Hey everybody how are you today?

Yes, yes, I know, you are all thinking: 

"Why did you take so long to update??"

"It's been a week!" 

"I'm dying to know what happens!" 

My only excuse is that I'm lazy, I love to procrastinate, and I have a bunch of projects still in need of finishing, I'm very stressed out.  I also like food...a lot. 

Hopefully, once I get my crap together, I will be updating every Friday (hopefully, let's all pray to fate ;) and since my summer starts June 15th, there will be updates twice a week instead. 

Someone in the comment section suggested that I make other books that follow the other princes lives and loves, would you peeps like that? I already have some ideas if I were to do that. 

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If you guys want to make me banners or covers, you totally can and I will post them in a future chapter and dedicate it to you. Thanks!

Remember to be good to each other!  

Byeee

Word Count: 1590

Chapter Thirteen: 

It had been five hours. Five excruciatingly long hours since I had made my discovery. 

Adrian didn't have a mark either. 

Did that mean we were mates, because neither of us had marks? Did that mean neither of us had mates? Where was the scar from? 

I sat upon my bed, in the room I had tried to escape from two days prior, pondering the entire idea that Adrian didn't have a mark. The way he acted when I realized his arm was bare told me that he didn't have a mark. Plus, why would you fake a mark if you already have one? 

One thing I knew, though, is that there wasn't a soulmate before. He wasn't mated to anyone else, and survived the rejection ritual - no. That doesn't leave a scar on the skin. The earth unbinding twin souls as mates doesn't leave a scratch on the flesh, it takes away the mark leaving it without any blemishes. It only leaves a scar on the heart. 

So where did the scar come from? How did he get it? Did someone...do that to him?

There was only one way his mark could've been removed, and it would be highly unlikely for him to survive. The Exitium Ceremony. It was the most gruesome, most dangerous, most painful, most-anything bad, thing that could ever happen to the De Terra. For someone to survive would be in the negative percentages. Practically impossible. 

The Exitium Ceremony, as most of us are taught in High School, is the ritual in which a Mate-Tattoo is removed from the wearer. The tattoo, is first burned with the flame of fate - one of the rarest things you could find on earth - then the tattoo is carved from the skin with a silver knife, and mutilated. Whilst doing this, words written in Fyvrian are recited over and over again, which awaken the earth and force it to remove one's mark. After the mark is removed, the person is usually tortured until they beg for death. 

Could Adrian have gone through the ritual? What would that make me to him? I couldn't be his mate because he wouldn't have one either, so why was I feeling all of these things towards him? 

As my thoughts continued to endlessly unravel, my door opened, to reveal a stressed, tired-looking, Prince Adrian, sweat dripping from his forehead. His eyes were a sunken green, like the dying leaves of a rose bush, each one wilting into a musty grey than a dark brown color. His lips were the brightest thing about him, and even those seemed to wilt into a frown. 

"I know what you must be thinking." He panted, stumbling into the room and closing the door behind him. He didn't look good, he was sickly pale, as if Fate was holding hands with Death and  they were deciding what to do with Prince Adrian. Kill him or save him? 

"Adrian you don't look so go-" he held out one of his hands to quiet me while the other gripped the bed post to keep him upright. He slumped against it, pressing all of his weight against the post like it was his life source. But then he looked at me for a split second, and when his eyes lit up, it seemed as if I was his life source. 

Taking a deep long breath, Adrian spoke, "I was two." He mumbled, closing his eyes and leaning against the post. "I was two when it happened. I don't remember the details of the event exactly, but I remember the pain." He panted quietly, he was sick. And it was worrying me. What was he on about? 

Why was he so sick looking?

"I had been kidnapped from the castle by men in dark cloaks. Each of them were old, some, allegedly people of the Elders. They'd grabbed me from my crib and taken me to a cave in the mountains. They had kept me for months, torturing me, beating me, I was barely a toddler and I had endured more pain than most would in a lifetime." He Adrian let out a slowly sigh, "Th-They-"

"They preformed The Exitium Ceremony on you," I interrupted, realizing the weight of what he was telling me. The Crowned Prince, Prince Adrian, had gone through a ritual that should have killed him. All of it, should have killed him. 

