Chapter 31

Drake

Jimmy called Bastien and a few other members of the Royal Guard to lock up the assassins and question them, and as Bastien took the assassins away, Iris led us back to Eleanor's room. She recited the song while pressing a few books. Usually I'd roll my eyes at something so superstitious, but then the bookcase cracked and moved back to make way for a path. 'Wow,' Emma, Jake and Jimmy said in unison, and I shook my head incredulously, staring at Iris. 'I told you the song was a thing!' Iris said happily, and pressed one final book, which moved an entire wall. 'Damn, Valentine,' I said, and smiled at her. 'How many crime shows have you watched?'

She grinned. 'Definitely way too many.' I chuckled and kissed her forehead proudly. 'Jimmy, I have to warn you… the things you'll find in there aren't easy to read,' she said, eyeing Jimmy with a worried look on her face. He took a deep breath and nodded. Emma took his hand in hers, and smiled reassuringly. 'I was already dreading that, Iris.' His eyes were vulnerable, as he looked at Iris. 'Can you tell me one thing in advance, one thing I don't want to just "find"?'

Iris' lips slightly parted, and she frowned. 'Oh… Jimmy… are you sure?' He nodded. 'The worst thing you read, or saw in there. I don't want to find it.' Her shoulders slumped slightly, and she bit her lip. 'Okay. I eh…' She took a deep breath. 'I think your mother was pregnant when she was poisoned… Jimmy.' My heart skipped a beat, and Jimmy turned pale. 'W…what?' 'I found two lists on the desk… lists full of names,' she said softly, her voice trembling. 'And then I found a note which said "Leo, Jimmy and Charlotte".'

At first Jimmy was silent, but then he stumbled slightly. His eyes darkened, and he shook his head. 'Guys, this entire thing is bigger than we thought… my poor mother.' Iris nodded slowly. 'She suspected her death long before it happened, but I found a diary, and the last thing she'd written in it, was how she thought she'd die that day,' she said, and her eyes gained a furious sparkle. 'By the hands of Godfrey.'

We spent the entire afternoon searching through all Eleanor's belongings. Jimmy was struggling with everything we found, but he was trying to mask it. I knew my best friend way too well for that, and the others weren't fooled by him either, but we didn't comment on it, he'd hate it. After a while, I did hear Emma ask Jimmy whether we should take a break, but he'd denied, telling her he was fine. Emma had looked at Iris and me, a worried look in her eyes. I shook my head, and sighed slightly before continuing my search. Then, about an hour later, Jimmy stood up, and walked away, quite suddenly. He walked through the tunnel Iris' told us about, and he didn't respond to Emma's calls.

I caught Iris' eyes and she looked freaked. 'I'll go, I know where to find him,' I told her and Emma, gave Iris a kiss, and followed Jimmy through the tunnel. I knew he could be at two places, either the lake or the maze. Instinctively, I walked over to the lake, yet I wasn't too surprised when I didn't find him there. Instead, I found him at the maze, and even though I felt bad for Jimmy, in some way I felt proud to say that I knew him well enough to know his hideouts. He was sitting on the same bench I'd been on the day I'd been so jealous of Iris and Danny. That felt like a lifetime ago, but yet again, Jimmy and I had fled to that maze so many times before, talking over so many things… everything felt like a lifetime ago.

'Hey,' I said, announcing myself. Jimmy looked up, and his face looked pale, tortured even. 'Drake,' he stated, sounding tired. 'Can I sit?' I asked. He nodded and made room for me. I sat down next to him, and at first we sat in silence, I always let him get used to my presence first. 'Why did you walk away?' I asked, after a few minutes. He looked up and sighed slightly. 'I'm pretty sure no one would like to dig deep into their mother's passing, but all these new secrets… it just makes me feel like I have no idea who my own mother was.'

He swallowed hard. 'She was pregnant for God's sake… Long enough to know she was having a baby girl. You must be what, at least twenty weeks for that, right?' I bit the inside of my cheek. 'In fact, some techniques can predict it from about twelve weeks. She could've been one week into the second trimester, which was why no one noticed her pregnant figure yet, some women have that,' I said reassuringly, suddenly happy about having read a lot on first and second trimester.

