Chapter 31

Queen Courtney

After dinner was over, Genevieve went with the twins and triplets to their room to help them change, then reunited with us a couple of minutes later.

"Okay, so the girls are in the room playing." Said, Genevieve

"Let's get this meeting started now," said Derek.

Before anyone else could speak, I opened my mouth first to say something.

"Genevieve, Derek, what happened to Tobias?" they sighed quietly. "Well... you see, Courtney, since we still have the law that your father stored when you girls were younger, he's in a cell right now, but I've already sent a guard to go get him." Said Derek.

"Okay, good because he never did anything bad," I was about to say something else but was cut off by my father.

"What do you mean, Courtney?" asked her father confused.

"Tobias helped me and Kathleen escape from Levi; at first, he didn't do anything because he said he was loyal to Thraas. But then he found out what Levi was planning to do and disagreed; he was ashamed of what his bother did, meaning that he tried to kill you." Said Courtney as everyone looked surprised.

"Till this day, Levi still thinks you're dead; he's planning to take Glidonia over; he also blamed your death on Derek. He put all Thraas against Derek and plans to fight until he has Glidonia, so Tobias advised me to be kind to Levi and listen to him. It worked in a few days; the first one was that he never laid a finger on Kathleen or harmed her; he always made sure she was safe." Continued Courtney as everyone continued to look at her.

"The only reason he didn't let her go was that he didn't want her to ruin his plans since he already knew what he was planning on doing. Then Levi started leaving me alone more constantly and trusted me enough that one-night Tobias decided that was the night that Kathleen and I would finally be able to escape." She said.

How did you guys manage to escape the guards?" asked Fallon.

"I went to go look for a carriage. I passed through a tunnel they had in their stables; inside, it had all the secrets on how they would win the battles." Said Courtney as everyone had a puzzled look.

"What do you mean?" asked Derek, confused.

"The only reason they always win the battles is that they never fought honorably." Said Courtney.

"You mean they cheated?" asked Edaline as Courtney nodded.

"They forced men with no experience at the battlefield for people to think it was their knights, while the experienced men were undergrown. Whenever the other team thinks they have won, Thraas starts killing the other team; they kill them immediately since the other people have their backs on them. You guys need to watch out for that when Thraas comes to Glidonia; he also said something else that… it's just hard to say it." Said Courtney.

Before she could talk, the door opened and revealed a sixteen-year-old -tall young man; it was Tobias; she raced to go to him and hugged him, he was her brother-in-law, and she loved him no matter what happened between her and his brother.

"I'm fine, Courtney." Said Tobias.

"Tobias, from what Courtney told us about you, it seems you too were fooled by your brother; we offer you protection here if you help us with the war your brother has planted on Glidonia." Said Derek.

"Of course, I will help you. And I also want to take this time and apologize; I'm sorry my brother has done this to your family. Some part of me feels responsible since Thraas is my home; I feel this is my fault." Said Tobias.

"It's alright, Tobias; it's not your fault; you had no idea your brother would do this to you." Said Genevieve.

"Thank you, queen Genevieve, but I should have done something else." Said Tobias.

"Tobias, you brought my sisters back safe, and you made sure no harm would come to them; I think we're in your debt," said Genevieve.

"Don't worry, your highness Courtney is my sister-in-law, and I promised my parents that I would do whatever it would take to protect her when I had one. Even if it meant betraying my brother or Thraas, my parents always told me that if I did the correct thing, Thraas would always forgive." Said Tobias.

Courtney saw Genevieve nod and then look at her father; he called the guard Victor.

"Victor, please take this gentleman to one of our guests' spare bedrooms." Said Randolph.

"Yes, sir." Said Victor; both the guard and Tobias exited the room and went to the dormitory.

Princess Isla

"Come on, Isla, we promised Hadley to meet her there fifteen minutes ago," said Lacey.

"I'm coming, girls." Isla was in the library reading a book that her sister Genevieve recommended her to read but lost track of time and was now going to be late for bed.

