Chapter 13

The details of the histories of Myth Hunters was an amusing yet annoying subject for Jace.

Before he was born and during his mother’s rein vampires were at war with the mortal world, wanting to rid the world of myths and enslave all mortals. A large percentage of the Myth Hunters joined the cause of the Vampires. It has since become a point of shame for them after their and the Vampires’ defeat. To turn a new leaf they started first by trying to rid the world of Vampires completely. Jace had never seen a Vampire before in his life and though he knew a few existed out there somewhere Myth Hunters were the reason he had never encountered one. Now the Myth Hunters were trying to rid the world of the rest of the mythical creatures, even the ones who had fought hard in protecting the mortals during the Vampire war that the Myth Hunters were on the wrong side of. Clearly it is not really about protecting the mortals or else the Myth Hunters would have no issues with the Phoenix nor the Fujimura pack.

It was funny that this whole blood war was out of embarrassment yet it was also infuriating.

Nikita had sat with him during the long class, detailing the leaders of different armies within the Myth Hunters and where they stood. Both he and Nikita were both mentally drained from trying to memorise names and statuses.

“I think I’ve forgotten most of that already,” Nikita said as they walked out of the classroom and far enough away for the teacher to not be able to hear.

Jace smiled a little. “I think so too, hopefully the half that I remember and the half that you remember don’t overlap so that we cover everything.”

Nikita rolled her eyes at Jace’s joke. After a pause she said, “I wonder if your parents actually do remember all of that.”

“Well they lived through it so they would have better context for all of the names,” Jace said.

“Yeah I suppose, still it’s a lot.”

They walked away from the school and towards the royal section of the palace. They had a few hours off and seemed to have the same thing in mind. So late at night the palace was mostly empty and quite dark.

During the warmer months when the sun shone all day and all night, the palace was a sparkling diamond of glowing white. In its darkened state it looked like a fallen angel, there was just something so sombre about the grays that crawled up the white walls.

A lone figure walked toward them in the hallway. Not wearing a coat. Jace found that very curious and as she came further into view Jace could see it was Momoka. Jace walked over to her but Nikita just kept walking.

“See you,” Jace said to Nikita.

“Yeah,” was all that Nikita said as she slipped away.

Momoka looked up at Jace, he caught a glimpse of her face and she looked tired.

“Are you ok Momoka?” he asked.

She rubbed her eyes. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Jace smiled a little. “Decided to do a little exploring instead.”

Momoka blushed bright red. “Oh- I’m sorry is that not allowed.”

Jace laughed softly. “It’s quite alright. Have you found anything of interest on your late night walks yet?”

Momoka thought for a moment. “I’m usually a bit too nervous to go into random rooms so I have seen a lot of hallways.

Jace laughed again. “I can’t fault you, this palace is rather full of hallways but follow me I’ll show you something worth exploring.”

“Y-you don’t have to,” Momoka stammered a little, “You’re probably really tired from all of your Princely duties, you should get some sleep. Don’t stay up on account of me.”

Jace was a little taken aback by that. But then he remembered she couldn’t possibly know, it wasn’t a fact that was widely shared. “Don’t worry I’m fine,” he said and begun to lead the way.

Timidly Momoka followed the Prince.

He continued, “You see Momoka, royal Phoenix are strange creatures, we run on pure sunlight. It does strange things to a body, bleaches everything and almost everything we touch. Unlike you Momoka and most other myths, I'm not actually immortal.” Momoka nearly stopped in her tracks but Jace continued speaking. “ As the saying goes ‘The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long’ we will only live until we are 60 years old. However it’s not all doom and gloom as we don’t need to and can’t sleep. We have energy that makes us completely unstoppable. I do not truly know what it means to be tired.”

Momoka looked completely shocked. She was silent for a while. Jace worried that he had told her too much and turned her away but as they turned a corner she spoke up, “So technically you are a mortal?”

Jace smiled. “I’m more mortal than most mortals when it comes to life span as their average life is ten to fifteen years longer than mine.”

“Thank you for sharing that with me,” Momoka said softly.

“You’re welcome, I just feel like it’s an important piece of information to know going forward,” Jace said.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Momoka blush.

They continued on, climbing higher and further across the palace, passing by the royal section and Jace’s own quarters. He lead her up higher and higher, lots of stairs but it was needed for their destination. Momoka did not tire, she followed along dutifully.

Their destination had a warm handle as Jace gripped it.

“Are you ready?” He asked.

“Yes,” she said, her curiosity piquing.

“I don’t think you are,” he said and opened the door into the most wondrous sight Momoka had ever seen.

Light, green, colour, warmth and a rich earthy floral scent. Sensations that nearly brought Momoka to her knees.

It was a greenhouse.

The humidity within allowed for beautiful tropical flowers of the most stunningly vibrant colours. The most colour Momoka had seen in her whole life. The scent of all the flowers was almost as strong as the humidity to Momoka. Such a beautiful colourful area existed in the frozen wasteland in which they lived.

“How?”

Jace smiled as they stepped into the greenhouse. “Lynn demanded we had one for flowers and mythical plants.”

“Lynn is amazing to have dreamt up something like this,” Momoka said and she started to wander through the greenhouse.

“I’m pretty proud of her,” Jace said while looking at a flower whose petals were the colour of a sunset.

“You should be, you have such a wonderful life here, I didn’t think it could get any better,” she said wistfully as she collapsed at a bench to admire everything.

Jace sat beside her and he too admired the garden. Though the glass only showed the night sky above there was magically created light shining down on the garden to keep it from dying from the erratic weather. He could feel the water in the air as he breathed in, it almost sizzled against the power within his skin.

“I don’t sit back and admire it nearly enough,” Jace admitted.

She looked up at him, with those big brown eyes that melted Jace’s heart. “I wish I could be more involved in your life.”

“I would very much like that,” Jace said, he couldn’t quite keep the nervous edge out of his voice.

Momoka built up her courage. “Prince Jace, I really like you!”

Jace blushed, colour blossoming over the pure white of his skin. His heart raced, how could he explain his curse? He had to tell her it couldn’t be a secret.

“Momoka I like you too, that might have been a little obvious,” Jace said with a huge smile on his now rosy face yet it darkened as he continued, “however I must explain that myself and my whole family have a romance curse.”

Momoka’s face turned from bliss to shock, with a swallow and wide eyes she asked, “Was it a witch?”

Jace smiled sadly. “Oh I wish that were the case, it would make it far more simple.” Momoka looked a little crestfallen and confused so Jace continued, “It is not a curse in the magical sense of the word. It's more just something that is completely certain. That all the royal family’s romantic relationships will fail.”

Momoka frowned. “But what about your parents then?”

Jace gave a humourless laugh. “That is not romantic. It is duty bound. You see, to continue the lineage of the royal Phoenix’s power we are duty bound to produce both a male and female heir to our positions. While we are allowed to marry outside of our obligation it happens so rarely as a curse of intense jealousy hangs around any partner we might have.”

Momoka realised there was a gap in her information. “Who is to be your future Queen?”

Jace sighed. “Nikita. She is not happy about it and nor am I. I want to break the curse so badly-”

Jace was cut off by Momoka reaching his height and kissing him.

Her lips were as soft as he imagined as he kissed back.