Shadows (Completed-Under Revision)

Love Runs Out

Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

Author's note: I'm back!  All that's left is a the finale and then the epilogue! Dun dun!

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Anthony:

"Prince Anthony, my heels are bleeding."

"What does that have to me?", I replied.

Exasperated, the witch answered, "I have waited almost all day so much so that my heels have bled. When is that friend of yours coming to give the signal or whatever you youngsters call it?"

"Trey will be here soon. I know it," I responded back, hoping that to be the case.

"Suit yourself, but I am not staying here any longer," she confessed.

Suddenly, a thump was heard next to me, and a dying wheeze resounded through the air.

"Hhheehee...Carryin' you Anica were a literal nightmare. Skimp on the cookies gurl cuz' next time I won't be the one picking ya sorry butt up," Trey quipped.

"Sorry," Danica apologized. "What can I say though? Those Danish cookies that the faeries made were delicious though."

A humph was heard from my best friend as she whispered in my ear, "In hindsight, totally not worth it."

Grabbing a hold of her waist, I hoisted her up and twirled Danica around while she shouted, "Whee!"

"Yay! Do it again!", my crush yelled.

Trey put a finger to her lips and said, "SHH! What are you a deaf man too, Anthony? Or don't it register to you that we're on the lam at this point in time?"

"Don't you do anything with a poor lamb, man! Or I'll...set Anthony on you," Danica threatened.

"Danica, lam is...never mind," I responded.

"Where is the fairie prince?", the witch lady inquired.

Trey chuckled, and suavely commented, "That, I do not know. But we got Danica back safe and sound so let the sucker lie on the bed he made for himself."

I started, "Trey, we may dislike him, but he did distract the guards at the front gate by making a scene and letting you slip by the back without a ruckus, right?"

My best friend, besides Danica, sighed. "Fine. But that don't mean I have to like him, right?"

"Course not," Amir remarked.

Shrieking, Trey jumped into the air, and said, "Where you come from fool?"

"My momma's house. Where you think?", he quipped.

Danica muttered, "I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not because the palace is technically your mother's..."

"We get it," interjected the witch. "Now what's the plan?"

"No plan? But how did I get out if none of y'all had a plan in the first place?", Trey queried.

"Amir is the one who's lived here-it was his plan. Distract the guards in the front, and sneak Danica out through the back," I relayed to them.

"Then what am I needed for?", the witch postulated, puffing smoke in the general direction of my face.

Coughing, I explained, "Transportation."

Trey started, "Wait, so this witch...no offense."

"None taken."

"This witch is just our getaway driver? Then who's on lookout duty?"

"I am," I answered.

"How does that work?", he asked.

"It doesn't," a feminine voice responded back.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end hearing that voice once again.

The faerie princess, aka Amir's mother.

We were so doomed.

"Now come little children," she magically ordered, drawing us closer to her with just a beckon of her voice.

"We can either discuss what you have all done wrong, or what I prefer, perform a bonding ceremony with my son and Princess Danica before their eighteenth birthdays respectively."

"What?", Danica yelled.

I stood there in shock as all that I had worked for was brought crumbling down by this olde-fashioned fairy ambassador.

Was she crazy?

"The bonding ceremony will last till their eighteenth birthday, and then we will have the formal alliance ceremony. Ooo-the wedding will be beautiful, don't you think?", she gushed, twirling her hands in apparent excitement.

"Not so fast, mother."

"Amir? How did you...did your father put you up to this? That Turkish..."

"Don't blame my father on this when you're the one who's forcing us to follow those antiquated customs when you yourself rebelled and married a non-royal."

Amir's mother clicked her tongue. "And look how that turned out?"

"Dang," Trey uttered. "Do I need to be here for this?"

"Shut up," we all shouted in unison at him.

The young half-human half-faerie German-Turkish prince sighed. "Mom, that has nothing to do...just because your marriage failed doesn't mean true love doesn't exist."

"Double negative," Danica breathed. I immediately shushed her.

Continuing, Amir stated, "Let them go, mother. I can always find someone else."

"True love? They're just kids. Are you expecting me to forego an important alliance with Danica's parents just for teenage romance?"

"Are they talking about us?", Danica whispered. "Yeah," I replied back.

"Excuse me...excuse me," she shouted at the mom-and-son pair. Both of them turned to look at her, and she gulped.

"Umm..I don't know when this became about me and Anthony, but I like him. Okay? And if that means I have to refuse my parent's order to get married with someone else, then so be it."

I grinned, and patted her back, saying, "That was so brave."

Nervously chuckling, she quipped, "But you weren't the one saying it though."

Clearing my throat, I addressed the crowd that I sensed now gathered around us.

"I, Prince Anthony of Lesotho, refuse to let my girlfriend, or anyone I know for that matter, be forced into marriage."

Amir squeaked, "Danica's your girlfriend?"

Trey's jaw audibly dropped. "This is news for me too, buddy."

"Yes, my boyfriend and I," Danica stated, emphasizing the boyfriend part. "Do not agree to this arrangement...and would like to leave please."

At this point, Trey whispered that Amir's mother had ordered the guards to stand back and the rest of the faeries now had their turn to look in shock at our staged protest.

"This won't do," she barked. Consecutively snapping her fingers, a whole hive of faeries buzzed in my ears, making them ring endlessly.

My best friend tightened the grip on the sword Amir had lent to him, and divulged, "We may have underestimated their resolve by just a bit."

"You think?", I snapped.

"Jeesh, everybody's testy today," he exclaimed.

"Danica-let us not forget where your dear mother and father are at this current moment..."

"Oh no."

Trey swore.