The King of Stars and Storms

Chapter Ten

Three days. Three days until the attacks. Three days until they had to stop their father from taking more lives. Elizabeth had trained non-stop for the past four days. She would train in her classes with the Master's and then at night she would train in the clearing with Luca. Her friends worried about her overexerting herself and not being able to fight. Luca crouched over trying to get his breath back. They had been sparring for over nearly four hours and it was way past sundown and it was nearly dawn. "You alright there?" Elizabeth asked. Luca waved his hand in response. "Yeah just catching my breath." He said breathlessly. "You want to end for today." "That is probably the best. I think we both need to rest." Elizabeth nodded softly. They embraced each other goodbye and both got on their horses and rode the opposite directions.

Luca snuck back in through a gap in the castle walls no one has bothered to close up yet. He checked to see if any of the guards on the wall had noticed him sneak back in. Once he saw no one looking the way he quietly crept through the halls back to his room hoping not to get caught. He slowly guided his bedroom door open and closed before taking off his coat. "Where have you been?" A deep voice said from the dark shadows of his room. Luca startled drawing his sword but lowered it when he saw his father step into the light. "Father you scared me." He then came face to face with his father. "You didn't answer my question. Where have you been?" Luca gulped thinking that he had been busted. "Oh I was just out for a walk couldn't sleep. Must have lost track of time." He laughed nervously. Gabriel tried to make out if his son was lying, he had hoped not, he thought that they were getting quite close these past couple of days and that he could be content with leaving his kingdom to his son. "Is there anything I could help you with father?" Gabriel shook his head. "No, I just came to check on you." He lied. There was a part of Gabriel that thought his son was up to something and not something good but he didn't like that side of him. And with that, he walked out of the room leaving Luca alone in the dark. Luca let out a shaky breath and changed for bed before climbing in and letting sleep take over.

Elizabeth, Christopher and Alfie sat in one of the smaller training rooms taking a break from their countless hours of training. "What are you going to do if we succeed?" Christopher started to ask. "Are you going back to live with the queen regent and the new king or are you going to come back here?" Elizabeth sighed, she hadn't thought about it in all honesty. She wanted to keep Mary, Luca and Emily in her life, they were her family after all and they hadn't done anything wrong but her the people she loved and cared about, and who loved and cared about her too, for her whole life were there at the Master's, she couldn't leave them. "I don't know. It's hard. They are my family biologically but you guys have been there for me for years, I couldn't leave any of you." She explained. "You could always switch between the two," Alfie suggested chuckling. Elizabeth chuckled smiling. "Maybe." She glanced down at the ground sadly. Christopher noticed this. "Lizzie? What's wrong?" He asked. "I just feel like this is all my fault. If I hadn't gone seeking revenge, being found by the king, I wouldn't have put a wedge in their family." Christopher and Alfie placed a hand on her shoulders. "This is not your fault. If anything it's the kings, he made this mess not you." Elizabeth nodded. "I know but I can't help but feel this way."

Gabriel had spent the past few days trying to get every detail to his plan perfect whilst also trying to figure out where Elizabeth was. Mary had told him that she left to clear her head but he didn't think that it would take nearly a week. He spaced out thinking of different scenarios of what might have made her take off like that but he was brought back to reality when he heard his name being shouted by Lord Marcel to get his attention. "Your majesty." "Sorry, what were you saying?" The Lord gave the king a confusing glance. "Are you alright, your majesty?" "I'm fine to carry on," Gabriel said in a stern tone. "We wanted to know how many men you wanted to complete this mission." Gabriel cleared his throat. "Have half your men in the initial attack and the other half on standby." Lord Marcel nodded. "Consider it done your majesty." "Is that all?" "Yes sir." The council scattered out of the room. Once they had left, Gabriel left the room as well. When he stepped out of the room he spotted Mary and Luca whispering in the corner, they kept looking around looking at the people walking by them. Strange. Luca then noticed him and whispered something to Mary before walking over to him. "Hello, father. How was the meeting?" Gabriel stared at him. "It was as good as any other meeting. What were you talking to your mother about?" Luca turned his head to the side avoiding eye contact before looking at him again. "We are trying to organise a surprise." Gabriel nodded. "If you'll excuse me I have to go meet Aurora." Luca then walked away.

