The Best Bride

14. TOWER

"Hey! Let me out!"  

"Nutbrun?" A voice hit my ears. Somebody was here in the cell. Somebody who could recognize my voice. "Nutbrun, is that you?" 

Jewel. "Yes. This is no good, Jewel. The demon caught you too?"  

"Yes." 

"How long have you been here?" 

"Not long. He brought me here a few moments ago." 

I crawled on all four towards her voice direction. "Are we in the same cell?"  

"I don't think so," replied Jewel.  

I stopped crawling. There was no point in doing it if we were in separate cell. The pressing darkness was too much that it started hurting my eyeballs. So I closed eyes and said, "What do you think the demon put us here for?" 

"Probably on Rivera's order. I think he works for her." 

"Was he following you too?" 

"I don't know. What about you?" 

"One of my friends think so." Otherwise how did he find me? "And I reckon he's right." 

"So you finally made some friends." 

I told her how I'd been passing days in the human world and how I'd made friends. How much I liked one of them. Confessing all these made my heart feel lighter. 

"What happened to you liking Prince Felix?" 

"I still like him. But I think I like Éclair more, you know." 

"So liking the prince is just an infatuation then?" 

I opened my eyes, finally discovering how I felt about the prince. "Yes, it is."  

"You aren't interested in marrying Prince Felix after all?" 

"No." I felt no regret in telling it out aloud. "How about you?" 

"My feelings are still same, you know. Nobody's going to replace him." 

"Good determination. I hope you aren't angry with me anymore." 

"Not at all." 

"Would have stayed angry if there hadn't been any change in my heart?" 

"Of course not, Nutbrun. You're my little sister and I love you. I'd just wanted you to know how much I wanted Prince Felix." 

"Root wasn't bad either?"  

"Of course he wasn't. But I always had this secret crush on Prince Felix even when we were together. I don't hate Root or anything. But sometimes we've to do what we think best for us. You can't stay faithful to the person when a tiniest piece of your heart still wants somebody. That's why I broke up. Now I love only Prince Felix whole heartedly." 

I searched in my heart if there was still a bit that wanted Prince Felix to marry me. Surprisingly I found none. I can stay faithful to one person then. "What if he doesn't love you back?"  

"Oh, he will."  

"I like your confidence, Jewel. But that'll only happen if we run away alive from here." 

"Yeah. Right."  

A long silence followed. Then I said, "Jewel, do you've Sunshield with you?"  

"Yes, I've both Sunshield and magic Gum here in my purse." 

"Purse?" I didn't know why I said that. She could have bought it in the shop like I'd bought dresses and the mobile. Mobile? I remembered it being in my hand before slamming down on the floor. It must have been laying on somewhere on the dark floor here.