As soon as the Military police left with Gold, the students and teachers likewise got on their phones and started calling and texting whoever they could on their contact lists. And by evening, the news of the princess's arrest had spread like wildfire around the kingdom.
While the news spread, there were lots of speculations as to why the princess was arrested. Some hours later, the real reason for the princess's arrest was leaked, the cabinets couldn't keep a lead on it much longer.
While the citizens were still protesting outside the statehouse, the Prime minister and the cabinet members had already made their decision inside. Princes Marigold will be put to death by heart extraction.
"No, you cannot do that!" King Jefe, Marigold's grandfather shouted and hastily stood up when the sentence was passed.
"You cannot sentence her to die, she's not a witch! she's one of us! She's innocent! This gathering is to determine from her DNA test if she's a witch before she can be sentenced and her result clearly showed she's not a witch!"
"All members of this cabinet unanimously agreed to that decision your Majesty. It is what's best for the kingdom. For all our safety..." A cabinet member spoke up in defense of their decision
"All of your decisions are wrong! She is seventeen years old for goodness sake, how can you all decide to kill an innocent child!? Is it because her skin color is different from ours!? Besides the law clearly says..."
"Your majesty!..." The Prime minister called out sharply in a warning. Her voice that was as deep as a man's v
boomed through the microphone placed in front of her and reverberated around the hall, cutting King Jefe off mid-sentence
"Since you want to tell us what the law say, let me remind you of one that clearly states that, 'anything that threatens the physical well-being of the citizens of Whitevamp, whether home or abroad must be eliminated with immediate effect.'
Did you remember that part of the law, sir!?" She asked sharply but continued talking without waiting for his answer.
"You're telling us about how your granddaughter is just an innocent seventeen-year-old child and we are talking about how she's just a few months shy of eighteen! The age where the monster in her will break out.
Now your granddaughter might not be a witch but her genes carry something far worse... She is an abomination! A monster! Something that has never been seen in this part of the world!...
A hybrid! Vampire-werewolf hybrid your Majesty! Perhaps your Majesty doesn't know how deadly a creature his granddaughter is? Would you like a lesson on the kind of creature she is maybe?..." She asked sarcastically
"Are you aware, your Majesty that vampire-werewolf are among the most powerful creatures and hybrids in existence? Do I need to remind your Majesty that vampires and werewolves are their own greatest foes? What's more, combining both werewolf and vampire powers in a peaceful kingdom like Whitevamp!?... I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how dangerous that is...
Perhaps your Majesty wishes to see his granddaughter transform and tear our children into pieces!?..." The prime minister forcefully said the last part of her sentence with a guttural voice, bearing her fangs, while her eyes that had turned onyx with age became inky dark. After some seconds that she had calmed down, her eyes returned to it's normal color...
"Trust me, this kingdom is doing the entire world a favor by ending this creature's existence."
She leaned back in her seat and took a deep breath in before letting it out slowly.
"Now I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear the king of this great kingdom accuse this cabinet of racism when even foreign diplomats from all over the continent send their children to our exclusive private boarding school..." She finished, her voice dripped with sarcasm
"Then I beg you, let me send her back to her father. I'll make sure she's out of the kingdom by nightfall and..."
"I'm afraid it's already too late for that sir. You should have made sure she went back to her father the moment you got wind of who he was."
"No, I never knew. She never divulge who the father of her baby is." King Jefe said beseechingly before looking with accusation towards where his only daughter, Caroline, the crown princess of Whitevamp was sitting.
The crown princess averted her eyes from her father's while the prime minister looked on with her unblinking stoic expression.
"Please..." King Jefe, although proud and fierce-looking, had no choice but to desperately beg for the life of his granddaughter. He had no power whatsoever to overrule the cabinets' decision. He was merely a figurehead king.
"Can we see her?..." Caroline, Marigold's mother spoke softly for the first time since the meeting started. Her voice interrupted the king's voice mid-sentence. She didn't need a soothsayer to convince her that no amount of begging would change the mind of the prime minister that was popularly dubbed the second Margaret Thatcher because of her uncompromising politics and leadership style.
While the cabinet members were deliberating on whether to keep her daughter alive, Caroline looked calm all through the meeting.
'Too calm for a mother whose only child was about to be executed just because she was born different.' A cabinet member who thought her calmness was unusual had noted to himself.
If only they knew what was going through her mind. Caroline was calm because she already knew what the outcome of the deliberations would be and was prepared for it. They have another thing coming if they thought she would just sit and watch them execute her only child.
"Crown princess I'm sorry but what you requested won't be possible." The prime minister replied outrightly
"She is my daughter! My only child whom you've all sentenced to die for no fault of hers but my mistake! She didn't even know why she was taken out of school by the military police! Why she was being held in a tiny room, away from her loved ones since yesterday!
I can't just imagine the trauma she's currently going through. I need to hold her... I need to be there for her this last time, please!" Caroline pleaded, her red eyes lingered on each member of the cabinet before she finally let them settle on the prime minister.
"From one mother to another... Please let me hold my baby for the last time..." Caroline was calm before but now she looked grief-stricken. What her daughter was going through because of her own mistake hurts her heart beyond imaginations. Raw pain shone through blood red eyes that were now fixated on the prime minister's dark ones.
A single tear trickled down from the corner of an eye to drop on her hands that were clutching onto each other. There was awkward silence inside the hall. Some cabinet members looked imploringly towards the prime minister while some looked downward. They weren't in Caroline's shoes but they could feel her pain.
It was just a single tear that dropped from an eye but Caroline was wailing with grief in her heart. She was wailing for her child that she might never see again. She was wailing for the greatest mistake of loving the wrong man. The love that was never meant to be. The love that marred her heart so bad there was nothing left to give to another man.
"Roman..." She whispered under her breath, remembering medium length wheat-blond hair, and amber eyes that was just like her daughter's.
'Marigold, the best thing that came out of your sham declaration of love is about to be taken away from me!' She thought and her lips curved downward in a deadly smile.
She couldn't hate the bastard even if she so much wanted to in almost eighteen years of their being apart. Hating him would mean hating her daughter since they looked so much alike. But now?... Now she would give anything to severe the animal's jugular and bath in his warm blood as it spurted out from his neck.
The prime minister looked away from Caroline's penetrating gaze, whom she didn't realize was already lost inthoughts
"Go ahead, you have fifteen minutes." She said abruptly. Before directing her steely eyes to where the police commissioner was sitting. See to it that everything is arranged, the sentence will be carried out in thirty minutes." She finished and gavelled the meeting to an end.