina’s path, sitting primly as though she had been waiting there the entire time.

Skidding to a halt, Kat stared at her familiar, barely registering the calm, sweet gaze the feline bore as she reached down with trembling hands and plucked her up.

Pressing the kitten to her shoulder, Pina touched her soft cheek to her witch’s, and purred loudly.

With a shuddering breath, Kat closed her eyes. “It took me years to build up that defense… I just feel so… off balance. I don’t know what that man did to me…” she whispered to her familiar as tears began to dampen her eyelashes.

Pina nuzzled Kat’s cheek even more avidly, her whiskers brushing against the redhead’s face, tickling her.

As Kat stood in place, clutching her familiar close, an ounce of calm reentered her being. She found her breaths were once again settling back down, when a sharp knock interrupted the tentative stillness.

Giving a small start, Pina wasted no time in leaping down from her arms.

“Who is it?” Kat called out, folding her empty arms protectively.

“It’s me,” Kezia’s unmistakable voice called in hushed tones through the door. “Can I come in?”

Hastily wiping her tears, Kat quickly glanced at the full length mirror in the corner of her room to confirm she didn’t look weepy.

She grimaced.

While not weepy, she did look pale, and deep dark lines under her eyes appeared all the more dramatic.

Ah well… I’ll blame it on the late night.

Crossing her chamber and opening her door, Kat gave a half hearted smile at the Troivackian beauty whose left hand rested atop her growing belly.

“Gods, you look a fright. Come, let’s get you fixed up,” Kezia swished into the room, pressing the redhead back into the chamber gently before closing the door quietly behind herself.

“Do we need to go prepare for the coronation?” Kat asked while rubbing her eyes in an attempt to try and wake herself up and once again avoid worrisome thoughts about her unstable magic.

“You aren’t doing any work today, Ryshka.”

“Ryshka?” Kat raised an eyebrow with a shadow of a smile. “Isn’t that the old Troivackian tongue for dear or darling?”

Kezia grinned beautifully, her exquisite eyes dancing. “You know the old tongue?”

Kat nodded slowly. “My mother made sure my brother and I learned it from a young age, though we don’t often get a chance to use it.”

“The more I hear of your mother, the more interesting she seems,” Kezia gave a tinkling laugh while pulling open the wardrobe containing Katarina’s dresses.

The redhead didn’t respond as her fellow handmaiden hummed cheerily and began sifting through her clothes.

“What’s going on?” Kat asked quietly, staring at Kezia’s shining ebony locks that were half pinned back with crystals and gold chained adornments.

The handmaiden’s hands that were fluttering like graceful doves over the dresses hesitated for a moment, but then continued their work as though nothing had interrupted them in the first place.

“You are to go to the kitchens. It is after luncheon hour, so you must be hungry.”

Kat could tell there was something else that Kezia wasn’t telling her.

“So all maids are banned from my room… I’m guessing because we are really leaning into that story about a flu and that’s why no one has seen me…?”

“Something like that, Ryshka.”

Katarina could hear the smile in Kezia’s response, and so tried to force herself to calm down again, though it was proving to be difficult. “Is everyone else alright? Eric and Alina are reunited? Celeste and Mr. Kraft aren’t in any trouble?”

“Yes, everyone is safe and sound here, and I’m given to understand it is in large thanks to you, Lady Katarina.” At last, Kezia turned around with the selected gown in her hand.

She had picked one of deep yellow and was holding it up between her and Kat with a satisfied shine to her eyes.

“Here we are. This will match your eyes nicely.”

When Kat didn’t move a muscle, and merely stared blankly at the dress, Kezia allowed her pleasant expression to change as her brows lowered and her mouth twisted in a small worrisome knot.

“Everything will be alright,” she attempted to soothe, but this only succeeded in making Kat jar out of her daze enough to take the dress and avoid her gaze.

“Thank you, Lady Kezia. I’ll be sure to make my way down to the kitchen. Am I supposed to take the servants’ stairwell?”

Kezia watched the redheaded witch as she walked over to the changing screen and began to undress.

“Yes. Everyone is preparing for the coronation tomorrow, so the far northwest stairwell will be empty and it will let you out directly by the kitchens to your right.”

“Alright. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Kat replied distantly.

She just needed to be alone…

Especially if she was to get her thoughts and feelings under control before whatever was about to happen, happened.