'Right, you know things about that now,' Jimmy said, a half-hearted smile on his face. I shook my head. 'Jim, it's only natural to feel terrible about this, but you freaked out Emma by walking away. You're getting married, you can't just walk out like that.' He nodded and sighed. 'You're right, I know. I just… my brain was full and…' He stood up and started pacing. 'I can't believe this is happening. My mother knew she'd be dead by nightfall. How could she have hidden something like that! Bastien could have done something… or your dad, back then…' He looked at me. 'Your dad must have known, he always covered for her.' I gritted my teeth. 'We can't really ask him.' Jimmy shook his head, and his eyes turned lucid. 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-' I cut him off. 'Don't worry about it. We lost our mother and father to this fucking court and its assassins, it's hard enough as it is.'

He took a deep breath and sat down next to me. 'It's just hard to realise that I didn't know my own mother like I thought I did.'

Jimmy

Drake's eyes were a mixture of anger and melancholy. I could hardly take it without feeling a lump in my throat, so I looked away and sat down next to him. My mother had been pregnant. If she'd still been alive, I would have had a baby sister. I sighed. The what ifs and what would have beens made me feel even worse. I'd always loved the idea of having a sister, mostly because I'd seen Drake and Savannah's bond. Something inside me was aching for the loss I'd never known before. Suddenly I realised that my father had never known either. My heart skipped a beat. 'My father has no idea, probably,' I said, looking at Drake. He looked surprised at first, then frowned. 'You're right, no one does… but us.'

I shook my head. 'Not entirely. The assassins know, because they came for that cup Iris was holding before… and there's a doctor somewhere who knows about my mother's pregnancy, and has kept it quiet.' Drake's lips parted, as if he wanted to say something, then changed his mind. 'What is it?' I asked. He wavered. 'Iris and I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, to see whether our baby has a heartbeat. We're going to see doctor Ramirez, who's been the doctor to your family for years… If I recall correctly, Iris even mentioned her delivering you as a baby. Maybe…' his eyes caught mine. 'Maybe she knows more,' I finished. He nodded slowly. 'Iris and I could ask?' For a few seconds, Drake and I were just looking at each other. He was waiting for me to answer, I was thinking about what to answer. I finally decided on yes. 'It couldn't hurt to try, right?' I said, my voice strangely raspy. He put his hand on my shoulder and sighed.

'Maybe we should cancel our bachelor and bachelorette parties, don't you think?' My first thought was yes, because having parties in this time just seemed silly. We were doing this double wedding to save Cordonia, and of course because we truly wanted to get married… but the underlying aspect wasn't partying. But somehow, I settled on no. 'I'm thinking we should go. The bachelor party is the day after tomorrow, and we could use the break, couldn't we? Just imagine Tim, Maxwell and Hana being devastated about us cancelling their plans.' I shook my head and smiled, if only half-heartedly. 'We should at least enjoy our last days as bachelors.' Drake let out a sarcastic laugh. 'As if we've ever enjoyed those days. I've never seen you happier since you have Emma, true love is what you've wanted forever.' I smiled, genuinely now as I thought of my gorgeous fiancée. 'And what about you, Drake. You never thought it would happen, and then there she was.' Drake's lips curled up into a smile. 'And I'll never let her go, that's a given.' I chuckled.

I thought of Emma for a few seconds, which was about my favourite part of every day. Knowing that, where ever I'd go, I'd always have her by my side, it made any situation bearable. The way her brown eyes sparkled with fierceness, or sparkled with joy… her long, shiny brown hair, her beautiful face. Emma was the love of my life, and she meant the world. I knew that, even without her, as a King I'd always have a reason to get up in the morning… but I'd never known the extent of wanting to get up in the morning could be so wonderful. Wanting to be with Emma, wanting to be her husband was the best reason for me to go through every day. Just thinking about it, I needed to see her, rather sooner than later. My heart was aching for her body to be close to mine, and I needed to show her that it wasn't just Drake I could talk to. I wanted to talk to her as well, more than anything.

