The Queen of Stones

Chapter 16

As I reach the door to my room, I notice the lack of a guard in front of it. This is weird. Normally, when the Cleaner goes to Earth, they send another guard to take his shifts in front of my room. I wonder what this means. I close the door and see Davi laying on the bed watching tv, already in his pajamas.

"Davi, I think they are going to take my throne by force," I said, pressing my back on the door and looking at him through the loose locks of hair in front of my eyes.

"What?" He sits on the bed. "Tell me what happened."

"Apollo sent me this," I said handing him the paper. "When we were kids we used to say our names and our biggest fear, and my biggest fear has always been that someone will forcefully take my throne from me and Apollo would always say that it was an impossible fear because I was the daughter of the king⏤"

"Calm down, you're talking too fast," Davi said while he walked to me.

"Davi, I think they are coming for us." I try to control my breathing but give up and focus on drying my sweaty palms on my dress. "Maybe we should go."

"Addy, no one is coming for us." He soflty places his hand on my face. "And, if they come, you can just arrest them."

"I don't think you understand this. If someone is coming to take my throne, whether it is Bonavich or someone else, they'll probably have the support of military forces." I wipe the sweat dripping off my face. "Which means I can't just arrest them."

"Like our military?" 

Fear slowly takes control of his face.

"Yes." I look straight into his eyes. "Our lives are in danger."

"Let's go."

Davi quickly opens his nightstand drawer and takes a small golden object, putting it in his pocket; he then goes around the bed to my nightstand, grabbing the key to the secret passage in the drawer. We run to the dresser room and push the full body mirror inside it, allowing us to enter the three-meter safe hidden behind it. I stand behind him as I wait for him to open the secret passage inside the safe, built for situations like this. I wonder where we should go. I grab a bag already filled with supplies and add inside it my mother's crown, carefully placed inside the safe.

"Adelaide, something is wrong." Davi looks at me with a desperate look in his face. "The key doesn't enter."

My heart pounds in my chest in an absurd velocity, as if it is trying to leave my body.

"What do you mean?"

"Is this the key for the secret passage, right?" He shows me the key and I nod, recognizing it by the small stone in the key chain that will be used later to enter the Stone Sanctuary at the end of the secret passage. "Then someone changed the lock."

"What do you mean someone changed the lock?" I scream. This can not be happening.

"The key isn't even entering the hole." He hands me the key. "Try it yourself."

I try to force the key inside the lock, but all in vain. My sweaty palms cause the key to slip from my hands, making whatever force that I apply on it, useless.

"What do we do now?" Davi asked looking at me.

I don't know.

"Close the safe door," I said, being quickly obeyed. "Maybe they will think that we are not in our room."

He licks his lips. I can see his chest going up and down as he breaths. "I don't think this is the best place to hide."

"I don't have any other ideas, Davi," I screamed.