{COMPLETED} The Bloody Leader

17. Acceptance

Patryk's POV

I take a breath and follow Tord who was following the man ahead, I pierce my lips into a thin line trying to process the scene, did we really just leave a battle just to save a… Another Prince! I move up next to Tord and look him in the eyes.

He looks back “Er vi virkelig-” “yes,” he says sternly, I look down, the attention of a child caught my eye, I look at her she tilts her head I wave at her and she waves back.

I smile and look forward we follow until Paul makes a sharp turn, we turn too but Tord has to hold onto the girl otherwise she'd fall off, me still wrapping my head around things ask, “when did this all happen Tord?” “What?” “What more happened, all this seems to fast, way to rushed,” “what I told you?” “i have a question,” said the man in the front, i tilt my head and Tord asked what it was.

“How did Tom get that Crystal Bon?” I saw as Tord stiffened I look to the side guessing “well, it- she was a late birthday gift, I found her in my part of the woods after me and Thomas finished swimming the night of his birthday, why?” “Just wondering, his excuse of him finding her and healing her didn't make sense it didn't appear on him,” “Y-yea Farrah held her, same with Tom, well as much as she could,”. I chime in “Does she know about this?” “Yes Pat! She helped me realize my true feelings for him and we don't like each other,” “I never said that-” “you're starting to sound like my dad,” he mumbles.

I stop talking and I notice Paul looking back at us, I shake my head and put on the best smile I could, to portray that I was fine, he rolls his eyes, blinks slowly and looks forward again, not long after we reach the Velvet Kingdom, it seemed deserted and we come to a stop, Paul gets off his horse and takes off the little boy, I watch as he makes his way to Tord, Tord handed Paul the child and bent down “June, Lucas I don't want you guys playing outside any-” “THOMAS!” Yells Tord he jumps off his horse and runs to the small opening in the ground “TORD!” He yells back.

I overhear the rest of what Paul was telling the small children, they nod and run off home hopefully, I get off my horse, Tord yells one more time “We need to get him out of here and quick!” “We will” says Paul he moves past Tord, we both follow him, “There's most likely guards surrounding our target,” “so it's going to be a fight?” He nods and we reach a window, he opens is and says something under his breath with a slight smirk.

Once we all get inside the Kingdom I take everything in, it's so much more complex than ours and I could tell Tord was doing the same, “h-how do you not get lost in this?” “Simple, find all the shortcuts or secret passages and you're fine,” he answers “how many are there?” I ask “over 150, I know about half that,”

Me and Tord stare slightly longer taking everything in, we heard stone being moved slowly, we look and see Paul with a Torch, the opening was the size of a ten year old, I ask why so small, whals lighting the torch he just shrugged, “it's bigger once we're in, come on,” he looks at us, Tord went first, hesitantly I followed, he was right the hall was able to fit three men side by side within it the door shut automatically and we stayed my Paul's side.

“So you're the one, Thomas been running to Late at nights?” “Hm, Oh! Yes, I actually didn't think we'd get this close though, it's like he just sprouted something in me that just helped make it possible,” “but you cant have him, I'm sorry but you can't,” “well not completely, I'm king now and I can actually help a lot if kids my age and younger in my Kingdom have hope in living when it comes to the person they love or care for the most,” “no- I mean-” he stops us, the torch light up most of the way down, the walls were full of holes, inside those holes were blades, he sighs.

“Follow my lead,” he steps in a orderly manner- left then right, right again, then left, this pattern continued until he reached the other side, I hesitate and let Tord go first, Tord balls his fist up and takes a breath, he steps in the same order as Paul did with slight hesitation, my turn, I step on the first square and they both nod, I take another step, before I get on the tile completely I look up and see both them shake their heads. I move to the tile next to it and they start shaking even more, at this point I just stayed at the first tile.

“Two to your right!” They yell, I flinch and go two to my right and step on it they nod and i take a breath “three to your left,” says Tord “then one to your right,” I follow the order by the time I was just at the end I trip “Fu-” someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the other side, it was Paul, our noses were barely touching “-ck,” I finish, he let's me go and shifts his glance “ahem, sorry to interrupt your moment but we got a Prince to save here,” says Tord, his look seemed agitated, Paul nods and agrees and continues leading us through the hall until he stops and pushes on the wall, like before the stone moved and the hole was again the size of a ten year old, he motioned us to go through the opening we do, he follows behind after blowing out the torch.

“That didn't take us long,” he says dusting himself off, Tord and I grab his shoulders, the spiral stares had no rail, tame the wrong step and its death, he removed our hands and made his way in front of us, “Come on, we have a Prince to save don't we?” He says mocking Tord “Hey!” I laugh but cover my mouth Paul just chuckles “come on, we wasted enough time as it is,”.

Woo chapter 17 is gorgeous! It's a Patryk POV and I added a tint of PauxPat and it was smooth(ish)! Oki! Enough fake gloating this story is almost over and I don't know how to feel, TBL has gone so far, and all thanks to you guys, reading, voting and enjoying this book makes me happy inside and out, to be honest i would've stopped this story right at chapter 11 or earlier if it wasn't for you great people and my best frick fracking friends (you know who you are), it makes me really happy to know I can please so many others with just a bunch of words thrown on a page and arranged specifically just to make sense and not be so oblivious, it makes me feel satisfied in a way that I never felt, but here's the catch, the next chapter will not be a chapter, please abuse this time to ask me, and the “cast” in TBL as many questions as you want, you can also use this time to give me fan art, this also is a little something I wanted to do to let you all know that I'm open and interested in doing, so don't hold off on any questions during this time please! I purple you guys and I'll see you in the hopeful QnA byyeee 💜💜💜!