The triplets had to practically drag her out of there; as she passed the stairs, she looked at her mother's painting and didn't see that Victor passed by until she fell to the floor. She knew what that meant; she had bumped into someone or something; she looked up to see a tall young man standing in front of her.

"Are you alright?" He asked; she nodded as he helped her get up; he had brown hair and green-colored eyes.

"Thank you." Said Isla as she got up.

"I'm so sorry I should have watched where I was going." Said the young man.

"No, it was my fault. I need to pay attention to where I'm going; it's fine," said Isla.

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Tobias. Prince Tobias of Thraas." He said as he bowed down to her.

"My name is Princess Isla of Glidonia; it's a pleasure to meet you, Tobias." She said, slightly nervous.

"Likewise, Princess Isla, do you happen to know where Victor went? He was supposed to take me to my dormitory," asked Tobias.

"No, I haven't actually, but I can take you to the spare dormitories we have if you'd like." Asked Isla.

"I don't want to bother you, princess?" said Tobias.

"It's no trouble at all; come on." Said Isla as she took the prince to one of the dormitories; she couldn't figure out why he was here with Courtney; supposedly, he loved his brother and Country.

What is he doing here?

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you here?" asked Isla.

"I'm here to help your country, my brother will plan something against Glidonia, and I can't let him do that." Said Tobias.

"So, you will help us? Why?" asked Isla confused.

She saw that he was about to speak but then was cut off by Victor.

"Your highness, I was about to put a search party to look for you." Said Victor.

"It's alright, Victor; he would never get lost here without finding any princesses here." Said Isla, nearly laughing as both Victor and Tobias laughed at this.

"Well, I guess you're right about that princess; it seems you have everything under control; you even brought him to the same dormitory I would bring him." Said Victor as he left, leaving the two teens chuckling.

"Well, I guess I should get going; my sisters will be looking for me soon, and I'll leave you to freshen up." Said Isla; as she was about to leave, Tobias took her hand and softly kissed it.

"Thank you so much, and have a goodnight, princess Isla." He said as she looked surprised.

"Have a goodnight, prince Tobias." Said Isla as she raced out of the place where Tobias's room was located and went towards hers and Hadley; since most of her sisters were getting married so soon, they changed their rooms a bit.

What used to be their room is now a ballroom place; Edaline and Fallon have their own room, while she and Hadley share, as did the triplets, but the rooms were still close, so they were never really separated.

She entered to reveal Hadley, Janessa, Kathleen, and Lacey as she reached the room.

"What are you guys doing here?" asked Isla, confused.

"Finally, you made it. I wondered what took you so long?" asked Hadley with a smirk on her face.

"Well, I'm finally here, aren't I?" said Isla.

The other girls shrugged and then went on to play a game; later, Hadley told the triplets to change into their nightgowns and go to bed. At first, they didn't want to but then left; a couple of minutes later, when Janessa told them a secret, they left off running to their room.

As I was looking at my hand when Hadley called my attention.

"What are you thinking about Isla?" said Hadley.

"Nothing, Hadley." Said Isla

"I wasn't born yesterday; something is up; tell me, let me guess, it was the young man who came with Courtney today, right?" she asked as Isla tried to avoid the question. "Victor told me where you were." She said, smiling.

Isla tried not to make any emotion towards this, but Hadley didn't believe her.

"I knew it; tell me everything!" said Hadley with a smirk on her face and excitement.

"There's nothing to tell Hadley," said Isla, annoyed that her sister could guess what happened to her; then she remembered they are twins; they think alike.

"Come one, Isla, tell me!" Said Hadley.

Now she was getting annoyed with her; she would tell her eventually, just not today.

"Just drop it, Hadley, and go to sleep." Said Isla as she threw Hadley one of the pillows on the bed,

"Fine, but I'll get that info real soon, you'll see." Said Hadley as Isla rolled her eyes at Hadley, got comfortable in bed, and closed her eyes, hoping that she would drift into slumber soon.