Chapter 5 - Marked

Emeralda asked. The strange woman's brows furrows, "I am Princess Lucia! This mummers beautiful, more interesting baby sister!" The woman says dragging a finger across Lucius' chest, whose visibly annoyed.

Lucius grabs Lucia by the wrist "Enough of your bullshit Lucy!" He let's out. The strange woman flicks her tongue "So whose the fairy Luce? I'm not always dense yaknow!" She asked.

Her head turns back to Emeralda as she's inching closer to Emeralda, "So tell me beautiful, what's your name?" Lucy spits out, she's now inches away from Emeralda's face. Emeralda stands her ground "I am Princess Emeralda Celeste Moonstone, of Stardust Meadows!"

Emeralda takes notice that the siblings both shared the icy-blue eyes. This woman is just as breathtaking as Lucius. Emeralda now backed against the wall, Lucy takes a long sniff from Emeralda's chest up to her hair. "You smell most delicious my dear!"

Lucius grabs Emeralda's hand and pulls her to his side "This is your future Queen, mind your tongue little sister!" Lucius growled out, a tone to make both girls straighten their back "Apparently, Princess Emeralda isn't what she thinks she is, She's a fucking hybrid!" He continued

"No fucking way Luce! Of?" Lucia asked. Just then Lucius grabs Emeralda's jaw gently forcing her mouth open and points at her teeth. He goes on to say "She's part of us! They extended and retracted within seconds, I know what I saw Lucy!"

Emeralda moves her head from his grip, angry and confused she takes a few steps away from the two of them.

"Look I'm just Emeralda, a Princess.." Before Emeralda could finish she's cut off. "Whose your mother Emeralda? You obviously know your father is a fairy, so it's gotta be your mother hm?" Lucy says.

"I.. I don't know.. My father told me she died when I was just a baby. He never spoke of her, just that it hurt him too much to talk about her, I did hear she was beautiful though!" Emeralda cries out. The siblings both tone down recognizing Emeralda's sadness.

Lucius adds he thinks he knows who her mother is, and if he's correct this is only going to get more chaotic.

"Then we must summon the others, Lucius He could've lied, He could still have her, we have to find out!" Lucia responds.

"Emeralda needs to be protected, Adrian doesn't know what we do, he's probably already summoned them and ran his mouth, obviously not too soon." Lucius says.

"Adrian was here? That fucking douche! Why was he here?" Lucia asks.

"To tell me about the frost creature's and to be the nosy rat he is! He came at the worst time!" He says back to her.

Emeralda is just sitting back absorbing every word they're saying, zoning out, how could this possibly be she thinks to herself.

"I can handle my own Lucius, I'll be fine! Stop acting like I'm helpless" Emeralda spills out interrupting the two. They both stop and stare at her.

"Mmm, no wonder my brother likes you, he's always had a thing for feisty little things!" Lucia says as she once again studies Emeralda.

Lucius rolls his eyes, "Emeralda you might be able to handle one of us, but where I need to take you there will be way too many for you to even think of taking on, you'll be leaving your element, you'll be wise to leave the impudence here!"

"Oh leave her be Luce! You know our kind loves the risky ones!" Lucia chimes in.

"Just take me, if I am to be your Queen as you say, We don't have much of a choice" Emeralda teases yet in a serious tone. He shifts uncomfortably but does agree, but not before making sure your leg is healed.

Emeralda rubs her leg and shows that her magic did work and her leg is completely healed at this point.

"Well first things first, your clothing is giving 'I just got down and dirty', you need to find some clothes, you can't show up in a man's button-up!" Lucia giggles.

Emeralda looks down and gets a bit flushed, before turning on her heels to go put on a new wardrobe. Lucius tells his sister to wait for them there, then follows Emeralda up the stairs.

When they reach the bed chamber and close the door behind them, Lucius grabs Emeralda's arm stopping her in her tracks.

"This is going to be dangerous Emeralda, you need to dress accordingly! Here I have a dress fitted for the trip" He says pulling out an old ancient looking gown.

"That is ghastly Lucius! Not suited for me!" Emeralda spills, and with a point of a finger and a snap the dress turns to a red flowing gown with nature themed accents right in his hands.

"That's better!" Emeralda says as she grabs it. She half expected him to leave but he doesn't. So she slowly unbuttoned til it pool's at her feet. Never breaking eye contact she stands there for a moment letting him smell her arousal before stepping into her new dress, a dress that exposes her mark!

