Security at the castle had increased two-fold, with increased guards lining the perimeter of the large complex, and tighter rotations of patrol officers circling the inner grounds. While the castle was considered secure, Lucas still organised a personal security detail to tail Rose at all times, despite her discomfort with having armed guards watch her every move, though after a few twitchy days she had grown used to their presence, their royal blue coats blending into the background.
The murderer - whom Lucas had heard from the Captain of the Guard that was indeed suspected to be the witch - had not been caught, and no clues had surfaced after careful inspection of the crime scene and autopsy of the body. Dark magic seeped through the cracks of the castle, and nobody knew where to look. They could only increase security and hope that it staves away the demon that lurked around them.
Lucas had tried to arrange a security detail for Keir too with his past deeply drenched in the sick witch's dark arts, but Keir has merely pushed those two guards onto Rose's detail, stating that the victims were clearly young women, and not tall, grown men. Keir had looked at Lucas so coldly it made him feel ill. The raven-haired prince had closed himself off, Lucas cast out into the cold as he banged on the door as he silently screamed Keir's name. Every time he stared at Keir, tried to reach for him behind Rose's back, to corner him in a secluded corner and beg for him to just look at him, Keir's door barely even rattled.
It was another sleepless night for Lucas, something that had become common since Keir had latched onto the prince's heart like a vice. Walking the expanse of the castle, a candle dripping hot wax in the holder in his hand, Lucas stopped in front of the bathroom that had been locked with a large metal chain, and was surprised to see a faint glow behind the doors, his neck hairs prickling.
Pulling out the master key from his pocket given to him as the prince of the kingdom, Lucas opened the door, muscles taut as he crouched low as to obscure himself. Blowing out his candle, Lucas creeped forwards, stopping behind a semi-sheer wooden room divider that obscured the literal bloodbath that still reeked of iron. The silhouette of a shadowy figure was cast onto the surface of the wooden screen by the candlelight behind it, and Lucas narrowed his eyes, watching carefully.
'Is it the witch?' Lucas thought carefully to himself, growing cold as the shadow bent its back, its arm running across the surface of the bathtub. As its arm extended, a pale hand became visible past the confines of the screen, Lucas's tensions immediately ceasing as he recognised the hand in a breath.
"Keir?" Lucas whispered, the man behind the screen jumping as he whirled, the candlelight flickering with the wind the swish of his shirt had created. Stepping around the screen, Lucas looked longingly at the man in front of him. Dark shadows nestled under tired eyes rimmed with red looked back at him, the full mouth set into a thin line as dark stubble littered his usually smooth chin. His hair, longer than when Lucas had first met him, fell onto his exposed collar bones which peeped in pale slopes from the opening of his loosely tied undershirt.
"What are you doing here?" Keir asked, voice hoarse as he turned his eyes away, the shadows under his eyes darkening as his eyes closed, lashes catching the candlelight.
"I could ask you the same question," Lucas replied, stepping around a puddle of dried blood to stand by Keir's side. "How did you get in here without a key?"
"Window," Keir replied, voice flat as Lucas raised a brow, glancing at the window across from them.
"It's the second floor," Lucas said, incredulously, as Keir scoffed.
"If you think a place if off limits just because it's not on the first floor, then I shouldn't be surprised that something like this could happen right under our noses," Keir said, voice hard as he gestured to the carnage before them. Though the body had been removed and the bath drained, the majority of the blood had yet to be cleaned up. "And you ought to re-evaluate your guard rotations. If I can get in here without anyone seeing, the witch would have no struggled moving around the castle, if she's even still here."
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Snow's White | ✓
Romance[BxB] Prince Lucas thought that life would be perfect when he made Snow White his wife-to-be. At least, that was until her twin brother waltzed into his life and obliterated everything he knew. He had her same pale skin, blood red lips and dark, ebo...
