"You're sure?!" Drake is all up in my face acting like I haven't said the exact same thing to him 10 times.
"I'm sure Drake. It was him."
"But you're sure-"
"Yes."
"It couldn't have been someone els-"
"Yes."
"You're sure-"
"Oh for FUCK SAKE!" I throw my glass to the wall and it shattered upon impact. "You think I'm lying! Or delusional! It was him! No matter how many times I say it the facts don't change! He WAS THERE for all that time..." I wasn't mad at Drake. I was mad at me. We found Ashley at a nearby cave, she was tied to the wall so tight that there were fresh cuts upon her wrists. There was massive bruising around her body from the weight of the chain around her. She was only there a few hours and sustained many injuries. Damien was there for months. Months. Rotting away a few miles away from where I lay asleep every night. "Drake I couldn't catch him. I ran but I couldn't get there...He was always here-in valtor-and I missed it. How did I miss it!?" Drake just stood there, looking at me. He didn't want to show his guilt to me. We sent out hundreds of search parties looking for him. How did we miss it? That's why I gave up! After the hundredth attempt I came to the conclusion that he wasn't in Valtor, Andreya must've taken him elsewhere. Or he was dead. And dead men don't leave footprints.
"Is Ashley awake?" I asked.
"No, and let her sleep. She's been through enough." Drake said. He looked like he could have a few hundred naps himself. The sun was already up. And my chamber was dirty, glass crunched underneath drakes boot and my mind hadn't shut off for days. I want to be alone.
"Rest Drake. Try and sleep. Today is not going to be an easy one." He bowed and left my chamber without so much as a goodbye or a look back. I knew he wouldn't sleep. He was going to fight. Training the CREE was always his coverup. Isla always knew how to get through to him. She would help him sleep, she would help us all sleep. Isla was never part of the CREE, she was never witness to the bloody acts we had to commit, or stand by and watch. But her voice, could put the devil himself into the deepest of sleeps. Blessed by the Gods truly.
"Your Highness?" A voice came from outside my door.
"Come in." I said. Hyan opened the door.
"Your majesty, the young Prince Zorin is pretty insistent on speaking with you.. He said it's urgent." I scoffed and tilted my head to the sky extending my arms as if talking to the gods.
"Why is everything always Urgent?" I flopped back onto my bed and heard Hyan giggle at my sarcasm.
"That's because my dear, you are Queen. And it if wasn't urgent it wouldn't require a Queen's attention now would it?" She said in a light happy voice as she began to clear up around my room.
"Yeah well- sometimes Queens need to have some light work. You know like learning how to walk with a crown on your head." She laughed this time. She started to pick up my weapons and take off my shoes putting them in their proper places as if I were a messy child. She sat behind me on my bed and began to brush out my hair. Picking out all the leaves from the woods. Hyan was older than me, like a cute grandma. When I was young she would sneak me and Ryan sweets from the bakeries; take us to the markets so we wouldn't have to train ruthlessly with father. A real gem. She never had children of her own, but in some way she was like my mother, and once she said she considered me and Ryan her children. She would even scold us when we did wrong, and never told father. She was a little old fashioned but, aren't we all?
"My dear, I know it's not my place to say but you may want to check up on your friend-Lord Salvadore...I don't think he's well." I got up and looked at her.
"What do you mean?" She placed her hand on my cheek and she could see I knew exactly what she was talking about.
" I think the grief is eating him from the inside. He is not dealing with it properly. And sooner or later, he will implode..."
————————
I walk through the halls. Endlessly. Everyone is hustling and bustling all bowing and greeting me as they walk past. Some walk by with fresh flowers to put around the castle, the others carrying baskets and tools all chatting and giggling to one another.
"Hey have you seen Lord Salvadore?" I asked a group of maids. One blushed and shook her head, the other looked apologetic and shook hers. I thanked them and they bowed and went on their way. I spotted a fellow CREE member, he tried to swipe one of the apples from the horses trays. I watched him hoping that Drake had finished training them for the day and would be about.
"Hey Jason" I said to him. He immediately looked guilty simultaneously dropping the Apple as I startled him. He looked around and saw me
"Oh-Karina HEY" a nervous chuckle escaped as he scratched the back of his head looking guiltiest by the second. "- oh sorry it's your majesty now- yeah I was just-"
"If your horse found out you were stealing his food then I don't think you'd keep your title for fastest rider now would you?" We both laughed, and for one fleeting moment, it felt like old times.
"Ahhh I see the crown hasn't made your head too big." He cracked a large old grin. "So what's up? what can I do for you your majesty." He said with an over dramatic bow.