Kezia waited, staring at the wrought iron screen pensively. She was torn between wanting to try and console whatever Katarina had endured the previous night, and allowing her time and space to process whatever troubled her.

With a sigh, the expectant mother gave her belly a small rub before reaching a decision, and taking her leave. She had decided that she could always try to speak more with the redhead about it later.

After pulling on the deep yellow dress over her head, and slipping her leather sandals on, Kat considered doing something with her hair, but the heaviness in her arms deterred any motivation to complete the task.

So after a quick brushing through of the coppery snarls, she set off to the kitchens.

The castle was eerily quiet as she traveled through its lonely corridors, but in a way she was grateful for its chilly emptiness; it meant that she didn’t have to mask her true feelings.

She idly wondered what was awaiting her in the kitchens.

Perhaps Alina and her husband wanted a recounting of what had transpired the night before… Or maybe it was just so she could eat in peace.

Katarina had set foot at the bottom of the servants’ stairwell, and was once again greeted with the same hush she had experienced the entire trip down.

She felt too tired for this new anxiety-inducing strangeness.

She faced the kitchen door with her eyes fluttering.

I wish I could just stay in my chamber all day… 

Pressing the door opened, Kat stepped into the kitchen, and at long last she laid eyes on another person.

Frowning, she closed the door behind herself as she gazed upon the person’s back as they faced the fire; the repetitive clanking of steel against a porcelain bowl reaching her ears.

“Eric?” she called out uncertainly.

Turning around, a pale green bowl filled with batter in his hands, his wavy blonde hair pulled back in its ponytail, the prince of Daxaria revealed he was dressed in a cream colored peasant’s tunic, with an apron tied around his waist.

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“Afternoon,” he greeted with a small half smile and a nod of his head.

Kat stepped farther into the room and peered around.

No one else was present…

“What’s going on?” she asked while drawing closer to the cooking table.

“Ah, I asked Lady Kezia to help me have a meeting with you here,” Eric explained while setting the bowl down and turning back to the clay oven with a grate over the flames. He then reached to its side and plucked up a cast iron pan that he then set over the heat before adding a dollop of butter that he then pushed around the pan until it was thoroughly coated.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Kat pointed out while gingerly reaching out to touch the table’s worn top.

“Right, well I can elaborate in a bit. Been a while since I’ve cooked, and I don’t think we want burnt pancakes.”

Kat blinked.

“Sit down,” Eric looked over his shoulder at her, his hazel eyes unreadable. “You look tired.”

Without even giving the time for Kat to react to his words, the prince turned back to his task.

He proceeded to grab the green bowl and scoop out the batter into the pan, immediately filling the room with the very familiar smell of her father’s special pancake recipe.

The smell of cinnamon and nutmeg… the faintly sweet aroma of the batter cooking…

Warmth and emotion overcame Kat as she sunk into the chair at the table without a word.

“How…” she began to speak but didn’t get the chance to finish before Eric proceeded to flip the breakfast pastry over once to reveal a perfectly golden crispy circle.

So, she remained silent as he continued to cook pancake after pancake, until there was a stack of twelve that he carefully carried over to the table, and set in front of her.

The steam curling up and assaulting her senses in all the right ways, succeeded in relaxing Kat’s nerves even further.

“Now, I think you were trying to ask me something?” Eric prompted while dunking his hands in a sudsy bucket, and then snagging a tea towel from the table and drying his hands.

“What are you doing…? With making me pancakes and… and arranging a secret meeting?” Kat asked, her sluggish mind struggling with the sequence of peculiar events.

She tried to glean something from Eric’s expression as she spoke, but aside from noticing he was pale and looked rather tired himself, learned nothing.

“Well, for one, you rescued me. Least I can do is make you a meal to say thanks,” he began with a sincere smile.

Kat didn’t smile back. She stared at him with a funny feeling brewing in her gut.

When he noticed her wariness, Eric let out a sigh and dropped his eyes to the table. There was no point in dragging things out.

“Kat, how much do you remember about when you rescued me?”

Her golden eyes snapped to his face.

She hadn’t even begun to try and piece together the chaos from the night before.

Blinking, Kat cast her mind back…

She knew the strange man had broken her defenses and forced her magic to the forefront where it ruled her being… She remembered throwing some of the kidnappers around… she remembered the undying thirst… the need to end the man who had done that to her…

After that, things grew hazy.

