When the boat finally stopped in the harbour and we were given the all clear to disembark, I practically leapt over the little bridge that had been placed between the edge of the boat and the solid earth. I had half a mind to kiss the ground. Dimitri rolled his eyes at my behaviour with a small smile on his face.
We hailed a horse and carriage to take us up to the castle. I had considered being more discreet and sneaking into the castle, and dealing with the King with the element of surprise on my side, but I knew, deep down, that the King knew as soon as our ship appeared in front of his Kingdom over the horizon. He had eyes everywhere.
And the King had been the one to send me away, after all. He surely has no idea what had been happening these past few weeks while I was across the seas, or the secrets that I had unearthed.
Dimitri and I sat in the carriage in tense silence, though our hands were joined between us, and his thumb slowly, reassuringly, massaged the back of my hand.
We finally pulled up to the Castle, it seemed the same, and yet different. It seemed to be still, like even the stones were holding their breath as we pulled up to a stop.
We stepped out of the carriage, Dimitri holding the door open for me like the gentleman he was and would always be, and he handed a few coins to the driver.
I wasn't dressed as the fake Princess Rose that I was supposed to be today, no, I was just dressed as Rose. I was clothed in black skin tight leggings with leather boots which came up to my knees, several daggers were hidden there. I also had on a cape that I had found in one of my wardrobes and taken favour to, it made me feel powerful when I walked and the fabric flowed behind me. And it was perfect for hiding more weapons. I had a sword hanging at my hip, and several more daggers hidden on my body. But I knew, deep down, that they didn't even come close in comparison to the weapon at my fingertips. The ability to summon fire.
Dimitri was dressed similarly to me, though he had on his typical duster and was also no doubt armed to the teeth.
I was expecting the guards at the door to greet us warm smiles and a slap on the back for Dimitri, these were his men, he was their Captain. What I did not expect was for them to share a tense look, their faces solemn, before they approached us with their hands hovering over their swords.
"Peters, Reyes, what's the problem?" Dimitri asked his men, his voice low and gravelly.
"Orders, Sir. We were told to take you to the Throne room immediately after your arrival. Please, come with us." I could tell they didn't enjoy this, they had always respected Dimitri, as all of his men had. He was a fair leader, but who did they answer to now, if not Dimitri?
Dimitri stepped in front of my protectively. "You aren't taking us anywhere."
One of the men- Reyes- raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "Not both of you, just you, Captain." Now it was my turn to be surprised. What the hell did the King want with Dimitri that he didn't want with me?
"No way, you're not taking him anywhere." I said, my right hand falling to the hilt of my sword out of instinct while I flexed the fingertips of my other hand, the flames dancing just beneath my skin.
Dimitri saw the action and quickly grabbed my wrist, pulling it away. "Rose, it's ok, I'll go with them." He said, though his words were calm, a strong wind had started to form, the only sign to his unease. The grand oak door swung open and two more guards stepped out. I noticed that it was my favoured guards, Ashford and Castille, they had become almost friends in the time I spent here.
"Rose... Lady Rose, we are here to escort you to your chambers." It was Castille who spoke; red-haired Ashford only looked on with sadness in his eyes. I didn't like this one bit.
"I think I'll escort Dimitri to the Throne room, actually." I said, making my way up the remaining steps.
"I'm afraid that can't happen. We're sorry, it's orders." Mason then said, looking truly apologetic as he stepped into my path, stopping me from going any further.
But Dimitri was not defenceless and neither was I. He would be ok.
I nodded at him, and he grazed his hand against my cheek in what I prayed was not a farewell before turning and leaving with the two guards, the sight of their hands on his arms made my heart clench. Something didn't feel right.
"What in the name of Hell is going on?" I growled as I stormed through the castle a moment later with Ashford and Castille on either side of me.
"Really, we don't know. Things have been... different, since you two left. Things have been changing. The King is demanding more from us, giving us odd orders with no explanation and no choice but to obey." Mason then admitted.
I didn't like the sound of this one bit.
We finally reached my bedroom door and I swung it open. My room looked and felt exactly the same as it had before I left, as if nothing had changed at all. When in reality, so much had changed. I was somehow linked to a powerful Kingdom that I had never stepped foot in before, and I had made lifelong friends, and yet the room felt as if I had never left.
I threw my bag on the floor and began pacing, Eddie and Mason took up their positions by the door, I wasn't entirely sure why they felt the need to guard me even in my room, but I had more pressing matters to worry about in that moment in time. And part of me wondered if they were there to keep me in more than they were to keep others out.
"Do you know why the King has been changing things around here? Is he planning something?" I questioned as I stalked from one end of the room to the other, and then back again.
"Really Rose, if we knew, we would tell you." It was Mason that spoke again, but Eddie nodded in agreement.
I huffed out a breath of frustration and clenched my fists, cooling the heat that had begun to crackle in my veins. Now was not the time to throw a temper tantrum, not when that tantrum could very well result in the castle going up in flames.
They let me pace for a while, until finally the silence was broken.
"The castle really has been a lot quieter without you causing trouble." Mason said with a little too much forced enthusiasm, I was sure that my pacing was making them uncomfortable.
I wasn't sure how long I had been pacing for, it could have been 5 minutes, it could have been 30, but I had had enough. The faint crack of thunder somewhere in the distance finally snapped my patience.
"You know what guys; I think I might go for a walk until Dimitri comes back." I said while making my way towards the door, where they still both stood.
I was just about to reach for the door when Eddie's arm shot out, blocking my path. "Rose." He said, making me look at him, and then his colleague.
