Heir to the Ice Queen (Book 1)

Ch. 11

     "Ray you can't be serious?" Zinnia exclaimed, "Less than a few hours ago you didn't trust her because you thought she was a secret royal, and now you want to go with her to the castle. To where every royal lives?"

     "What? No. No one is coming with me. This was a solo mission from the start," I'm still confused as to why Ray would even want to come with me.

     "You're going to end up putting us in more danger Ray. You're being stupid, just let her go," Zinnia gritted her teeth, as if she wanted to beat her brother for his dramatic emotions but stopped herself. 

     "No, I am not being stupid, just hear me out. I have an idea of how we can stop running, stop hiding, and stop being paranoid and finally just live without always looking over our shoulders."

     No one spoke for a few seconds, the tension between the siblings grew. I wanted to open my mouth and tell them that they were living just fine compared to the poor in winter, especially for them being so young, but I didn't want my head getting chewed at this early in the day.

     "Well? Are you going to tell me or are you just going to keep it a secret?" Zinnia snapped.

     "If someone helped keep your child safe, and help return the child to said parents, wouldn't you say those nice people deserve a reward?" Ray asked.

     "Nova isn't a child though, she can obviously get there on her own. And once they see us then the people who've been after us will take us. A boar walking into a lions den."

     "Not if Nova makes them promise to not lay a hand on us, and who ever her father is commands it."

     "What if my father turns out to be an unimportant royal," I said, "Or dead."

     "No royal has died in the past 100 years since the war with winter," Ray said casually.

     A weight landed in my chest. Yeah my father could have very well died in that war, I wouldn't be surprised if my mother killed him right after she had her... pleasure. But I can't tell them that.

    "Look Zinnia, we need to stop living in fear and I'm not proud of my recent actions, but feeling like we're being hunted brings that out of me. We never did anything wrong to begin with - we were just kids - it was never us, we shouldn't keep on running," Ray was looking at his sister when he said this. 

     It was like they forgot I was here for a moment.

     "I agree, it was never us. But those guys still came after us, even when they took away dad," Zinnia whispered.

     "We know it was never the King who sent them, this was a rouge operation. If we tell the king we are being hunted by his men, for crimes we never committed, he'd have to keep us safe," he turned to me, "especially if we're uniting him with his family."

     "What horrible crime did your father commit that even when he was punished, that they went after you two?" I asked.

     "That will be one story for the road," Zinnia answered.

     "So my stupid plan isn't so stupid?" Ray asked his sister.

     She released a heavy sigh," It sounds a little crazy, but I agree. We never did anything wrong, it's been years since we were safe. We can't live like this forever. And maybe, just maybe they'll promise us safety as long as they think we've delivered them a sweet child and not a short tempered one."

      I really wasn't planning this to be a group trip, it seemed dangerous to have them tag along with me. But I also wasn't going to deny them a chance to talk to the king about their safety, especially if my presence really does make them look better.