'Let's go back,' I said, and stood up. Drake raised his eyebrows. 'You've calmed down?' I nodded. 'It's still terrible, but I can hardly do more than keep reading to find clues and just keep digging, right?' He nodded, and stood up too. 'You really can't.' We looked at each other for a few seconds. 'There's one and a half week left to the wedding. We've come closer to unravelling the secret, but we've hardly come close to catching those in charge. How are we going to do that?' I said, with a frown, as I started walking towards the palace. 'What if we arrest Godfrey, and keep him locked away until after the wedding?' He suggested. 'I'm afraid we have nothing to base the arrest on,' I said and wrung my hands. 'Maybe we should let Olivia search the cup for poison remnants?' He said, frowning. 'I'm not sure if we could trust anyone else at this point.'

I sighed. 'One entire Kingdom, caught up in lies and murders. I only trust a handful of people at this point.' He nodded agreeingly. 'By this time I have no idea whether to be happy I'm getting married, or to be terrified I'll lose my bride during the wedding,' he said, his eyes darkened by his words. We walked back into the palace and I looked at him, worried. 'I feel the exact same way. I feel like we're about to walk into a beehive, with assassin bees and guns.' At first he looked up with his eyebrows raised, then he let out a chuckle. 'Only you could come up with a metaphor like that, Jimmy.' I shrugged. 'When scared… all's allowed, right?' He shook his head with a smile on his face.

Soon, we'd arrived at my mother's room. I opened the bookcase and we followed the path to where Jake, Iris and Emma would be. We heard their voices and I saw a smile appear on Drake's face. I felt the same thing happen to me, so I looked at him with a grin on my face. He grinned back. 'Can't help it,' he admitted. I chuckled, and walked around the corner, where we found Iris and Emma. Jake had disappeared.

'Jimmy!' Emma said, a sigh of relief through her voice as she ran up to me and hugged me. 'Em, I'm sorry for running off like that,' I said immediately, as I wrapped my arms around her, tangling my hand in her hair and wrapping the other around her waist tightly. 'It's okay honey,' she whispered as she pulled back and looked into my eyes. 'I get it.' I leaned into her and kissed her lovingly. 'I'm still sorry.' She smiled and pecked my lips, causing my heart to start pounding. 'I love you,' I whispered very softly, so only she could hear it. Not that I didn't want anyone to hear, I'd scream it all over the world if she wanted me to, but because I needed her to hear it, just her.

She smiled and kissed me once more. 'And I love you, Jimmy.' Once we'd let go of each other, slightly reluctantly, I looked up and saw Iris and Drake, who were discussing something, is hushed tones. Her faces looked worried, and they were standing close together, Iris' hand on his arm, his hand on her waist. I used to take classes, to learn many things as a prince. Deducting someone's appearance was one thing I had to learn, and by the looks of it, they were discussing something they feared, and needed each other close. They were talking about the wedding.

'What's up?' Emma asked, her tone of voice now worried as well, as she saw the looks on their faces. 'We were just talking about the wedding, and Godfrey being in it,' Iris said, as she broke her gaze with Drake and eyed Emma. Those lessons really came in handy. 'I'm scared he's riling up the assassins as we speak, making sure they're ready to go.' Drake wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer. 'I'm more or less afraid he's not a part of it, that he's only the messenger,' he said.

Before we could even continue, we heard the bookcase move. In a reflex, I pushed Emma behind me, but it appeared unnecessary, as it was Jake. 'GUYS!' He yelled loudly, and stormed inside looking scared. 'Ron just called, he hacked into a few security camera's in Lythikos…' He panted and took a deep breath. 'Maxwell, Tim and Ron saw Godfrey visiting Lucretia in Lythikos, accompanied by all kinds of assassins…' He took another deep breath.
'Godfrey and Lucretia are working together… and they took Olivia.'

I clenched my fists. 'No…' Emma shrieked.