The Crimson King

Prologue

The darkness of the night clung over the royal palace as a premonition of misfortune, my blood... or was it my mother's? I don't know, but it was covering every inch of my dress and hands.The corridors resonated with the noise of the invasion, as my heart beat furiously in my chest, drowned by fear and uncertainty. Beside me the guards were fighting to death with those devils of crimson embroidery, the metallic noise of their swords and armor colliding with each other caused in me a feeling of nausea. My eyes had never seen such a scene, blood of those who swore to protect the royal family now tinted the floors and walls

My steps resounded in the corridors, my trembling hands attached to the end of my dress. My eyes were desperately looking for signs of someone i could trust but i found no one as the flames devoured our home. I could feel how the heat began to stifle me, the smoke and the hollow created a black monster that threatened to eat everyone who crossed its way.

The stairs were full of fleeing people, servants possessed by the horrors of this unexpected war that was now surrounding us. My shoulders hurt when they collided with their bodies, but I had to cross this stairs if I wanted to get to Nikola. The west wing of the palace was consumed by fire, and this is the only other way to get to my brother without being devoured by the flames. But it seemed that the human cluster that was rolling down the stairs was an impossible obstacle to pass. I scream with all my strength on more than one occasion, demanding them to let me pass, but the orders of a princess were nothing when their lives hanged from a thread. One woman even pushed me to the side, and the air from my lungs was taken away when my back collided against the barrier of the stairs. A sharp noise began to sound in my ears as my hands clinged to the stone of the barrier and with the few forces that i still had in my body I dragged myself up to my brother's chamber

Please gods, let him be alright.

"Nikola!" I managed to scream once I got close enough to his chamber.

When I arrived a frostbite passed through my spine. On the threshold of the door where the dead bodies of four guards. I forced my feet, heavy as lead, to the enourmous pool of blood under the corpses. Tears started to gather in my eyes as i got close enough

I didn't want to see, suddenly that room seemed to be the last place on earth where I wanted to be. But I had to see it for myself, I needed to be sure of what I didn't even dare to think. I stumbled with one of the soldiers' arms as I entered the room, which caused me to fall in front of the most horrible scene I could have ever seen.

The room was plunged into chaos, the furniture crushed and the floor stained with blood, but this time it was not of any guard or soldier. At the center of that horror lay Nikola, my sweet brother, still on the ground. His chest was open with cuts and his empty expression seemed to be silent in my bones. All the air that I had been holding out came out of me along with a piece of my soul

"Oh no, no, no, no... NO!" the pain struck me like a ragged tide, taking away the little sanity I had tried to maintain. I dragged myself towards him, taking his little, sweet face between my shaky hands, trying to remove the dark hair off his face, praying in silence that i would wake up from this nightmare.

But the reality was relentless. The deadly wounds on his body screamed at me that it was not a nightmare, that his eyes would never shine again, and that no sound would come out of his mouth again. My whistles were mixed with the sounds of the battle outside, as I embraced my brother's cold body. The anger that passed through me made me tremble to the last inch of my body, this is not fair, this cannot be happening.

Nikola had been my companion, my confidant, my light in the darkest moments. Now, he lay lifless in front of me, carried away by the cruelty and greed of a cursed man who had been pretending to be our family. Nikola was only two months away from turning eight years old. The life he could have had seemed to drown me, the idea that I could have arrived earlier or had done something different to save him was closing my throat and tightening my heart as if it was going to stop itself at any moment.

My cries slowly turned into screams of hatred, and right beside the dead body of my brother i made a vow that i will fulfill even if it took away my life. My parents, my brother, my own people were now victims of the traitor I once called uncle. All of them dead under his thirst for power and abominable greed.

As my body succumbed to my wounds, I swore that I would take revenge for all that had happened tonight. My hands would take Gregory's life, my eyes would be the last thing his rotten mind would see when my deer is buried in his chest. Amid thoughts of revenge my conscience was fading, I fell beside my brother and the last thing I could see were soldiers enetring the chambers and kneling beside me