The Enchancian Curse

The Full Truth

Chapter 7

(Hugo POV)

I stayed still as the other royals left the ballroom, not before offering King Rolland any troops he may need in retrieving Sofia. I kept looking out the broken window, the ground was broken up as the vine had unrooted itself from the ground and pulled away. It was no longer in sight. I could see in the corner of my eye Prince Desmond stayed behind and was consoling Amber as she continued to sob.

I don't know when but James came behind me and put a hand on my shoulder, "We will get her. If anyone can survive this it's Sofia." I turned toward him, "Survive what? What is happening? Who was the that? And who is Alice and why does Sofia look like her?" I kept saying question after question begging for some type of clarity about the danger Sofia was in. James turned toward toward his parents, "I think there was still somethings you left out during that family meeting and I think that we all earned the right to the truth."

The King and Queen turned to look at each other and sighed, "Let's go into the throne room." The Queen said guiding us all away from the horrendous events that just occurred in the ballroom. I stood beside James, Amber and Desmond as we waited for the King and Queen to begin. The King began, "Amber and James you already know how the story begins..." The king then went on to explain the legend and the founding of Enchancia and how this curse came to be. It still left me with a lot of questions, "How does Sofia look like Alice though?" I asked still trying to make sense of everything.

King Rolland turned toward Queen Miranda and nodded. "Princess Alice ran away with a Sailor named Joshua. They sailed away from the kingdom and began to raise their family on the sea having only one child, a son. This continued in the family line where the sailor son would find a bride on land when he was ported somewhere they would fall in love and sail away together and start a family. Each family only had a single son. They continued to live on the sea until one day one of the sons ended up in Freezenberg and had a family on land. This sailor's family wanted to set roots with his family and left the sea to raise his family alongside his wife. His son, Birk, couldn't understand how his father could abandon the sea and continued the family tradition of sailing. He sailed all around the world but when he came to Enchancia, he fell in love with a cobbler. They were soon married but he returned to his life on the sea while she stayed on land. He vowed to always come home to her and not too long after they were married the cobbler fell pregnant. She gave birth to the first daughter in the line since Princess Alice but, before she could celebrate with her husband, the father passed away at sea. That daughter was Sofia. I hadn't known at the time when I married Rolland but, one day I passed by an old portrait and saw a princess who looked remarkably like Sofia. When Rolland told me that, that was the run away Princess Alice I remembered a story that my late husband had told me about his great grandparents Alice and Joshua who ran away to sail the world together." Rolland then took over, "When we saw the vine began to grow where the old kingdom ended we knew one of our princesses would be in danger and knowing that Sofia is a descendant of Alice..." I continued for him, "You knew it would most likely be her who got taken." I felt numb as I worried about what could be happening to Sofia.

We all stood dumbfounded, "So Sofia is our cousin?" James asked. The King and Queen nodded but, felt the need to clarify, "Miranda and I are not related. It was Sofia's father who was a direct descendant of Princess Alice." Desmond then spoke, "How can we get Sofia back?" The room went silent for too long and I walked away running outside. I started following the broken up ground from when the vine uprooted itself and fell to my knees.

(James POV)

Hugo ran out of the room and I quickly followed him trying to stop him from doing something stupid, Sofia wouldn't want that. I found him on his knees as he looked at the path on the ground that the vine left behind. I knelt beside him, "We need to go back, we will regroup and prepare and we will get Sofia back." He stayed still silently staring at the ground. "Come on Hugo, Sofia needs us." He then took a small velvet box out of his jacket pocket and stared at it, "This night wasn't supposed to be like this." He murmured. He then handed me the box and I opened the box revealing a ring. He sighed, "I was an idiot for thinking that we could have had our moment. Fate has never been on our side after all." I grabbed his shoulder, "You will never have a chance at your moment if we don't go after her." I then gave him back the box, "And you are going to need this for when you do."

(Hugo POV)

James and I ran back to the palace to gather equipment for our journey. James opened the door to Sofia's suite, "She keeps her protector's gear in a purple shoulder bag. It will have a bunch of things that could help us." We began to look around and I opened the trunk at the foot of her bed. I found a small box and opened it hoping that it would be something helpful. That was when I saw them, every letter I had ever written to Sofia opened and carefully placed in this small box. She kept all of them and she had read all of them. "Hey Hugo, I found the bag" James said coming out of her closet. "What do you have there?" I closed the box, "Just some letters."

I walked over to James, "Is that everything?" "I'm just going to grab some stuff from my room then we will go to the flying horses." I nodded as he handed me the bag and I secured it over my shoulder. I looked down in the bag and saw her Protector equipment, but as I rummaged deeper in the bag after going through some weapons I found some more letters, not as neatly packed as the one's in her trunk and all of them were sealed. I turned one over and saw it was addressed to me. I checked the rest and they all were and at the bottom of the bag their was a painting from our Royal Prep graduation.

"Ready Hugo?" I heard James as I got taken out of my thoughts. "Huh," I turned to face him. He saw all the sealed envelopes in my hand and his eyes widened. He reached into his jacket pocket, "Sofia wanted me to give this to you if anything happened to her." He hand an envelope in his hands and passed it to me. "I'll give you a minute, I'm going to tell the others we are heading out." He left me alone and I opened the letter:

Dear Hugo,

If you read this letter which I can only hope you will read...
(Letter in Chapter 5)
With all my love,

Sofia

(Sofia POV)

I stood in the center of a throne room as the vine unwrapped me. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around it was made of cinder block bricks with vines interweaving themselves. There were no windows in sight. Tapestries hung from the ceilings and can only be seen by dim candlelight. In front of me was a dark black throne where Prince Cole walked up to and turned taking a seat. "Come forward, Alice." "I am not Alice." I said shortly. He leaned forward into his lap and his voice radiated anger, "COME FORWARD" I didn't flinch. I took a small step forward when I felt his magic surround me again carrying me forward until I was right in front of him, "I don't like repeating myself, my young fiancée." I threw up in my mouth as he said that.

"You thought I would never find you" he smirked grabbing my chin and bringing me forward, "but, in a week you will finally be mine." He released my face, "Until then I won't lose you again." His magic released me and he stood up and held out his arm for me to grab onto, "I believe I can manage walking on my own." I said trying to walk past him but he grabbed my arm roughly and wouldn't let go, "You are mine, you will do as I say." He said scolding me.

We walked through a maze of hallways he opened a door and led me down a hallway with one door at the end. He took out a silver key and unlocked the door. He pushed me forward and found myself in a suite. The room was small and made entirely of cinder blocks like every other room in the castle with vines making its way in and out. The bed was on the far wall from the door. There was a bookcase with a single book on it and a small door in the corner which I guessed led to a closet. "If you need anything ring the bell, and someone will guide you to dinner. Wear something presentable." He locked the door behind him. I looked around and grabbed the only book on the shelf, The Tale of Princess Alice. I began to read it and found out she ran away with a sailor. I followed her family tree until I saw him, my father.

I sat on the floor and stared at this page for a long time. "I need to get out of here," I whispered to myself looking around for anything that could let me escape.

Author's Note:

Thank you so much for reading this chapter. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. I appreciate all feedback :)