Kingdom of isolation - you can't hide

Twenty Seven - Dual POVs

Alexander

"Feeling warm enough yet, your majesty?"

"Worry about that stupid face of yours, Whitlock."

Sitting near the fireplace in spring wearing a three piece suit isn't something I've had the pleasure of experiencing. Ever. But life, I've come to know, is throwing one anomaly after another and it's all because of her. Aurora. The little princess currently in my care under..captivity. Obviously. Because after a refreshing dive into the Hudson River and barely avoiding hypothermia, I had us fly out to Montana on the private jet. The doctors on board stabilised her but she was out cold. By the time we reached Montana, she'd started to turn fucking purple. I ordered the entire palace to be heated by the time we arrived. Killian insisted we cuddle in bed together to fight the hypothermia and I dragged him out to the training grounds by the scruff of his neck and got the blood pumping in my veins with every vital hit to his body instead. Still, I'm human and susceptible to the occasional cold. Hence why I'm sitting here enjoying the warmth of a fireplace.

Knowing Ma's here too, just on the opposite side of the palace, should alarm me to be more cautious. But I've made a silent deal with my father and she won't be interrupting me anytime soon. Not until my little ballerina wakes up and tells me what she was hoping to achieve by being on the run for over a decade. It's been two days and although Aurora's condition is stable, she's still a liability. I've been hearing from the nurses about her going in and out of consciousness. I myself have visited her twice and both times, she's remained unconscious. Her wounds have been tended to and she's on her way to recovery. Despite my annoyance with her, I'm not the biggest fan of her being in distress and constant unconsciousness. It's not something I prefer nor want to see ever again unless I'm the reason behind it. Watching her dive from the cliff and into the unforgiving tides was triggering enough—one wrong move from her side and she would have landed on the hard ground instead. Something had stirred inside me, a feeling so dark, unearthly, sick and so..twisted. It's abysmal, this slew of vindictive notions that rose within me. They have no right being this immersed into my mind that it's the only thing I keep wanting to think about. I'm not a good man but the thoughts that went through me in that moment were not something I thought I was capable of. How dare she think it'd be this easy to get away from me?

While I admire her courage to stand up against me knowing the odds are not in her favour, it's her fight, her courage that I want. I need it. I crave it. Because I want to be the one who crushes it. Destroy it until there's nothing left for her brother to pick up. No one else but me gets to demolish that last piece of armour and I sure as fuck won't let her take that away from me so easily. Not until the chaos is over. So, seeing her limp body simmered something sinister in my veins. I have waited far too long for her to pull this shit on me now. I already knew Damian Gallo was going to fuck shit up despite being paid millions so I'd decided to go after her myself. Seeing her standing so close to the cliff with that look of abandon on her face, I knew at that very moment—there was no way in hell she was coming with Gallo willingly. No, my little ballerina is far too proud to just give in. It's no wonder she was in my vicinity for an entire fucking year and I didn't know about it. A year. I wonder, if I hadn't met her that night, would she have stayed for another? Would she have pushed her luck and continued on studying in HRU? I doubt it. But her running away makes sense. She sensed danger and knew what to do. Smart girl. But then again, why didn't her brother tell her to avoid my territory? I guess I won't know until she tells me herself. This whole waiting thing has become rather annoying. I stare at the digital screen for any activity on the sensors.

"They'll know she's missing by now, assuming they've kept tabs on her." Killian announces, as if I don't already know. In fact, I'm fucking counting on it. How else could they have been meeting in secret? I'm surprised Caspian left her in New York knowing I was closing in on them. James and Athena really tried to play my father like a fiddle and Caspian attempted to do the same. It's a shame he couldn't see that I'm not my father. No. I'm far worse. My moral compass is set to a permanent darkness that's hard to come back from. It's a part of me, it consumes me as much as I consume it. His efforts in distracting me were pretty juvenile, starting from the fight with Killian to running around New York with Mia as his 'captive'. Something tells me there was nothing forced about that scenario. But that didn't stop Killian from retaliating. No wonder he looks like absolute shit after a second fight with the titan. It didn't help that I also took him for a few rounds. If a racoon came to life, this fucker would be it. Dressed down to his sweats, Killian lounges on the courtyard deck overseeing every wing of the palace. Little princess is currently three floors above me, oblivious to everything that's transpired since she arrived here.