Kidnapped by a Prince

Chapter 16

Xander's POV

Shit, Mel is sooooo pissed! I'm beyond screwed. She doesn't seem tough, but that girl fights dirty! I shudder to myself as I remember the painful knee to the crown jewels Melody had delivered a little while ago. That was not an experience I was trying to repeat. I tried to shake thoughts of the wily girl as I raced towards Thea's room. Hopefully, she would understand. I needed her to understand.

As I neared Thea's door, I slowed to a light jog and tried to catch my breath. Damn you giant castle. I raised a hand hesitantly and knocked lightly on the large oak door. I was nervous as I waited for the door to open. I fiddled with my finger and tried to formulate some sort of apology. The door cracked open at first. Then, slowly, the entire door inched open to reveal a sniveling Thea. When I saw the sadness her soulful eyes held, I felt a deep pang of regret in my chest. I had hurt her, my dear friend. I quickly wrapped her up in an honest embrace and kissed the top of her head. "Thea, I'm sorry you had to see that. I know what it looked like, but I promise you we didn't do anything" I whispered. I heard Thea's breathing begin to even out and subconsciously began rubbing small circles on her back. "I'm sorry, Thea. I'm sorry. We were reading a book and I must have fallen asleep. I'm sorry." The small girl in my arms hadn't said a word which worried me, but I figured that it was best not to rush her. I used the silence to think about the events that had just unfolded...

Melody had let me sleep in her room, in her bed, right beside her. Recalling the moment we shared brought a secret smile to my face. I felt my face heat up as I remembered her cute little nose wrinkling in concentration as she tried to follow Sherlock's train of thought. She was so close to me. I thought about how innocent and not deadly she looked while sleeping. It was so different than the Melody I knew. Her features were relaxed instead of the typical murderous glares I received. I am pulled out of my memories by Thea.

"You guys look close. Who is she to you?"

I paused. I didn't really have a good answer to that. What could I have told her? "Oh, just some girl my dad kidnapped to be my wife. Honestly, Thea, you have nothing to worry about. She could never love me anyway which makes you the PERFECT second choice!" I decided against that approach. I cleared my throat and answered, "she's a friend." I sort of wasn't lying... I mean, I don't think Melody would call me a friend just yet, but at the very least I was no longer her enemy.

The princess rolled her eyes. "Obviously, but how did you guys meet? How long have you known her? What kind of friend? Do you have feelings for her? Is she royalty? Why is she living in the palace with you?" she persisted.

I stammered a bit, simply because I was overwhelmed by the onslaught of questions. I tried to answer them best I could, but I was sure that I would forget to address at least a couple of questions. "Melody is... well she's living here at my father's request, not mine." Another partial truth. "I've only known her for a few days and I met her here." The real her that doesn't want to kill me that is. "She isn't royalty, so don't worry about her ok? She's just a friend" I finished. Just a friend. I repeat to myself sadly.

Thea looks at me with a slight frown on her face. "You missed one," she mumbles.

I look at her puzzled. "Which one?"

"Do you have feelings for her? Do you care for Melody?" Thea insisted.

"I--I..." I stuttered. "I... No. I don't have feelings for her, Thea. I only care about you. Please don't let that useless commoner get in the way of us. We were finally reconnecting," I  said giving her a sly smile. There it was, my first true lie. Though it hurt me to speak poorly of Melody, I knew that I had to convince Thea that Melody was nobody to me.

As my words registered, a dazzling smile spread across Thea's face. She threw her arms around my neck and laughed. "Oh, God! You had me worried for a second there, Xander. I thought I imagined our connection at lunch." The girl gave a sigh of relief before releasing the embrace. The princess grabbed me by the hand and led me out of her room towards the garden. "Let's go check out the palace grounds. I want to see if our "kingdom" is the way I remember..."

I allowed her to lead me away as I hung my head with shame.

Sam's POV

"What was that?" I asked with a slight smirk on my face? I was pissed at Xander for being an insensitive jerk. Melody however just amuses me.

"Mhm drop it, Sam," the girl mumbled into her pillow. Although she tried to hide her face, I still saw hints of scarlet on the sides of her face.

"You never fail to surprise me, Melody. I mean, one second you're cursing Xander's existence, and the next you're sleeping with him..." I let my sentence trail off to further irritate her.

"Sam! It wasn't like that! Come on knock it off. Was it not enough to kidnap me? Now you have to humiliate me too?" She half-screamed. Seeing the distress on her face made me feel guilty and I raised my hands in surrender.

"I'm sorry. You're right. Too far."

"I have a boyfriend anyway. I would never." She added definitively. With this statement, Melody seemed to sober up to the situation and her features grew taut.

"Right... that." My hand balls up into a small fist as I think about the boy I left in the dirt. I didn't kill him, but the hit would definitely leave a nasty bump. My bad.

"Right... that" Melody repeated sarcastically.

"I told you, I'm sorry. I had my orders. It wasn't really up to me."

"You might have had orders, but you also had a moral responsibility to do the right thing. I believe that you didn't want to kidnap me, but unfortunately, you did. That was a choice, so don't be sorry. Be better." Melody said.

I sat next to her on her bed and thought carefully about her words. Had I really had a choice? Was I to blame? Why did she only blame me? There were at least three other people directly involved in the kidnapping. Why was I the one she was mad at?

Right when I was about to respond to her, Melody stood up and looked deeply into my eyes. Her eyes seemed to pierce through my soul in a way that sent chills up my spine. Melody held my gaze for what felt like forever before breaking the connection. She then opened the door and made a shooing motion. "Leave," she commanded.

I wanted to protest, but the expression on Melody's face scared me. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but something about the glassiness of her eyes and the overall calmness of her demeanor spelled trouble. I rose slowly and made my way out of the room. She had gotten so serious. I made my way out of the room and heard the door close softly behind me. Defeated, I returned to my own room.

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Short chapter, but hopefully you like it. I have been reading up a lot and have some new ideas for the direction that I want to take the characters, so I'm sorry if some details don't really match up. Let me know in the comments and I'll try to clear up any logical mistakes I make!

Things are going well on my end. I've made some new friends this year and they are absolutely amazing. I haven't been this happy at school in a while hehe. I hope, you angels are all doing incredible as well! Let me know what's going on in your lives! Thank you so much for sticking with this story. I know I don't make it easy haha.

Please keep voting for, commenting on, and sharing this story. Your support has been so overwhelming! I don't even know how or why, but we reached 2000 reads!!!!! THANK YOU! I don't deserve it, but thank you for bringing me so much happiness.

This chapter is dedicated to @potterhead43145 !!! Your comment on my last chapter totally motivated me to write this one! Stay awesome.