"I don't like being teased princess!" Lucius growls as he inches closer to her. "I'd hate to delay this trip because you wanna be brat, what a shame it'd be if I ripped this little cloth off of you and took you once again!"

Emeralda smirks at him daring him to let his impulse win, but not before the door swings open with Lucia looking panicked.

"We have to go NOW!" She cries out.

The temperature is getting cooler by the moment. "Not again." Emeralda says. "Give me the coords and I'll get us there!" Emeralda spills out. And with a snap of her fingers the three of them are gone leaving nothing behind but glitter falling gracefully to the old flooring.

They land and the base of dark, spooky trail. Up ahead is another castle hidden away amongst the very nature. Carved from a mountain. This castle is much larger than Lucius', by about double!

"What the fuck is happening Lucius?" Lucia asks in a fearful tone.

"That would be why Adrian came to see me, that's the third time in about a days time, how Emeralda and I came into contact" Lucius says.

"Uncle must know what's going on by now, that's why he sent Adrian to you and the others!' Lucia responds.

"It has to be Wintessa, she's the only one powerful enough to do this, I thought she was just a tale to scare us into not wandering past dark especially in the coldest months, can it be though?" Emeralda shakes her head as she responds.

"Who is this Wintessa?" Lucia asks Emeralda. She responds "The tale goes that centuries ago a young fairy got fooled by a witch, long story short, the witch turned her into an ice monster she tried to go back to the village where she was shunned forced into exile never to be heard from again unless you wander too far. At least that's what the villagers say, most of them are whacked out of their minds with blood... I mean.. Their memories can't be trusted!"

By this point they're almost up the hill, the air thickening as Emeralda gets a bit unnerved seeing the gloomy doors.

"There's nothing wrong with blood Emmy, it's quite delightful" Lucia says running her tongue over her lips. She continues "Especially fae blood" as she winks at Emeralda.

Taking a deep breath in before reaching the doors Emeralda presents as a 'normal human' though Adrian has probably already told them what she is. Lucia pushes the doors open and the three of you walk in, Lucia first and Lucius and Emeralda follow, arm in arm!

The foyer is lit up with dozens of light sources, the walls draped in red accents, beautiful paintings and ancient weaponry plastered all over. The gasps from the few bodies in the foyer cause a tall woman in the middle to turn. Emeralda takes notice of the familiar ice-blue eyes.

The woman has split hair half blonde half jet black, tall, thin and absolutely stunning.

"Lucius, Lucia! Where have you two been? What took you so long... And.. Whose this? The woman asks while staring at Emeralda. Smelling her unfamiliar scent, taking notice of the mark.

"This is Emeralda, mama Lucius' latest play thing! She's adorable." Lucia spills out with giggles.

"Lucius, You dare mark a mortal?" The woman says in a low growl.

"Call a meeting, gather the elders and meet me in my study, I'll be there in there five!" Lucius growls back. When he uses this tone noone dares challenge, or it could be lethal.

Lucius points to Lucia and demands she takes me up to her room and to wait til they're finished. She does as she's told, she grabs Emeralda's hand and the two of them make their way up the long curved stairway into a dimly lit hallway.

Opening her door she welcomes Emeralda in, into the pink galore of a room, not what Emeralda was expecting. The two of them sit on the big canopy bed covered with stuffed animals in all creations.

"Do you think they're going to kill me Lucia?" Emeralda asks.

"Maybe, but if they do my brother would probably lose his mind, he's been with quite a few but has never marked anyone, probably why my mother took that tone. She's been hounding him to find a mate to produce heirs, ever since daddy died. Weird he chose you so quickly!" Lucia says nonchalantly

Emeralda grabs a stuffy and holds it as she ponders. "What if I am his fated mate, won't that cause more chaos?" Emeralda asks.

"Hm, probably, you'll just have to show your badass side. Make them accept you. Show them your loyal to Lucius ya know marry, babies you know how that goes!" Lucia responds.

Emeralda thinks about what she is told.

'I'm tied to Lucius now, marked, is this my destiny? To walk along the vamps the sworn enemy?' So many thoughts race through her mind. She's eventually interrupted by Adrian opening the door demanding she follow him "Lucille and Lucius are calling for you" He points at Emeralda with a sly smirk.

Reluctantly Emeralda gets up and follows Adrian down the poorly lit corridor, second guessing her choices.