"Yeah I'm actually looking for Drake have you seen him?"
Jason's face screwed into a knot as I could see something wasn't right.
"What do you mean?" He said his voice suddenly very serious. "I thought he was with you?"
"Wait-he didn't train the CREE today?"
"No he didn't show up, we just did drills and he wasn't here-"
"YOUR MAJESTY" I hear from down the hall. A solider sprints towards me. "YOUR MAJESTY YOU ARE NEEDED IN THE DUNGEONS HE WONT STOP!"
"What!?"
"LORD SALVADORE-HE IS TORTURING KING LUCENT AND HE WONT STOP!"
We all sprinted through the halls gliding past all the people. Jason close on my tail and the solider lagging behind. If Drake kills king lucent, there will be problems. Problems that result in Drake possibly being executed. We reach the dungeon doors and I bolt through them. Immediately as I breach the air is filled with gut wrenching screams lingering from King Lucent. It was the kind of scream that made your blood run cold. It pierced the brain and ignited some primeval pathway. Adrenaline surged through my veins, Enough to make me feel sick. I followed it, all the way down to see Drake looming over the king, grabbing him by his hair forcing his head back. Drake was holding him with such force by his hair that the scalp began to peel and bleed. The kings eyes wide with horror, the mouth rigid and open, his chalky face gaunt and immobile, the fists clenched with blanched knuckles and the nails digging deeply into the palms of Drakes hands clawing at him for release.
"SO I'LL ASK AGAIN- WHERE DID SHE TAKE HIM?!" Drake growled at him forcing his head back even further tempting it's breaking point. Before the king had a chance to respond, Drake threw the Kings head down and thrust his knee into his nose grinding the bone even further into dust. The king's scream tore through me like a great shard of glass. I felt my eyes widen and pulse quicken, my heart thudding like a rock rattling in box.
"OK I'LL ASK AGAIN-WHERE THE FUCK IS DAMIEN?!"
"I DONT KNOW WHO THAT IS-" Drake didn't even hesitate before stomping on his knee causing it to snap in half. But the scream came again, desperate, terrified. The blood drained from my face, before I was even aware of making a conscious decision I conjured a bolt of magic and pelted it at Drake throwing him to the wall and holding him there above the ground. I looked around the cell to see the Kings face caked in his blood. New and dry. His leg in another direction, but I don't see a cold blooded killer, I see a scared old man. Who was taken advantage of..and beaten half to death by my best friend. He looked into my eye and he begged me for mercy.
"Listen please-I have a baby at home- her name is Ashley-please I have a baby- I need to go home to her- please my wife has passed away I'm all she has- please show mercy!!" He begged. My breaths come in gasps and I feel like I'm gonna black out. My heart is hammering inside my chest like it belongs to a rabbit running for its skin. The room spins and I squat on the floor, trying to make everything slow to something my brain and body can cope with. I feel so sick. But I can't keep my eyes off of him. The king.
"Karina.." Jason says squatting next to me. Two guards come in and await instruction.
"Take the king to the infirmary and wake his daughter. Me and Drake need to have a little chat." The guards carefully pick up the King and carry him out of the cell. "Jason" I turn to him to see his face in slight shock as he sees the Kings face battered. "You saw nothing alright, and inform the others aswell." He nodded and hurriedly walked out without another word. I shut the cell door and dropped Drake from the wall. He smacked the ground and groaned from the impact. He didn't even bother to get up, he sat on his knees, falling into the floor. Catching my eye he cleaned his hands of the blood.
"What?" He said. Staring at me as if he tried to burn straight through me with his grey eyes.
"You defied my direct order- that he wasn't supposed to be touched."
".....Whoops." Emotionless.
"Are you trying to be funny?"
"Meee? ohhh never." His sarcasm was pissing me off. He started to pick his skin, he had punched the king so hard his skin around his knuckles tore.
"Drake talk to me-"
"There is nothing to talk about."
"You're angry-
"Yeah no shit" he gets up and sits on the bed keeping his eyes down. He flexed his jaw muscles almost grinding his teeth to stop himself from talking.
"So why won't you talk to me? We are family!" He looked up so slowly, finally coming to lock with my eyes. And when he did I felt my breath get caught in my throat.
"We WERE a family...not anymore." His voice was riddled with pain. And ice. It startled me inside. And then it hit me. I didn't just lose a brother, so did he. And Isla wasn't just my sister, she was his as-well. For him more we were his family.
