The Hearts that Bleed Black

Chapter 5

King Aspen

"The decorations look amazing. You've outdone yourself Hadiya" I dipped my head with a smile at my advisor, "You may have a break when you see fit."

"Thank you, your majesty" Hadiya did a small bow in return, "Everything will be ready in two weeks for when the ball is held."

"Excellent" I praised her, "All the kingdoms and other nobles have responded and said they'd be here. Have our accommodations been prepared?"

"They are being prepared as we speak," Hadiya said firmly, "The guests will love them."

"Thank you" I nodded in satisfaction, "I'll leave you to it." I turned away, my mind swirling with all the things I had to do.

It was the next day after Kijani's little attempt to kill me. We'd been on... good terms I supposed. This was one of the rare moments where we were separated. Not for long. Speak of the devil, there was Kijani himself, stalking up the hall towards me. I say stalking because it constantly seemed as though he was hunting something, he had an air of viciousness about him.

"Hello," I smiled warmly, "Was your bath good?"

"It was fine" Kijani shrugged, "I- "At that moment Kijani got interrupted by Felix bursting into the room. The ginger-haired teen sprinted up to me, gasping and heaving for breath.

"Bellatrix just got back" he said breathlessly, "They caught those bandits but-"

"Calm down," I said firmly, helping support Felix as he stumbled, "Explain." Felix took a deep breath, composing himself before speaking.

"They caught those bandits, but they fought back and killed one of the guards" he shivered, "Bellatrix is wounded but she'll be okay. There's seven of them and they just threw them into the prison."

"Where is Bellatrix now?" I demanded, a pang of worry for my friend squeezing my chest.

"Still down in the prison, she told me to come get you" Felix explained, "She sent the rest of the guards to go get their wounds treated."

"Thank you, Felix," I smiled comfortingly, "I'll take it from here." Felix smiled back, dipping his head before turning away.

"Right" I turned to Kijani with a dark expression, "We better go deal with this."

"I gather the mission wasn't quite supposed to go like this?" Kijani laughed sarcastically.

"Not at all" I spat, "Those mongrel bandits killed one of our own."

I strode off, Kijani close behind me. We made our way quickly to the prison, jogging down the staircase into the gloomy cell. Bellatrix was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. When she saw us, she straightened up and cleared her throat.

"They killed Noah" she stated gravely, "But I think we caught all of them. They shouldn't cause any more trouble."

My gaze lowered, noticing the motionless body that lay leaning against the wall. Noah had been a high-ranking guard who came from an extraordinarily rich family. Despite being young, he was very skilled. I looked down at him, thinking what a shame it was that all that potential had been wasted. I was going to have a hard time explaining his death to his family.

"Are you okay?" I looked at Bellatrix with concern. Her armour looked dented and, in the few areas where she wasn't covered, I could see small slash marks. She had a fresh wound across her cheek to go alongside the other scars she had there.

"I'm fine" Bellatrix dismissed me, "What are we doing with the prisoners?"

"Let's interrogate them first" I decided, "Are they restrained?"