King of the North

Chapter 3

Blase

"Please let me come with you!" Bastian pleaded the next morning. "I want to help! I hate it here!"

"Doesn't your father having a tracking device in you or something? I won't let you come, you'll get hurt." I replied. After last night, Bastian seemed extra avid to follow me wherever I went. 

Sure, I didn't want him to get hurt, but that wasn't the only reason I didn't want him to come. I was getting too attached. I was starting to feel the same things for Bastian as I had once felt for Aleia, and I couldn't let myself fall.

"Yes, but," he pulled down his right sleeve, revealing a small pale wrist. He took a deep breath, and before I could realize what he was doing, he bit down hard, ripping out a piece of metal with his teeth. He spit it out. "It's gone now."

"You are insane." I explained, rushing to his side, placing my fingers on his wrist and healing the bite. 

"Let me help you." He whined. 

"Fine, you can come with me, but you have to stay off the radar. I just know your dad will be tearing up the kingdoms to find you."

"You're finally back, Blase," King Henry smiled when I walked into the meeting room, which, by the way, was the library. "And you've brought a friend."

"Yeah, this is Prince Sebastian. He hates his dad, don't worry about him snitching."

Bastian bowed to Henry. "Your Majesty."

"Please, Sebastian, I'm the same age as you, you don't need to address me so formally." He turned back to me. "So, what did you find out?" 

"The Western Kingdom is the Northern Kingdom's bitch."

King Henry pursed his lips. "As I feared. Sit down you two, I have something to tell you that I've already told the rest."

"Is it bad?" I asked, wearily sitting on a couch. Bastian sat beside me. 

"What? No, no, relax. As the others said yesterday, we need to know what side the faeries are on. They are hosting a masquerade in the Southern Kingdom tonight that we will all attend, once the King of South gets there, we will ask him questions. Sounds like a plan?"

I nodded. 

"Do you need a room, Sebastian?" Henry asked after a moment. 

"Oh, um, yeah, that would be nice." 

"Alright, I'll have Ollie prepare a room for you while you two pick out an outfit for tonight. Let us know as soon as possible what your outfit is so he can make masks for you."

King Henry shooed Bastian away so he could talk to me privately. "Coralia told us you're a witch." He said. "Why didn't you tell us the truth?"

I grinded my teeth. "Because I can't." I didn't elaborate, just hoped that Henry would understand. 

"Alright," he sighed. "Well, we know now so you don't have to hide it from us anymore."

I nodded and left.

Aleia

I had just gotten home from liquor shopping when I got a call from no one other than the asshole himself, Blase Novaro.

I answered. "Wow, you never call me first! What do you want from me? There has to be something. Do you need a free therapy session again? Here: Don't kill yourself."

He scoffed on the other side of the line. "You make me seem like a bad friend."

"That, you are."