The foreign violent urges had faded to something else though. Something gentler, and at the time, it had been a relief.

When she had opened her eyes and returned to full consciousness, she had found herself in Eric’s arms on the broom riding back to the castle, and shortly thereafter had the vague recollection of being escorted to bed.

“I think I recall most of it,” Kat began while still feeling as though there was something else she may have been missing… “I remember chucking around a few men… one was a water witch and the other… he… he did something that I-”

Eric placed the tea towel back on the table and stepped back awkwardly.

Kat frowned. “What is it? What happened?”

The prince bit down on his tongue, and his left hand gently clasped into a fist that he tapped his leg with.

It was something uncomfortable to talk about.

Kat realized this and stared at him in alarm. “What did I do?”

Wincing apologetically, Eric did his best to maintain eye contact with her when he said, “You kissed me, Kat.”

The redhead’s face grew slack, and she managed to grow even more pale.

“I… what?”

“That’s why I wanted to talk to you before we convened with Brendan Devark and my sister. I wasn’t sure what you remembered and figured you might want to know everything before walking into that meeting.”

Kat blinked at Eric.

The whistle of a kettle behind him made the prince turn, once again seizing the tea towel before hastily pouring the hot water into the awaiting rustic teapot.

Despite being several feet away, Kat could smell her familiar morning brew from where she sat.

“I think it has something to do with what the devil did to you magically. You went from, well… yourself, to how you described yourself to me in the desert about the coyote.”

The redhead didn’t move a muscle. In fact, she had become completely catatonic.

Eric was starting to debate poking her forehead to snap her out of it, when she at long last spoke.

“Are you making me food, and doing all of this… because you pity me?” she asked quietly.

It was Eric’s turn to react with utter bafflement. “Why the hell would I pity you? I was the one who was kissed. Not to mention, I will remind you, I was also the one who was abducted and tortured.”

“Right,” Kat let out a breath of relief over hearing his glib response. “How are you feeling after that, by the way?”

“Oh, you know, right as bloody rain after meeting Satan himself.”

Kat raised an eyebrow. “Hold on… earlier you referenced the devil and I thought you were giving your kidnappers a fun nickname, but… you mean to tell me you were taken by actual Satan?”

Eric nodded, his eyes becoming shuttered.

“So that’s why it felt like he was… looking at my soul…” Kat sounded out, her realization bringing with it a spark of gladness.

Staring flatly at the noblewoman’s odd reaction to the news, Eric couldn’t help but comment.

“You know… I understand you are a little outside the wheelhouse of normal, but most people aren’t happy about having their soul violated and meeting the figurehead of evil.”

Kat waved him off with an easy smile while pulling the tower of pancakes closer. She suddenly was looking more like herself.

“I was scared that my magic had made me lose control and was making me do those horrible things, but if it was the devil making it happen? Pfft. Well that’s a load off my mind. Now we just need to avoid him… or maybe summon Kraken and my Da and everything will be fine.”

Eric opened and closed his mouth as Katarina tucked into her meal with renewed vigor.

Her knack for rebounding off of bad times was impressive.

Even though he knew that there was far more to be worried about than she seemed to believe, he didn’t want to overwhelm her with bad tidings… 

Not when she was clearly still feeling the effects of her confrontation the night before. 

Shaking his head, Eric’s mind then nudged him closer to the other small detail of how the devil himself, after looking into the deepest recesses of his heart and soul, had informed the prince that he was in love with Katarina Ashowan.

The notion sent a fresh wave of nauseated panic through Eric, but he quickly pushed it away.

Whatever he was feeling toward the redhead wouldn’t last.

There were far too important things to attend to than something so futile.

No, he had simply made her breakfast using a recipe her father, Finlay Ashowan, had taught Eric many years ago, in hopes of making her feel a bit better. She had saved him, and he was expressing gratitude and making sure she heard about their… encounter before the official meeting that was scheduled later to avoid surprising her.

It was just common decency.

Nothing else.

Nothing more meaningful…

Eric reached out and grabbed a fork for himself with the intention of helping Katarina consume the pancakes, though he already knew it really wasn’t a necessary aid.

Whatever strange kinship he had developed with Katarina Ashowan was from mere circumstances, and soon he would be too busy to even have a spare breath to think otherwise.

And even if he were in love with Katarina Ashowan?

There was no way in hell he would put her through the torture of being someone important to him.