Chapter Twenty Five

I didn’t think that I would have to watch Jonathan seriously like Masoma had claimed but the time soon came and it was even harder than I thought. Grinding herbs and applying them to his stabs every two hours was the easy part. I took liberty and asked some of the guards to help me with grinding and they gladly did and my only major job was to apply the herbs.

It was tough to just stare at Jonathan without being able to kill him but then I had given Masoma my word that no harm would come to him. Just because they all saw that I was working tirelessly to save their king, the way the guards treated me was slightly better. And then like Masoma had said, his temperature did start to rise.

I had to get warm basin’s of water and using a cloth to rub all over his body, over and over again but for some reason, the cloth and the water were the ones getting hot and soon the guards were running in and out with numerous clothes and basins of water while I tried hard to lower his temperature. Instead of warm water, I immediately switched to cold water, hoping that it would help lower the temperature and it did.

Over the course of over an hour, all I did was spread numerous clothes all over his body and at the back of his neck, tirelessly squeezing the clothes and rubbing it all over his body and by the time his temperature finally went down, I was tired and my arms were sore. I fell to my seat and closed my eyes panting in exhaustion.

“His temperature finally dropped” I muttered out loud as relief washed over me. I still remembered how Masoma had stressed that I needed to bring his temperature down. When the cold water was taking time to lower his temperature, I was already going to have one of the guards call Masoma but thankfully I didn’t give up.

Give up? Give up on Jonathan?

I immediately froze at the thought. 

“Do you need me to bring you water?” One of the guards asked, breaking my line of thought and I slowly opened my eyes to see that it was one of Jonathan's personal guards and I blinked my eyes at him.

Jonathan’s personal guard wanted to bring me water?

“You want to bring me water?” I asked to be sure I hadn’t heard wrong. I recognized him at a glance from before. Jonathan had three personal guards and he was one of them. His name was Kareem while I didn’t remember running into him much, I still remembered seeing him a lot with Jonathan. 

I watched as Kareem nodded his head to my question and I could almost laugh. A personal guard of Jonathan wanted to bring me water, it was the most hilarious thing I had heard in a long time but I had to stop myself before I laughed out loud.

“Yes. Is there a problem?” He asked and I shook my head, my lips set into a thin line.

“No, Commander Kareem, you do not need to bring me a cup of water. I am a slave, the lowest of them, you absolutely cannot bring me a cup of water” I replied and Kareem looked taken aback by my reply.

“You are working tirelessly to ensure that the King wakes up, surely you deserve a cup of water no?” he stubbornly argued and a chuckle finally escaped my lips.

“I’m helping out and before today, you have never given me another look. A good sneer most times, acting nice to me because I’m helping out so he doesn’t die; if that’s why you are so nice to meet, heck I don’t want it” I replied, my tone firm and my face void of any emotion.

“I can get the water myself” I replied, meeting his gaze. His lips turned downwards into what I believed was a smile but it soon disappeared as soon as it came.

“If you want anything, you can ask” He replied before walking out of the room. I heard the door close and immediately sighed softly. A light chuckle escaped my lips. The King’s guards were being nice to me but there was no way I was going to accept their so-called kindness.

I still remembered the way they used to scorn me and laugh at me. I remembered that day as I tried to escape, how they galloped with Jonathan and forced me to jump off the cliff. How they all laughed whenever Jonathan made a joke. 

Did they think I would jump at their kindness? Or that would erase every terrible thing they had done to me?

I rose to my feet and attempted to get water but my exhaustion quickly clawed at me and I staggered backwards landing in my chair and I sighed, feeling exhausted all over. I had been working for hours on end without any rest and now it was all crashing on me at once.

“I should have just allowed him to get me water” I muttered, immediately bursting into laughter at my own joke.

I pushed myself to my feet again as I got water for myself. The water immediately smoothened my throat and I staggered back to my seat, the exhaustion not letting me up one beat.  I checked Jonathan’s temperature and realized that he wasn't just back to normal, his paleness was gone and he looked much better. I sighed softly as I sat back in the chair beside the bed.

Exhaustion and tiredness was a respecter of no one because no matter how hard I tried to leave my eyes wide open, they refused. I started dozing off before I could understand what was happening and barely ten minutes later, my head hitting the edge of the bed and my eyes were slowly drifting close. I tried hard to let my eyes close but I had worked too hard and within seconds I was off into the goddess of sleep arms.

I didn’t know how long I had slept but a sharp pull of my arm and a shove sent me not just awake but from the bed and my seat tumbled backwards and fell to the ground. It took seconds for my brain to process what was going on and by the time I got to my feet to figure out what was going on. I realized that Jonathan was awake and was now staring at me with a numerous look.

The whole commotion was loud because the next second, Kareem and a few other guards had rushed into the room staring at us. I blinked repeatedly at Jonathan not understanding what was going on.

“Who the hell gave you permission to enter my room?” He asked, his voice thunderous as he released his alpha power. It didn’t matter that I was a beta, I immediately fell to my knees under the pressure.

“Your Highness” Kareem called and Jonathan turned to him angry, “I am yet to deal with you for allowing such insolence to come into my own room and she actually dozed off on my own bed right beside me!’ he yelled as he withdrew his pressure and I panted loudly raising my head to meet his gaze.

“You filth” Jonathan spat, “How dare you?” He continued, “You should know your place, I used to think that you do but you don’t and I’m going to teach you a lesson” he sneered at me and I immediately felt tears well up in my tears but i pushed them back refusing to cry.

“Your Highness” Kareem called again as I glanced at me and I lowered my head and nodded.

“My apologies, Your Highness,I… I …..” I stammered repeatedly, not knowing what to say. The tears rushed to my face and holding them back was proving difficult so I did what I should have done; I took to my heels and ran. I heard my name but I didn’t wait, I ran past the guards standing ignoring their bewildered looks and ran to the only safe haven I had known for a while, my room.

I pushed the door open and Serena and Lillian immediately turned to me, “Amira?” Serena called as she got up from her bed and without thinking, I delved into her arms and burst into tears, sobbing loudly.

“Oh my, Amira, what happened?” Serena asked but I could barely form a sentence out. I heard the door close and the lock being turned and Lillian came to sit beside Serena.

“Is she okay?” I heard her ask but i couldn’t reply.

“Amira, it’s alright” Serena tried to comfort me, seeing that I couldn’t answer any of her questions.

I didn’t know why I was crying either but I knew that I was pained and hurt. I was expecting Jonathan to crawl and worship the ground that I walked on just because I helped Masoma in helping preserve his life. Maybe I had expected a thank you, that he would be nicer, a little bit nicer to me. But I was wrong, I was wrong to have expected anything, even more wrong to have agreed to help Masoma in the first place, wrong to have given her my word.

It was a mistake. I was so wrong because in that split second, I had forgotten who Jonathan was; he was the devil and no matter what you did for the devil, he owes you nothing.

I also forgot that the King, Alpha Jonathan hated me. It didn’t matter if he had almost died and I had almost saved him, he hated me and nothing was ever going to change that