PROSE MODE
Seth and Melody stood hand in hand, next to her ride home.
"Take care, alright?"
Soteria on the other hand had been looking for Seth everywhere in the hall. Serena had just finished yet again another slice of ice cream cake.
"Have you seen Seth?"
Serena reached out for a napkin to wipe her mustache of whipped cream and cheese at the far end of the oeuvre s table.
"He just went out a few minutes ago."
Serena replied. She raced outside hoping to catch him before he rushes off somewhere.
"Seth!"
She checked by the entrance and then headed to the parking lot, she heard a familiar voice and turned to the driveway behind her.
Seth was talking to - a beautiful girl? Soteria watched quietly from afar.
She was going to force him to be honest in front of everyone later. Although he hated giving his kid sister any ammunition that could potentially be used against him in the future, he failed to realize the fact that only Skipper and Sage knew about Melody.
"You enjoyed the party, right?"
"Of course I did,"
"You still have to make it up to me for arriving late,"
"Seriously?"
He tilted his head to the side leaning forward for a long goodbye kiss.
Soteria gasped. Like how far have they gone! And how come she had no idea her brother was seeing someone?
Fishy. Very fishy indeed.
She mentally kicked herself for not having her phone with her, she'd have taken a few pics for evidence or better yet, blackmail. Tiger pressed the car horn repeatedly.
"Oh please, let go of her Seth, you can eat her later."
Melody pulled away, blushing seven different shades of purple with her now violet eyes. She'd completely forgotten that they weren't alone.
Seth opened the door for her to get in and Tiger drove off.
***
Seth was at the dinner table. Dinner had already begun but Seth was still chatting on his phone.
"Who's Seth been chatting with?"
Serena tossed the question around the table, all the stares that followed proved everyone was just as curious as she was.
"Yeah, he hasn't even touched his chicken yet?"
Seth wasn't even listening.
"Isn't chicken his favorite?"
Josie hummed on purpose. Soteria didn't like the smirk that followed that question. If what she's insinuating is right, everyone just found out about it at the party along with her.
"Grandson? Grandson!"
King Vicker called finally snapping Seth out of his little world.
"Grandpa?"
Seth noticed the five sets of eyes on him all filled with curiosity. He put his phone away.
"Seth, now that you've finally dropped down your phone, do you mind telling us who that girl with blonde hair at the party was?"
Killian asked. Seth's head snapped back to his Dad. Curiosity glowed in his Cobalt eyes. His Mom had this grin on her face, she already had her suspicions. Skipper and Sage's breath hitched.
"Um, it's no one special, right?"
Sage intervened slightly nudging Skipper with her elbow to help her out.
"Yeah, probably one of Soteria or Serena's friends, definitely not anyone important."
Skipper added and both of them snapped back to Seth like they were trying to convey a mental message ' don't worry bro, we've got this'.
"I doubt that, I saw you both making out, your dad saw it too."
Josie said jauntily, looking from Seth to his sister Sage and her accomplice.
"And just to make sure she got home safe, he had Tiger drive her home."
Soteria added, she decided to chip it in since everyone else seemed onto him anyway.
"So Grandson, who is it?"
King Vicker, the most mischievous out of all of them, asked to quell all their prying.
"Her name's Melody, she's my girlfriend," Seth said, eyes focused on the now very intriguing plate of roast chicken in front of him.
"We'd like to meet her, how about inviting her for dinner honey."
Josie smiled.
"I'm not sure that's such a good idea."
Still not looking up from his plate.
"Why not?"
Killian didn't like the way his son responded, if he had a girlfriend he should at least take her seriously, bringing her to meet them would kill a lot of her insecurities too.
He couldn't have possibly raised a skirt—chaser? No, it was too early to assume that. Seth scratched the back of his head.
"Melody doesn't exactly know that I'm the crown prince."
***
It was a quarter passed midnight at the palace. The existing hunter-green walls and burgundy trim gave the room a distinctly masculine feel. Rich vanilla, with a subtle vein of gold, provided the perfect frame for the window on the left side of the room overlooking the river.
Seth relaxed under the sheets on the bed after a refreshing shower and a fresh change of clothes.
He reached for his phone.
"Dang it, Melody called. It must have been to tell me she got back."
There was a voicemail.
"Seth by the time you get this, I'd already be sleeping (she yawns), I hope your sisters liked the gifts I picked out for them, goodnight, love you!"
Seth smiled, she sounded really tired. She'd arrived immediately after that lecture, it must have been exhausting.
Knock knock.
Now which of his annoying siblings wasn't asleep yet?
"Come in."
Josie walked in, the door following her silent command shut quietly behind her.
"Mum?"
He sat up straight, the queen had recently added slouching to her own personal neighborhood-watch list.
She sat beside him.
"From what I saw back at the party, you must really like that girl, Melody right?"
"Yeah."
"Relationships are based on trust Seth, I'm not so sure she'd be so happy if one of her friends told her the truth about your identity before you did."
Seth knew that.
"Sweetie, when I newly got married to your father, he kept a secret from me."
"About that demon Evox, right? You've mentioned it before."
"But he chose not to tell me about the situation, and that caused a lot of misunderstandings between us, there were about three other wielders of the darkness besides your father at that time that had come of age, all were eligible to be chosen as the King of darkness, he had a choice to say no, but he didn't."
"Why didn't he? I didn't get a choice, I was coronated at a very young age, I didn't even know what it meant back then."
"The point is that he only accepted that position and all the power that came with it so he could fix my meridians and put an end to my endless reincarnation cycle. There's only one rule that the entire world agrees on and that is Hybrids shouldn't marry hybrids."
Seth hated anything to do with connecting the invisible dots. Just say what you wanna say already. Unfortunately, he couldn't say this out loud to his Mum.
"I'm not sure I get where this conversation is going."
"Your grandmother, Queen Hollietta was a hybrid and she married your grandpa..."
"But grandpa is also a hybrid!"
"Exactly. So I'm the mistake child, the one who got all her powers scrambled, your dad wanted to fix me, hopefully, he'd do that with the additional powers he acquired as the king of darkness. He should have told me what he was up to but maybe he didn't want me to worry or feel like I'm a monster whose powers are so unstable. You know that didn't end well, there were so many secrets, suspicions and Evox continued to purge out his darkness till it was too late, he'd already become a full-on beast, his darkness had destroyed almost half of Asgard before I began to understand the severity of the power you both possess."
Seth sighed.
His Mom always tried to prove one point with so much drama. He was glad they didn't mind that Melody didn't have royal blood, but he didn't think that not telling Melody the truth could blow up in his face one day.
"I wasn't planning on keeping it a secret anyway, I'll tell her soon, I don't want it to be the cause of a misunderstanding in the future."
Josie pecked his forehead, and headed for the door she paused in her tracks.
"I almost forgot. The next time you wanna fool your father and me with a shapeshifter, remember to tell him that your name is Seth, not Sergio."
Josie's peak in her voice pitch made Seth visibly flinch.
Oh, Tiger's so gonna get it later.
"Goodnight, sweetie."
"Goodnight, Mum".