The Vampire's Bride

Chapter 14

"You don't seem very concerned," Jason pointed out, his voice like ice in the small space of his father's study. It had been two days since the chandelier had shattered. The cord holding it up had been sliced. Foul play was obviously involved.

Iris had been very shaken up by the whole incident, but that was to be expected. Her power's spectacular reveal had shocked them both. Jason knew what he had seen. His fiancee had turned to butterflies and smoke after saving his life, and harmlessly moved out of the way of pounds of glass.

"Should I be?" The king replied. Jason returned from his thoughts, clenching his hands into fists at his father's apathy.

"Iris was nearly killed by an obvious assassination attempt for the second time, and still you do nothing?!" He hissed. His blood was beginning to rush hot with anger. "Why don't you do something about Xavier?"

"We don't want to risk angering the king of Hell, Jason. Prehaps it is easier just to let him kill the girl," his father continued, finally looking up from the papers.

"How could you even suggest that?!" Jason yelled. He slammed his hands on the wooden desk, shaking in fury.

"Control yourself, Jason," the king said in a bored tone. He leaned back in his chair and fixed his heir with critical eyes. "Your brother, mother, who else dies if she stays? We've still no clue what the girl is, but Hell seems to fear it."

"It isn't Hell, it's only Xavier," the crown prince insisted. He began to pace, wringing his hands. "He has a personal vendetta towards Iris, something because of her mother."

"And your marriage to the girl would only anger him further."

Jason clenched his hands again and fumed. If his father would not do anything about this, he would.

"Oh, and that chandelier, that was not Xavier," the king told him. The crown prince turned, shaking slightly.

"Then who was it?" Jason asked softly.

"I ordered it."

Jason stood in shock, his mouth open. He couldn't say what he wanted to. Not without it being considered treason.

"You'll find another. A proper girl this time, with land and an army preferably," the king said.

Jason stalked from the study and slammed the door behind him hard enough for books to fall off their shelves before his father could finish.

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"Butterflies?" Evelyn asked.

"Yes. They were everywhere," Iris told the assassin.

The two girls were walking around the gardens. It felt like the only safe place to talk, as if the flowers surrounding them could somehow protect them. After the incident with the chandelier...

Iris didn't feel safe in the castle anymore. This attack wasn't Xavier. Xavier would want her to know directly if he had done it, and would have tried to slit her throat himself when she revealed her powers. But if not the king, then who?

"The Itallians come tomorrow, correct?" Evelyn asked her, snapping her away from her paranoia.

"Yes, I believe so," Iris confirmed. The girl held her arms and looked over the distant grounds of the castle. Kova should have returned by now...

"You have to be careful, Iris. It is very tense between the two families right now, after Jason's arranged marriage was ruined by Tobias," Evelyn said. "Little can be smoothed over by Akaylaa and Luca's marriage."