The Vengeful Princess

Chapter 15: A Son for Sacrifice

It's funny how quickly everything changes in mere seconds.

I had laid on my bed, moping and staring at the ceiling for hours after the physician had came and left. Ella and Ivy, who had recently began working for Amelia, had cried and stayed in my room for hours before I had to force them out the door. I had finally been left with the silence I had been craving all day to process and think over everything, but now the room was too quiet and my mind was too loud.

Only a few days ago, I had been Alexander's first and only Favoured. Now I was simply another passing Privileged, dismissed from court.

I still hadn't packed my belongings away yet due to some irrational belief that if I wished it hard enough, I could somehow undo the last 24 hours. I had been training for the last four years, with the sole purpose of entering the palace as a Privileged. I had only just gotten the lead that I needed. I wasn't ready to go home. Not yet.

I sat bolt upright in my bed as someone barged into my room.

"Get out Sc-" The complaint formed in my mouth before I remembered that Scott and Peter had been relieved of their duties after I had been dismissed. It was a gesture that I had prayed for endlessly, but now felt oddly melancholic about. It only made my dismissal feel more real.

"Get up." Charles stood by the door, arms crossed.

I flopped back onto the bed. "Go away."

Due to Irelia's multiple warnings and rules, I had came into the palace without any intention of making friends or helping others simply for the sake of it. I had broken that rule and I had paid for it.

Something blue was thrown over my face, obscuring my vision as I pawed at the layers of material. A blue gown. I glanced over to Charles in confusion.

"Get dressed, I'm helping you win my brother back."

I had been notified last night that I was allowed an extended stay of one day at the palace due to my injury but by the end of tonight, it was expected that I take my leave. What little time remained of today would not be enough time to undo my dismissal but still I complied with Charles' instructions and met him in the library. I was already apprehensive about his plan due to what had resulted from the last time we were in the library but what could happen to me that's worse than what had already occurred?

Charles left as soon as I arrived, telling me to stay put and that he would be back soon. It had been a while since he had left and I was getting impatient.

I put down the book I had been reading and thought out loud, "Charles, what exactly are you planning..."

I trailed off as my eyes landed on a different brunette that had had just passed by. It wasn't the way he looked that caught my attention, for as I could only see his back profile, but the hauntingly familiar way that he walked. His walk exuded an air of authority and confidence, common traits in officers of the royal guard, but his footsteps were light and vigilant, like a cat in the night. His frame was the exact same as I had remembered, with those broad shoulders and his lean but muscly build that had excelled in the Aztalonian Army. Nico.

I barely remembered to leave a rushed note before I followed after him, hypnotised by the prospect of his presence. He moved quickly down the hallway, down the back stairwell and through the parlour. Did his steps briefly falter as he passed the throne room or was that a trick of the eye? I quickened my pace, almost losing him when he stepped through the glass doors into the garden, navigating around the palace with ease.

He turned his head slightly, giving me a glimpse of his face that was too quick to make anything out. I was rapidly closing the distance between us as we headed deeper and deeper into the maze. I was an arms width away when he turned around a corner sharply, dissipating into the air.