Mated To The Hybrid Prince - Chapter 82: Chapter 82

(Zion’s POV)
It’s been five years… but that morning still stays fresh in my mind.
I opened my eyes to the throne room in ruins. My head was pounding, and the air was thick with dust. Pillars cracked, the roof was ripped open, and the polished floor was smeared with dirt and blood.
I was barefooted.
Everyone around me began to stir like they’d just woken from a long sleep; groggy and confused... Zelda sat up, holding her head, eyes wide with panic.
“Dad?” she called, her voice shaking.
My father stood slowly, clutching the arm of the throne. He looked around, and for the first time in my life, I saw fear on his face. Not anger. Just fear.
My mother’s hands trembled as she reached for him. “What… what happened?”
No one answered.
Thamorum was crying over his dead men on the ground, while the other guards looked at each other like lost children.
Ragnar was pacing restlessly in my chest. “Something’s wrong. Something’s missing.”
But he couldn’t tell me what.
My father finally spoke, his voice rough.
He looked over at Celeste’s parents, who were sitting near the edge of the broken platform. They looked just as dazed as everyone else. "Gather the council. I want everyone accounted for."
He looked at me then. “Zion, take your sister inside.”
I nodded, but I was just as lost. I held Zelda’s arm and helped her up. Her knees buckled once, but she caught herself.
“Do you remember anything?” she whispered.
I shook my head. “No. Do you?”
She didn’t answer.
We walked out of the hall, past broken walls and shattered windows. It was like the palace had been through a war.
But none of us remembered the battle.
After I left Zelda in her room, I turned down the east hallway to return to mine. Then an odd feeling tugged hard at my chest.
I stopped.
There was a door slightly open. A room I’d passed before felt new. I stepped closer, my heart pounding for reasons I couldn’t explain. I entered and saw soft curtains swaying gently by the windows, velvet chairs around a mirror.
It was a woman’s space. Beautiful… but empty.
Whose? There was no scent... yet my heart ached and Ragnar whined in sorrow.
I pulled away and went to my own room, but I couldn’t sit still. I was restless, unsettled, and embittered with something I couldn’t name.
So I went to my painting studio to clear my head.
I needed color. A movement. Creation... Something to make sense of the vacuum in my heart.
But when I entered the inner room... the hundreds of canvases were blank.
They were just lined up against the walls, stacked on the table, propped by the easel.
Blank.
I stood frozen. My breath caught in my throat.
I know I painted them. I remember standing there, brush in hand, pouring something out of me.
And now the images were gone, like the person I was painting never existed.
That evening, the King called everyone to the courtyard. Celeste stood beside me, rubbing her belly. Her parents sat on the bench across from us... No one knew what to say.
“I don’t know what happened,” my father began, looking at the faces of our most trusted people. “But something, or someone was here. And now... they’re gone.”
He paused.
He looked around, voice lower now. “We will move forward. We have to.”
Celeste’s father stood. He looked around the courtyard with a forced calm, but his fingers trembled slightly. “Your Majesty,” he said slowly, “this could have been dark magic. A coordinated attack meant to confuse us or wipe our memories.”
My father narrowed his eyes. “Are you certain?”
Celeste’s father nodded. “Some of the council members must have been affected more deeply. Perhaps even... missing. It would explain why some of the inner circle- sorry, some of our men are dead.”
Dead.
That word clung to me. Of a truth, alot of bodies were evacuated from the palace...
And suddenly, blurry pictures flash in my mind.
Dark. Blood. Screams.
Figures in black hoodies... I was fighting someone.
And then—
The back of a woman.
She was crouching on her knees and crying.
I tried to remember her face but nothing came to mind. The more I tried to remember, the more I felt a strong ache.
“Zion,” Celeste whispered beside me. “Are you alright?”
I blinked, nodding. “Yeah. Just… a headache.”
Celeste’s father was still speaking and my dad was nodding approvingly. Everyone believed his story but something deep inside me didn't.
I pushed the thoughts away and focused on my father's response. Maybe I was just being paranoid.
"Thank you Lord Adonis, we will look into all that you have said. May the moon goddess bless you."
"Amen," the people chorused and everyone went their separate ways. Even after the palace walls were fixed and repaired, nothing truly felt the same.
The kingdom needed stability and I did what I was supposed to do by marrying Celeste. After all, she was pregnant for me.
Everyone was happy for me. The people celebrated our union, Zelda congratulated me, my father smiled and my mother cried.
But inside, I felt empty.
Celeste was everything the people adored. She was graceful, powerful, beautiful... But behind closed doors, she was different, loud, demanding... She wanted attention, not affection. She never cared about how I felt. She just talked, ordered, expected...
And our son, Alex… he’s sweet. Always smiling, always eager to be held. But I don’t feel any connection to him.
I feed him, hold him, tuck him in at night and try my best to love him naturally- all to no avail. It always felt like I was caring for someone else’s child. Not mine.
Ragnar stays quiet most days. He barely responds when I call him, and I just wallow myself in work where I feel more at peace.
The king had been putting me to tasks to access my fitness for the throne, when he finally summoned me two nights ago to his study room.
“I have one final task for you before I let you succeed me as king... I want you to unite our world with the human realm,” he told me. “I need you to bring peace and balance to both realms... Do what I never could."
I gasped in horror and tried to speak but he was already dismissing me as he turned to look out his window once more.
I swallowed, and left the room quietly.
I wondered how my father even thought of uniting both realms?
But I needed to try... I had to.
That night as I laid on my bed, beside a snoring Celeste I couldn't help but think of my father's request. Then I remembered Lucien, my long-lost cousin who left for the human realm after graduation to oversee Dad's multi-billion company. He would be my help in conquering the human realm.