𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐗𝐈𝐀, Volturi Kings

CHAPTER 23

Had someone told me a year ago that I'd be planning for a spring ball in which I am the main jewel, I wouldn't have believed them. In fact, I might've made fun of them for suggesting something so preposterous. Being a queen, attending balls and wearing tiaras fitted perfectly for my head -- nobody except a noble would have been prepared for such a thing. Yet I'm here, in my room waiting for a flowering mint green dress to be delivered to my rooms for the final test to see if it's really the one for me. Don't get me started on how much the thing cost in the first place, it's far too expensive for someone who grew up barely having enough room to pace in their own house.

    The fact of the matter is that while I wait I know that things are happening inside these walls that have almost never happened before. Caius is getting prepared for potential insults in his office, too prideful to realize that it doesn't matter what other people think about his sexuality or mating bonds. Aro is committed to protecting the castle from any outside attackers, Romanian or otherwise. Last but not least Marcus is pulling the entire guard together for trainings that they'd been slacking on the past few months due to the innate chaos in potential war.

    My job wasn't officially gifted to me, but I knew that Astro and Ambrose were missing their father, my uncle. We hadn't written in months, worried that we would slip up and tell him about the man in the courtyard, a wizard turned vampire working with the worst of the worst of vampires. I didn't want it to come from me when I could tell him that the kings of the vampires were terrified of a man from their past, a man who would do anything to steal Caius away and force him to be his. I don't have the heart to try and tell my aging uncle that things are getting bad and all we can do is set up a spring ball in hopes of figuring out the root of our issues.

    What good would it do, explaining that to a human man already stressed from years of poverty and unfair work treatment?

    Then comes the guilt of not being honest with him and even being honest with my cousins, who haven't been told the real reason why that man came for the castle with that message. The real reason magical children seem to be turned into living weapons. There is a war coming and I'm terrified that I won't be able to save them from the pain that comes with that. I was always the one to give up meals for them, to give up my better grades to help them with math and physics.

    They can't fight what they don't understand, but I don't want them to battle anything at all.

    My mates have been loosening up restrictions on Ambrose and Astro when it comes to them being in the same room as me. Too many months have gone by without a real conversation with them. They were supposed to be here five minutes ago, but I wouldn't blame them if they'd gotten lost within the walls of our new home just as I have so many times. You could miss my room, my entire chamber, if you walked just a few feet passed the doorway. I learned that the hard way when I found the guard room rather than my chambers.

    When a quiet knock came from my door, I rushed to open it. Relief filled me as Astro smiled and came close to embrace me. "I've missed you so much, Striddy," he said as he let bout a winning laugh. "You have no idea how hard it is to stay away from you when I see you walking the halls, or when your mates pull you away from me. I know they do it because I'm a newborn... but I just want to see you, you know?"

    "Supervision just wasn't enough for you, was it?"

    Astro laughed. "It could never be good enough for me, Striddy, not when we've been together since before I can remember." My cousin pushed us inside with inhuman force and closed the door. "They're training us up, you know? My mates have made sure that we're strong enough for whatever is to come. But I think they're just paranoid after that guy came. Who would attack us, the guard? Most vampires don't even have powers!"