Luca slipped into his room, looking back in the direction he came, checking that his father hadn't followed him. For a moment he thought that his father had caught onto them and was trying to get Luca to spill their plans and was sort of relieved when he didn't push him further. Once he closed the door and was met with Aurora sitting on his bed patiently waiting for him. "I'm sorry I'm late. I was talking to my father." Aurora stood up looking worried. "Is everything alright? Does he know about our plan?" Luca shook his head. "No. Well, I don't think so. I think that he might be starting to catch on. He was in my room waiting for me when I got in last night and then he caught me talking to mother just now." He glanced down at the ground. "If this plan goes down the drain and my father succeeds, killing innocents because of me I won't be able to forgive myself." Aurora placed her hands softly on his cheeks and shifted his head to look at her. "Don't doubt yourself. We can do this. We just have to be careful about where we talk about this." Luca nodded. "How is the training going?" Luca sat down on his bed. "Good but I'm worried about Elizabeth. That she might be wearing herself down." "Elizabeth is strong. She took on those faerie guards by herself even though she was caught. But she didn't break." "I know but I'm just worried."

Elizabeth strolled down the halls back to her room, when she entered she was surprised to see the Supreme standing by her window. "Can I help you, ma'am?" The Supreme turned to face Elizabeth. "I just wanted to see how you were doing. It mustn't be easy to find out you have a new family and it turns out not what you expected it to be." Elizabeth nodded. "I'm alright. it's the king who turned out differently from what I expected him to be, Mary, Luca and Emily are innocent in all of this. And I don't want other people to go through what I went through, not when I could have done something about it." "I understand but it might not go the way you intend it to." "And I will go down fighting if it does." The Supreme chuckled. "You are a brilliant warrior Elizabeth. You've turned your act of revenge into an act of protection." Elizabeth walked closer to the woman. "Oh don't get me wrong this is still an act of revenge mixed with an act of protection. I'm not going to lie, it's going to feel good when we defeat the king." "Just don't get lost in it though, don't forget who you are." The Supreme warned before leaving the room.

It had been an hour since the Supreme had left her room and a guard had entered handing her a letter. She opened it. It was from Luca explaining that he had suspicions that their father was onto them and that they had to be extra careful when exchanging their messages. Elizabeth glanced out the window and saw the sun start to set, the light shining through the squares on the windows creating a checkered pattern on the stone floor. She placed the paper on her desk and rushed out of her room and down to Christopher's room. She pounded her fist on the door until the door swung open and Christopher stood there looking annoyed and confused. "What?" "I need to talk to you." Christopher looked behind him at someone in his room. Elizabeth followed his gaze and spotted Amara, a girl she had seen numerous times around and who she knew that had known Christopher his whole life, standing there looking awkward. Elizabeth opened her mouth in surprise. "Oh! I'm so sorry I didn't know. I'll come back later. I forgot that I have to be somewhere." She rambled before running off. Christopher stood there, the door still open, an arm resting on the door and his head resting in the other hand. He deeply sighed before closing the door and turning to his guest. "I am sorry about that." The young woman laughed. "It's alright, she didn't know that I was here. What was that about anyway?" Christopher sighed, walking over to her. "I don't know."

Elizabeth stopped her horse when she got to the clearing. She looked around and saw no signs of Luca which she thought was weird as normally he would be there before her. Elizabeth climbed off her horse and tied it strongly to the tree. She lent her back against the tree and carefully slid down until she sat on the floor. She let out a deep sight placing her head in her hands. Elizabeth didn't want to admit it but she had doubts about whether or not their plan would work but she couldn't let anyone know not when they were counting on her to lead them. Elizabeth was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the sound of hooves and when she looked up she saw Luca on the back of his horse. "Sorry, I'm late. I had to make sure that I wasn't being followed." He said sliding off his horse. "It's alright. Let's train." She said with a soft smile.

ⒸSashabarrow1999