The Princess and The Bandit

THIRTY

* * *

"So, what exactly went on out there?"

Ally asks as Camila stared to where Lauren and Simona disappeared a minute ago. Her eyes squinted at the harsh sunlight that makes up all the blue above more vivid and bright.

Too bright. Too clear.

It's supposed to signify a good omen but Camila feels like it was the opposite.

Sure, she immediately felt the pang of loss when the princess left, but there was a feeling of dread the second she can't see Lauren anymore. Maybe it's knowing that she is a princess on the run, chased by people who wants to kill her, or maybe that gnawing suspicion that her father is somehow involved in the girl's current debacle, Camila isn't so sure which one bothers her more.

And uncertainty is something she always hates to deal with.

But what she hates the most at the moment is herself, for being such a wuss. For trying to stuff her true feelings somewhere deep in the heaps of all of her issues, or the fact that she can't handle herself for being able to feel something so strong. For deliberately acting like an asshole, dismissing Lauren like nothing special happened between them in the short span of time they have spent with each other.

For not trying to explore these feelings that has been plaguing her while she still had the chance.

That pain that weighs down in her chest is something foreign, yet still familiar. She has lost her mother so abruptly in the hands of death. Never again will she have a chance to experience the joy of having at least one genuinely caring parent who taught her she is much more than what she has been raised to become.

But, Lauren, she's one woman who has evoked strong feelings out of her, not only reminding her of her dead mother's wisdom but also awakening something so primal within her.

And she's still out there.

Alive, breathing, and probably hurting because she's suffered her own fair share of loss.

Since figuring out that Lauren is the missing princess of Arcadia, Camila has been aware of the fact that the girl is in absolute danger. A main target for those who seek power and dominions. Now, in her mind, she's standing at some sort of an impasse. She has her own long overdue vengeance to do, and much more than she doesn't want anything to do with her father anymore, she most definitely wants him dead. Gone once and for all.

Then, Lauren comes along in her life so unexpectedly, causes a riot in her once-upon-a-time numb heart and now she suddenly wants to protect her with every single fiber of her being. Everything else be damned.

And somewhere in between, she somehow feels in her gut that her father has something to do with the threat that has been looming over the princess of Arcadia.

Because if there is one person who craves for so much power that she know of, that would be her father.

"Boss?"

Ally calls for her attention, she's aware, but she can't shrug off the bad feeling she has with the bright and shiny weather. And no, her dark brooding personality and current emotional state has nothing to do with her gut feeling.

She ignores Ally some more, walks away from where she stood. But the feisty short one can't be denied. Not even by the deadly Camila Cabello.

"You two fucked, didn't you?" she says, "Well, if it was me stuck with her, I won't pass up the opportunity either,"

It made Camila trip on air. If it wasn't for Shadow catching her fall, she would've fallen face first so embarrassingly on the rocky shores of Reiham Port.