"You speak to me as if I am a stranger. When from since I can remember we've been as close as it is possible for two people to be. Yet You can look into my eyes and say whatever will hurt the most... In those moments you forget who you are. You ARE my family blood or not. Remember one thing Drake-I know you better than you know yourself. You turn cold when you need warmth the most. So please, please let me help you." I take a seat next to him, and gently place my hand on his shoulder. Upon my touch His shoulders relax ever so slightly. With a long needed deep breath he turns his head to lightly kiss my hand.
"Before I met you and Ryan. My mother and brother used to beat the shit out of me -For anything! Sometimes it was just a quick jab to the gut or a full on blow session with her bat. When my mother would bring her clients home, whilst she was doing them, she would make me steal from their wallets. One time I got caught, and the guy ended up leaving without paying her. My mother made my brother take my hand and put it over the cooker, and they both watched my hand burn. And do you know what she said-after hearing me shriek with agony as my hand turned to charcoal. 'Next time you'll be better with your fingers.'" Drake stifled a pitiful laugh. "But I never told anyone about it, I didn't know if it was loyalty, or fear. But Isla was my neighbor. She could hear me shriek every-night from the beatings. I didn't have any friends either, no one to help me. But I remember one day, I was getting beaten and my brother had broken several of my ribs from the force. Completely Shattered. I have never experienced pain like that. With every breath you feel the bone about to stab you from the inside. Someone knocked on the door and it was Isla, and she asked if I could come out to play. My mother didn't want anything to seem suspicious so she let me go, and Isla rushed me straight to her home and dealt with my injuries. All of them. I had never witnessed such kindness, or mercy. Especially from a stranger. From then on Isla became my guardian angel, wherever I would get beats she would knock and ask if I could come out to play. Even if it was the middle of the night. She would be there. And she would deal with my bruises. One day we decided we were gonna get out of there, and for that we needed money right? We started to steal watches and use our powers. We had a system, Isla would lure them in and I would do the robbing. And that's when we met you two."
"Yeah I remember, me and Ryan left the parade because we heard Isla scream. Turns out it was just your ploy." We both chuckled at that.
"Yeah we had no idea you were royals, we were pissed that you compromised our targets." We chuckled again. Drake took my hand in his. "Isla was already my family. I would've died for her. But even after meeting you two. I didn't have the courage to tell you about it. It was fear. One day my brother found out about me and Isla's ploy. He found me and wanted a cut of the money. Isla said no, he was gonna hit her so I hit him first...he beat me so bad in the middle of the street that I choked on my own blood, and he left me for dead. Isla ran and found Ryan. Ryan picked me up from the street and brought me to the castle. He saved my life, and so did Isla. I haven't gone home since." I smiled at the thought of Ryan's kindness. "But what you don't know, is that Ryan went back. He found my brother and he beat him till his eyes had swollen so large he was temporarily blinded. And when Ryan came back he had broken his knuckles from the repeated punches. Not only was that man my brother, but he saved me from destruction. In battle, he would care only for me, he would train only with me. He loved me as a brother, which is something that my own blood couldn't give me. He made me into what I am today, A Lord of Valtor and The commanding officer for the CREE. Whenever and wherever I needed him he was there, no questions asked no excuses given. And when he needed me, I wasn't there-"
"Enough. That was my orders. You did not kill him-"
"I didn't kill him, but I didn't stop the person who did when I had the chance. I need to make it right." His darkened eye somehow got lighter. He hadn't let go of my hand yet. But this pain for him ran deeper than even he knew.
"Drake you have nothing to feel guilty about. It's already consuming you. Drake Ryan loved you, you are his brother. If he were here and you were dead I know he'd be going through the exact same thing. But you know as well as I do, there is nothing that you could've done different. Nothing. And Ryan knows that. And so does Isla. You can't undo it, all you can do is try and make the world better through their memory. Which is what I'm doing everyday, and it's fucking hard trying to be like Ryan!" I got a smile out of him. "And besides, I'm still here, and I'll fight for you till the last breath. Even through you're most coldest exteriors I will fight anyone and anything for you. You're my family...And I love you."
"I'd do the same for you."
"Now listen, you need to get some rest. I'll deal with this." I gestured to the blood on the floor. "But I'm coming to check on you later, and if you're not sleeping I'm gonna knock you out. You understand!?" He chuckled.
"I understand Kitty." He placed a kiss on my forehead and got up with the cheeky grin I hadn't seen in a while. "Perhaps you could join me?" I picked up a stone and threw it at his legs and he easily dodged it. "But seriously, thanks kitty..." his stare lingered for a bit before he forced himself to look away and I heard his footsteps retreating out of the dungeons. I cannot change the past, but Ryan and Isla will always be cherished in memories. And I know one day we will all be reunited together. One day.