The King of Stars and Storms

Chapter Fourteen

Luca arrived at the abandoned village in no time. He had spotted the trail of footsteps as soon as he left the castle. He looked around and noticed the people sat in little groups not knowing what to do with themselves. Luca stopped in the centre of the village and climbed off his horse. He frantically glanced around, trying to spot his family. "Mother?... Aurora?.... Emily?" He called for them. He couldn't spot them anywhere, that was until he heard his name being called. "Luca." Luca spun and saw his little sister bolting towards him. He crouched down before she jumped into his arms. "It's good to see you," Aurora said, watching the sibling's embrace. Luca pulled away from Emily standing back up, pulling Aurora in for a hug. "It's over." He spoke, nearly a whisper. "So what does that mean?" Mary asked confusingly. Luca turned to face his mother. "Father is dead." Luca heard gasps and mutters from the surrounding people. His people. He was now king. "King Gabriel is dead? But how?" A nobleman asked Luca turned to face the man, sighed and began to speak addressing everyone. "Five years ago he had villages burned down, innocent people killed just to find the princess. A couple of weeks ago he planned on doing the same thing. Instead, she found us. But that wasn't it for my father. He planned to launch an unprovoked attack on the realms of faerie and the elves. But we were ready for him. Once the attack started he fled back to the castle. We didn't know what he had planned to do so we had to get you out of the castle so none of you could get hurt. That is what you're all doing here." Luca paused taking a breath. "My sister Elizabeth and I followed him and he attacked us and nearly killed Elizabeth, his own daughter. So I killed him. I know what I did was wrong but I didn't have a choice. I didn't want to risk endangering you all." When Luca had finished speaking the same nobleman approached him, clamping a hand on his shoulder. "You did what you had to. And besides, we all had an inkling of what your father was like and what he could do. Some of us had seen his anger and knew that he had to be stopped. So something like this isn't surprising to us. You did us all a favour." 

Elizabeth raced back towards the battlefield. She stopped before she could charge through the crowd. "Stop." She yelled at the top of her lungs. Everyone froze before turning to look at her. Elizabeth remained on the top of her horse. "King Gabriel is dead. This ends now." Mutters erupted. The king's army looked at each other in surprise. But the fighting stopped, everyone attended to their wounded and retreated to their corners of the kingdom. Elizabeth climbed off her horse and was bombarded with Christopher and Alfie. "Are you alright? What happened?" Christopher asked. "I'm alright, just. If it wasn't for Luca I wouldn't be standing here. Gabriel nearly killed me." Alfie glanced behind her. "Where is Luca?" Elizabeth sighed. "He went to find the people that were in the castle. We had to get them out just in case anything happened." The two boys nodded. The Supreme walked up behind them. "Elizabeth. It is good to see that you are still with us." Elizabeth nodded in response. "Thank you, ma'am." "Where do we go now? Back to the compound?" Alfie asked. "We can go to the castle." "After you."

Luca stood, in the throne room, frozen staring at the thrones. Guards had entered to take his father's body away only moments ago. The memories of the events replayed in his mind over and over again. The pool of blood was still there. They hadn't come to clean it up yet. Luca was so out of it that he didn't hear the door open again and Aurora calling his name. Aurora noticed that he wasn't responding "Luca?" She said placing her hands on his shoulders, snapping him out of his daze. "Sorry, what were you saying?" She looked at him softly, worriedly. "I was just coming to find you. Elizabeth and her friends have just arrived." Luca nodded in response and followed her out of the door. He walked out and saw a huge crowd of soldiers standing behind Elizabeth. Elizabeth took a couple of steps forward before bowing. "Your majesty." She said. Luca chuckled slightly. "Elizabeth you don't have to call me that." She straightened up, ran over to him and hugged him. "How are you holding up?" She asked. Luca let out a shaky breath. "As good as I can be." He turned to address the rest of the group. "Please freshen up and then you can come to the dining hall where food will be waiting for you. If you just follow these guards."