The Prince and the Count's Daughter

Chapter 10 - Under Suspicion

It had been 3 days since I burst into the Prince's bedroom and I was still freaking out about it. I was sitting in my favourite armchair in the library again, with Kate and Kira sitting across from me, ironically with the portrait of The Prince... or I guess I should call him Cyrus, looming over us.

They had stopped by after work to finally get started on making these necklaces and I had a stack of books telling us how in front of me, the non-magic kind. Despite what we had come here to do Kira was on her phone, probably online shopping and I felt too distracted to even read the words in the book in front of me. After glancing up at the portrait for around the fifteenth time I noticed Kate getting irritated.

"Guys, this won't get done if I'm the only one actually paying attention to it." she said with exasperation. Kira and I glanced at each other in mutual guilt.

"Sorry, I'm just a bit distracted. I'll pay attention, I promise." I said while bringing the book back up to look at it properly.

"I'm not surprised, he's dreamy as hell." Kira joked. Kate wasn't amused though.

"I think he's kinda sus to be honest guys. Like, where has he been for 500 odd years? Not to mention he's suddenly back and people are getting killed and going missing." Kate ranted.

"How did you meet him the first time anyway?" Kira asked, more using this as an excuse to get 'all the details' as she liked to call it than truly joining in with Kate.

I sighed. "It's kind of embarrassing actually." I said while avoiding eye contact. It seemed to only encourage her more though.

"Well you have to tell us now!" Kira said eagerly.

"Well... remember just after my Dad went missing, I kind of cut all my hair off?" I asked sheepishly.

"Oh, I forgot about that." Kate said.

"Well, I thought I would get in lots of trouble, well I did but that's not the point. I used to go to the abandoned wing sometimes to hide from Mrs Parrish. It had always been empty before but on that day he was there." I began to explain.

"So you just showed up with no hair and he was randomly there?" Kate said with disbelief.

"Kinda, yeah." I said with a shrug. "He offered me some chocolate and then Mrs Parrish showed up."

"She's met him too?" Kira said with a raise of her eyebrows.

"No, no!" I clarified. "We heard her shouting me from somewhere else in the wing and he got panicked and had me promise not to tell her about him."

"See, that's super suspicious as well." Kate said, clearly pleased to have some more justification.

"He might have had a good reason." Kira defended, despite looking unsure.

"I think we should find out some more about this guy." Kate declared. She dropped the book about jewelry and marched over to the Kingdom history section. I decided it was best not to mention the irony. We watched as she looked over the books with concentration, collected up a stack and made her way back over. "I think these are the best place to start" she said as she dropped the books down on the table, causing Kira to reflectively grab her coffee.

"I don't know about this guys, it's one thing to research a dead historical figure but this seems kinda like aggressively stalking his Instagram, worse even." I reminded them, feeling uneasy.

"You can't be telling me you don't want to know more about Mr Dreamy?" Kira said with disbelief. I sighed, she was right I totally did but this was wrong.

"Fine, I'll look through them and you don't need to have had anything to do with it." Kate said with irritation as she flung herself back into her seat and pulled a book from the top of the pile. "I'm not going to let potential murders just hang out in the abandoned wing in secret because it's rude to investigate them."

"I guess, when you put it like that, it is a bit strange isn't it?" I admitted. She did have a point and besides, I did want to know more about him. I had read about him before of course but this level or research would have been bordering on unhealthy obsession on something I thought had been my imagination.

I hesitantly picked up the next book and read the cover; A Complete History of the Kingdom's Royal Family. Having turned to the final Chapter (The end of the Castle's monarchy) I began to read.

For at least an hour we read in silence, asides from Kira slurping on her coffee. Nothing I read was anything exciting; either stuff I already knew or not exciting enough to say 'Hey guys, listen to this'. The beginning of the chapter had talked about how his mother, Queen Constance had died when he was ten of diphtheria and the wars that had broken out against other Kingdoms. It went on to explain that his father, King Peter, had died in a battle against another magical Kingdom from Scotland, in a war that had broken out purely over a disagreement between their Kings. Finally, it explained that Prince Cyrus, although technically King had insisted his title still be Prince and had ruled for 4 years before disappearing at the age of 26.

I put the book down defeated. "There wasn't anything in there that wasn't covered in History at school and certainly nothing that suggests he's come back to kill random guards after all these years." I said with a sigh. "What about yours?"

"Same, nothing exactly incriminating." Kate said.

"I can't believe you too!" Kira burst out. "I've found lots of interesting information."

"Really?" I said, kicking myself for spending an hour reading the boring book.

"Yes." she began with a smug smile. "He's a Leo, 5'11, very good at magic, said to be charismatic, didn't really like his Dad much and that Elijah guy is his best friend who also went missing at the same time."

Kate looked beyond annoyed, "So nothing important then?"

"I thought Ava might find all of that very interesting." Kira defended, shooting me a knowing glance. I had to hand it to Kira, that's far more like what I was desperate to know. Kate suddenly slammed her book down.

"People are dying, Kira. Who cares how tall he is?" Kate exclaimed.

"Well I suppose knowing he's good at magic might help defeat him." I half-heartedly offered.

"Did you not find anything important?" Kate pleaded, having lowered her voice back to a normal volume.

"Well... there was this thing about something that happened a week before he left." Kira reluctantly said as my heart sank.