(Leo)
***
The kings blamed Koharu for the incident, but I knew that wasn't the case. I had watched her and Ophelia carefully and protected them from the magician during their excursion, no matter how uncomfortable the task was for me. (Seriously, they were too lovey-dovey.) There was no possible way they could have been spotted. I made sure of it, yet I had my other suspicions. They ate away at me until I made sense of where I was going, and I promptly arrived at my destination.
"Akiyoshi."
I slammed the door to his bedroom open. He peered at me from over the rim of a teacup, tired eyes barely awake enough to process I was there.
"For what do you so kindly barge in here?" He grinned in a fabricated way.
"This isn't the time for that."
"Ah, so cold and serious today. Did something happen to you?" he inquired earnestly, but it pissed me off.
"That's not it!" I shouted before collecting myself, and several strands of metal hair swept over my right eye. "I have something to ask you."
He flicked his chin upward. I was amazed at how unfazed he was.
"What were you doing a few nights ago when Fifi and Koharu ditched the briefing?"
"When Ophelia was sick?"
"Sure," I replied sharply, hesitating.
He was awfully quiet, but he eventually spoke in a small voice, "Didn't I already tell you?"
I wondered if he was too dense to figure out why I asked him in the first place.
"No. And I have the memory of an elephant." My voice turned high and whimsical. "Two hundred percent."
"Ah. Apologies." He wiped his sweaty palms against his trousers, averting his eyes. "I… I went to the trench," he whispered as if he was ashamed.
He had every reason to be drowned in guilt when pain tore through me.
*Crap, this couldn't be it, could it?*
"You… were crying again?"
I wanted to be apathetic—wanted to tell him he was fine—but a tiny flame of anger pulsated within me.
A weak grip encapsulated his cup, but his biceps didn't have the strength to pull it to his mouth. He stared over it, eyes fixated on one stroke of the wood carvings.
"…Yeah." He swallowed nothing in his dry mouth.
"Wait, no." Chewing on my lip, I tugged at my hair. Then, I audibly groaned. "This is bad. Was anything protecting you?"
He cocked his head to the side. "Why are you so worried all of a sudden? I never ask you to cast any spells because there's no reason to. I've never had any issues."
"This makes sense."
Face crumpling into an irritated ball, I pinched the bridge of my nose while quietly speaking to myself. Despite the prevailing belief, I knew nothing could have gone wrong on his sister's end because I had at least been notified. Sure, it was a misstep on my part to trust Koharu's promises over her dad's, but she clearly thought things through.
However, Akiyoshi was sometimes a lone wolf. He did whatever he wanted on his own without regard for others because he didn't always understand the consequences he caused for them. He was much like Inei in that way—perhaps picking the habit up from the man's treatment of him.
"What does?" Akiyoshi asked in an exasperated tone to sever my train of thought.
I sighed. He was going to have the news broken to him at some point. I figured I needed to tell him as bluntly as possible without any of my usual antics and ornamentation.
I didn't think he was a bad kid. He was rash, but there was no sense in entirely faulting someone whose brain wasn't completely developed. I did idiotic things when I was his age, too (or whatever the fairy equivalent was).
"To put it frankly: Your sister and her girlfriend are missing!"
Akiyoshi's breath snapped, and he gaped without a word.
I continued, nearly scolding him, "The magician… They must have heard you finally. You're not as subtle as you think you are, Akiyoshi. There's no other way this could have happened."
He was shocked. "Pardon, what? They're missing? The curse is real?"
"Yes!" I threw my head back and rolled my eyes at him. What a thoughtless child! "Your parents already sent Sinclair to the Terrestrial Kingdom."
His head shook slowly. "How is any of this *my* fault? You don't know that they didn't do anything." With a sharp exhale, he spat, "You don't know if Ophelia knew how to act when they were at her house. She hasn't had to deal with this all her life."
His brow furrowed at the implication once the initial surprise of the reveal wore off, and he directed his rage towards me like a target in an archery range. His sharp words were arrows, but they strayed from the bullseye of the point.
"I was protecting them that night. I knew about them. Not you."
"The advisor was sick," he responded matter-of-factly. He wouldn't let his emotions overtake him very often; however, bitterness seeped through his tone.
"No, no, no." I waved my arms to correct him. "Fifi wasn't."
"Leo, don't play around with me."
His hands were reinvigorated, and he was on the verge of cracking porcelain. I thought about how quickly he could reach them up to strangle me, so I stepped away to give him space to calm down. Though I leaned against the doorframe in retreat, it was unlikely he'd dare to do such a thing. All I had to do was take his powers away to incapacitate him like a child in timeout.
"Akiyoshi, I'm not. They went to Caelum, and I know that because I sent them there. Koharu lied to everyone. I wasn't aware of that until now, and I thought everyone else knew. There wasn't any other time they went out or else I would have known."
I paused, knowing I had to be straightforward.
"That means the magician heard you."
No words came from Akiyoshi's mouth. He glared at me—shaking—before his gaze turned soft and damaged. He was not the type to object to a properly articulated argument.
"What do you want to say?" I sounded harsh.
How could Akiyoshi have been so naive about people when he was among the smartest nobles I had ever met?
"I… I'm sorry. I didn't think what I did would make a difference." A tear slipped from his eye. He nearly dropped his glass. "This crush is a curse—a damn curse," he whispered while sobbing.
My posture slumped as my sensitive wings dragged along the textured wall. Something broke in my heart because however upset I must have felt, he had to live with the guilt of possibly harming his sister—who was still the most important person to him despite her only being related by adoption and legal drivel. Since it wasn't his intention to do so, the regret must have been overwhelming to the extent I couldn't imagine a worse pain than that.
Taking rough breaths, I ran to hug him despite my fury.
"Look. There's nothing you can do about how you feel or with what has happened because of it." With a subtle gulp, I moved away from the embrace and met his gaze with sharp eyes, commanding him to do as I said. "But you've got to help everyone now if we need you."
He moved closer to me and hummed near my ear. He was never one to be touchy, but when he needed a hug, he needed it more than anyone else in the castle.
"I'll do anything to make it right. I can't stand the thought of my dear—uh—sister away, and weirdly, I've come to enjoy Ophelia." He tapped a finger against his table. "I shouldn't have immediately directed the blame towards her."
I grinned and patted him on the shoulder. "That's the spirit. You don't have to be the bad guy here. Not ever."
He smiled genuinely with a sniffle. It was as if he thanked me with that subtle display of emotion. From the start, he should have known that I was aware he never had bad intentions, and he was as pure of heart as anyone could be under his circumstances.
To be the antagonist never meant he had to be evil. It was as accidentally thrust upon him as a child of a prophecy or a destined hero from centuries before.