Deepest apologies to my readers who read and still await for the updates, some family problems came up.
I will try to remain as regular as I can...no promises there. Also if this book remains to be so balant in terms of support and words from my readers, I might decide to take it down and replace it with a plot that readers would like instead.
Back to the Palace...enjoy!
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"My Queen, I could not..."
Celeste fumed as she glared at the intruder, who just broke in without notice.
The situation was fragile.
With the Mortals here already, a day prior then decided on the wedding nuptials and no whereabouts of the Princess, she did not want them to be suspicious about anything at all.
Queen Delilah had asked to see the Princess right away to have some rituals conducted but was stopped by the Vampire Pristine, prohibiting her to let anyone see the bride before the wedding.
Celeste had breathed in relief then but she knew that it was not going to last long.
Here she was having her first conversation with the King about everything with her trusted men when the messenger broke in.
"My Queen, I could not stop..."
"You dare interrupt a meeting of the Queen?"
Brandon walked forward with his sword out to get the guard when the messenger stepped up.
"The Scavenger village is...was under attack."
Those words made Brandon halt in his steps altogether and so did get everyone's attention.
"It's all gone, Queen...everything under fire, mass slaughtered...ruins, all that is left..."
The Queen could sense the horrifying event through each word spurted out by the messenger, who was shaking himself as he spoke.
King Delaware stared at the Queen expecting her to take action right away even when the wedding was to take place in a week in the Kingdom Capitol.
Everyone looked at her, waiting for her orders to take immediate action. She felt their eyes all over her standing on the pedestal with the Mortal King beside her.
As time ticked away, the environment of the court got more serious and intense.
An attack...never happened since the Great Decade War.
For all those years, when there had been talks and assumptions about the incoming war of vengeance from the enemy's side, was that the starting?
"Lock this messenger up."
Celeste finally opened her mouth and nobody could take her seriously. If she meant it?
"The news of such an attack must not leave these four walls nor anyone must go out spreading or discussing it."
King Delaware watched the fairest Queen of all giving away orders that no monarch would have in case of such a deadly situation.
"Nobody heard a thing."
She completed and when Brandon saw the eyes of his sister, the Queen of the kingdom, not flickering her eyes even for a second, he knew that it was exactly what she had meant...what she had told.
He signaled his men to hold the messenger as a prisoner and drag him out of the court as he yelled out for mercy.
The silence in the court resonated so loud. Celeste turned to see the Mortal King and her ministers.
"I do not like this quietness!
Such an environment does not suit a Capitol about to host the wedding of the decade.
I want all of you to go back and return to your duties as allotted."
It was the cue for the men to step out of the court, one by one, after addressing the Queen as if they had not just heard about a part of their Kingdom being attacked and ruined to the ashes.
"I want the King and his family, all his men and women to be given and showered with the best hospitality as they stay here with us."
"Yes, My Queen!"
Brandon nodded and two palace escorts walked inside to accompany the Mortal King out of the court.
The King, although, a bit hesitant at first, followed the escorts out of the court after acknowledging the Queen and she returned the gesture.
As soon as they left and went out of sight, Celeste turned around and walked up to the pedestal, pushing the door behind her throne and getting inside. It led straight to her chambers.
"Brandon, follow me!"
And he did so right away, closing the door behind him. Nobody knew about this path except her and him.
"Could it be them?"
Brandon dropped the question that must have been at the tip of the tongue of all those who heard the messenger then but could never do so ever.
The Queen understood who her brother was referring to by 'them'. But what she asked next was something even he was not expecting of.
"Could it be my daughter instead?"
A minute-long silence was all it took to make Brandon repulsed by the question, the Queen made.
"What!?"
Such an accusation against her daughter was unbelievable.
"You may never know the kind of depth she could go to go against me...to not have this marriage..."
"Well, but Ambrosia could never harm the people of this kingdom to satiate her motives."
Brandon interrupted her right away and even though the Queen seemed not satisfied with his words, she decided to let it go, looking away.
"Well then..."
"Well, then what?"
He could not understand the nonchalant attitude of his sister, the Monarch of the Kingdom to act as if nothing had happened when a part of her state had been attacked.
"If you say so...this must work to bring her back, don't you think?"
As he stood clueless, an evil smirk plastered on her face as she spoke out the next words.
"If she is anywhere under the demarcation of the Kingdom, I vow to you, she will return crying out for help and aid to those affected and wounded people from her mother."
Celeste looked very determined about the next move. She knew it, she could feel it in her century-old bones that her estranged daughter was still here...not too far away, yet unreachable.
If they were to find her, she would have to come on her own or else they could never find her ever even with the best of forces looking out for her at the moment.
"Starve those people. Make sure no help must be sent to them. Let their screams of agony be heard everywhere...just not the Capitol."
She tilted her head to look at her brother, who remained silent, listening to her.
"We do not want our guests to be terrified, now do we?
But believe me, brother, if your niece is here, she would come running on her own."
Celeste smiled as if victory had embraced her face after a week-long of being in distress.
"What makes you so confident that this would work?"
He had to question her. He always did to be extra sure. But he would never overrule her decisions. That was why, he was her most trusted.
"Because who knows a daughter better than her mother?"
Celeste grinned, her eyes shining in the darkness.