"Why won't you let me leave?" I demanded, panic surging in my chest.
"Please," Mason begged. "Just stay here, we're trying to protect you."
"Like hell you are. What's going on?" I begged, trying to calm my erratically beating heart.
The words they uttered next were not what I was expecting to hear, and they were far worse than I was expecting.
"Dimitri is in trouble."
The words could have meant anything, but the full weight of the situation finally hit me. The guards being edgy around Dimitri, Mason and Eddie keeping me out of the way to protect me, and the King summoning Dimitri alone, without me.
Flames rushed through my veins, an inferno erupting in my chest, burning so brightly that I had to bite the inside of my lip until it bled to stifle the urge to release my flames.
If the power was strengthened by my emotions, they were raging now.
"You need to get out of my way right now, before I do something I may later regret." I warned them.
"Rose." Mason said, as he went to grip my arm, to plead with me.
He jerked his hand back and hissed in pain as soon as his skin made contact with mine. I hadn't meant to hurt him, but the flames were trying to escape in any way that they could, I was trying to control it, but the sheer panic flooding my veins was doing little to help.
I used the moment of surprise to my advantage and was out of the door before they could even blink.
I was glad that I had taken the time to walk through every hallway of this castle during my stay here, it meant that I could go a less direct route, but cut corners where I could so that the two guards wouldn't catch me on my way and so that I would still beat them there. At one point I even sprinted through some of the servants passages.
My course through the maze meant that I reached the doors to the throne room a long while before Eddie and Mason did, and I didn't even think to hesitate before I threw the doors open.
The sight before me was one that shattered my heart into millions of pieces.
It was as if I could physically feel my heart crumbling into nothing.
My breath was stolen from my lungs, the edges of my vision darkened and it felt like I was sinking through quick sand.
Dimitri had been beaten to within an inch of his life.
He was on his knees, surrounded by four guards who were all covered in his blood. Though I did notice that some of the blood was their own, and that he hadn't gone down without a fight.
Dimitri's weapons were thrown across the floor, he still upright and breathing, which made my bones floor with relief. But he was cut all over, and one of his eyes was already swollen shut. His hair was matted with blood and I could barely recognise him.
A whimper that sounded a lot like my name escaped from his mouth when he looked up and saw me standing there and I felt like my chest had caved in on itself.
"Hello Your Majesty." It was then that I noticed King Ivashkov sitting on his throne, with a smug smile on his face.
He was flanked by Adrian, who looked pained. He could go to hell, they all could. I would gladly send them on their way.
It took me a second to realise that it was the King who had spoken, and that he had addressed me as your majesty. I had no time to process the information; I scanned Dimitri's form again. One of the guards had his sword pressed up against Dimitri's neck, and he was being held in place my solid ice that sealed him to the ground by his knees.
The guards in the room took a step towards me, and I found that two were dead before their feet even hit the ground. My knives found their marks, straight through the left eye socket.
The sound of their bodies dropping to the floor was the only noise for a split second before rest of the guards drew their swords, the song of steel against steel as they were released from their sheaths at the guard's hips.
A flick of my wrists meant two more hit the ground, never to rise again.
I hadn't meant to make scene dramatic, but I was filled with such blind fury that the adrenaline coursing through my blood meant that I didn't even need to move my feet to kill the majority of the guards.
The next guard was also dead before he even fell to the floor, and for a moment the guilt threatened to drown me. But these men had betrayed their Captain, and I was overwhelmed with pure, undiluted rage.
I had run out of throwing knives by the time the last two guards approached me. And they did not back down.
I finally drew my sword and bent my knees before we danced.
I could see Dimitri struggling against the ice that held him in place while I fought. And the distraction cost me a deep slice to my thigh, though not nearly as much as it cost the final two guards which I finished off with my sword through the first ones chest and the second's stomach.
I took a step towards Dimitri, planning to burn through the ice and get him the hell out of here, but the King's voice stopped me in my tracks. "Take one more step towards him, and I will slit his throat before you can blink." The King reiterated his words by coating Dimitri's shoulders with ice until it circled his throat. His breaths came out in clouds of air.
"Now, you are going to tell me what I need to know, before I do something you might not like very much." The King said, the grey moustache covering his upper lip lifted into a sneer.
"I'm not telling you anything." I growled as I clenched my fists, the flames beneath my skin burning to get out and take revenge. But I couldn't reveal my secret just yet; I had to wait just a little while longer until I could unleash hell.
"Oh, I really don't think you have much of a choice." The King said with a laugh as my feet were suddenly clamped to the ground with ice which grew and covered my body until my hands were coated in it. The whole thing happened within the blink of an eye.
"Now tell me everything about Tatiana and her Kingdom."
A bared my teeth in a feral growl. "Go to hell." And then I exploded into flame.
The ice around me shattered, flying into all directions.
My flames were free, and I was ready to unleash hell.
There we have Chapter 21! I'm so so so sorry for the long wait; I can only hope that this chapter makes up for it! Things are starting to spice up a bit now. I've got a vague idea of what's going on in the next chapter, though I haven't really set it in stone yet, so do let me know if you have any suggestions. Should Abe make an appearance? Anyway, thank you all so much for you support, it honestly means so much to me. The weather has been nice here in England recently which is nice, though I've been cooped up at work pretty much all of the time, so I'm looking forward to next week as I'm going on holiday to Crete! Let me know if you guys have any holidays lined up or if you've been anywhere nice so far this year. And thank you all so much for reading, following, favouriting and reviewing. I honestly appreciate the support more than you can know. Thanks so much, I don't know when the next chapter will be up, but just know I won't ever give up on this story!