CAPTIVE by the Prince

Chapter Twenty Six

Ana woke up and was confused with her new surroundings. Where was she?

She trembled when a gust of wind came inside her room. She grabbed the thick quilt and covered herself. A window on her far left was left open and she saw something white was swirling inside. She wrapped the quilt around her shoulders and approached the window. The land outside was enveloped with thick blanket of snow. It was dark outside, but it wasn’t evening. It was like dusk, or dawn. There was no sun, but there was no moon. Only stars adorned the dark blue velvety sky.

She heard hinges creaked and whirled around just in time to see her mother approaching her.

“Are you feeling well now, dear?” her mother asked. She only answered with a nod. “Good. Your father wanted to see you.”

“Father?” It was the first time her father wanted to see her.

“Yes. He heard what had happened at Eldar.”

“Oh. Am I at Sanggre?”

The queen gave her a warm smile and placed an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “Yes. This is your beautiful kingdom: A land in eternal darkness.”

“You mean there is no day or night here? Only like this?”

“Yes. And once you have finished your meeting with the king, I will personally show you the kingdom.” She gave Ana a fierce and affectionate hug. “It’s good to have you back here in the kingdom. After all those years I had kept you hidden… The people are just ecstatic to see their princess.”

They made their way in a room where her father, the king, and Kristoff was waiting for them. Kristoff made his way towards her side, while her father remained seated behind his large desk. Parchments, quills and scrolls were cluttered on top of the desk.

“You wanted to see me, dad? I mean father?”

A frown creased the king’s forehead. “Yes. Naturally I would want to see my daughter after the ordeals she had gone through.”

His tone wasn’t affectionate; it didn’t even give a hint that he was worried over her daughter. But Ana shrugged that off. “I’m fine now.”

“Yes, well if at the beginning you were made to stay here instead there with those bastard elves then your life wouldn’t be at risk. Nevertheless, that was all in the past and we need to make sure that incident will never happen again,” the king said.

Ana made a nod. “How about my marriage to Ivan? What will happen to us? To our kingdom?”

“I have never recognized your marriage with that elf in the first place. I will do everything I can to have it abolished. We never really needed the elves as allies.”

“I couldn’t believe Ivan would want me dead!” she found herself saying. She wasn’t able to stop herself from making her disbelief known. She couldn’t even fully accept it herself.

“It did not even surprise me that the elf wanted to kill you,” the king said grimly. “His brother wanted me dead as well, if you all recall. Well, anyhow, the elf is now under our custody for investigation. The Council of Elders is trying to intervene of course, since Lianthor made an appeal before the council to transfer the case under the council. The elves think the vampires will not be fair in passing the judgment.”

“There is to be a trial for Ivan? I don’t understand?”

“What is there you don’t understand?” the king scoffed. “Your husband tried to kill you, a royal princess. Therefore, the sentence is death upon vampire laws. My men found the dagger he used to stab you inside his room, along with the concoction of poisonous substance he used to rub on the dagger’s blade.”