Adrian gave a solemn nod, his face grim. "They removed my mark, they stole away any chance of love with a mate. I don't remember the ritual for the most part, but I remember my tears, hot and burning like liquid gold, my screams of agony, my body convulsing on the cold cave ground. It was a pain that no one should ever bare. I was supposed to have died, the hooded men wanted to put one of their sons on the throne, but when I didn't die, they nearly went insane. They planned on keeping me, testing me, torturing me more, and they weren't going to stop until they figured out why a weak child survived the most dangerous ritual, something impossible to survive. But my fathers army heard my cries, they rescued me from the agony. When they noticed my lack of a tattoo, my father wanted me killed. My mothers kindness rescued me. My mother is my savior, and for all of these years, I thought I had survived for her." Adrian opened his eyes, looking at me again, and as we held eye contact, I noticed something off about his last words. 

"You thought it was for her? Why not now?" I stared into his intense gaze, daring him for the answers I so desperately wanted, no, needed.

Adrian gave me a weak smile, that sent butterflies into my stomach. "Two weeks ago, one of my fathers advisors told me about a girl he knew, two years younger than I, who didn't have a mark either. This man was one of the very few who knew about my mark, or lack thereof. He told me this girl was unmated, didn't care for a mate, and had a wild soul. One more beautiful, more riveting than anything I had ever experienced. The more he told me about this girl, the more intrigued I was about her. He convinced me so much that this girl could possibly be my mate, that I changed where we would tour on my birthday in search of my mate. I made sure Esterhaven was at least our second stop." 

Was the man Adrian was telling me about lying? Did he know me? Did I know him? Who would know about my lack of a mark? Was there another girl without a mark out there? So many questions were being kicked around, I could barely comprehend what Adrian was telling me.

"The man, was there at the gala the night I met you, he was in the shadows, watching us meet. Making sure we met. He told me the girl without the mark was named Jade, but when I met you, and saw the mark on your arm, I was discouraged. Until I saw the smudge in your facade, you used concealer to hide the areas of your mark you had messed up on." Adrian gave me a weak smirk when I blinked in surprise. 

Adrian knew the whole time that I was unmarked. 

"Jackson told you." The realization hit me like a brick, actually, the realization hit me like a truck, driving one-hundred miles per hour. 

Jackson was the only king advisor I knew, he was quite good at keeping secrets, loved to act in his spare time, and was the only outsider who could have possibly known about my predicament. Maybe that was why Jackson didn't seemed surprised when I told him and Angelica about my Mate-Tattoo. 

Prince Adrian nodded before moving himself so he was sitting on my bed, he shoulders sagging before he suddenly leaned against me, putting most of his weight into my arms. He seemed so weak, I didn't dare move him. Adrian sighed, and at my touch, he seemed to be illuminated. 

"We are mates, Jade. We have been chosen by the earth as soul mates, and we mustn't take that for granted." The idea seemed ridiculous, The Crowned Prince of Aldmist mated to some weak girl from a small city, it was insane. But as I felt Adrian gently rubbing my forearm, I started accepting it, feeling the tingles rush across my flesh. Suddenly, I felt tired, exhausted, I frowned when Adrian up above me, standing, no longer looking so sick. His hand pressed against my back and slowly guided it onto my bed, my head hitting the pillows. 

"Adrian..." I mumbled, fearing this sudden wave of fatigue. In this one moment, Adrian seemed to be my safety blanket, and I was scared without him.

"It's okay, love." Adrian said quietly, one of his hands pressed against my cheek, the warmth of it making me feel calmer. "I was sick without you, it made my wound worse, but now that I'm with you, you're healing me. You'll feel better when you wake up." His thumb lightly brushed across my lip, the tingles fading slightly.

"I don't want to sleep." I objected, like a child. My eyelids started closing on their own accord, my vision blurring. 

"Yes you do," Adrian said softly, and with those words floating out of my ears, I fell unconscious, my last thoughts, 

Adrian is my soul mate.