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The double doors to the meeting hall open and voices carry inside from the passageway, yet I can’t bring my eyes away from this fucking knot in the wooden table.
“My prince,” one of the lords says as courtesy before taking a seat to my left. In front of him are two blackened handprints… Alice’s handprints, where they branded the wood grain the last time she was in this room.
I barely acknowledge the man, doing my best to at least nod my head. Still, the whirlwind of reality is still rampaging inside me, stealing all of my attention. It’s not until the door shuts with a bang that I realize I’ve been staring and have lost track of time.
Glancing up, I find over a dozen eyes blinking at me like I’m The Virgin Mary herself.
“Are you okay, sir?” A scrawny man says from farther down the table.
“Yes… but I have some troubling news. As you know, my betrothed locked us in here, but what you haven’t been privy to is why. I was planning to contest my father, but she feared I wouldn’t have your support… and that you wouldn’t approve of her as my wife.”
“Well, locking us up like prisoners certainly isn’t helping her case,” another lord says, threading his fingers together and leaning back in his chair.
“I understand your hesitancy, but another part of it is she wanted me to see just how corrupt my father has become, and she offered proof. I failed to give it the light of day, so her locking us in here was to force my hand. I’ve since evaluated it and I think after seeing what I have, you’ll agree.” I press my lips into a fine line, struggling to spit the incriminating words out. “My father is unfit to hold the title of King any longer. Not only did he standby while his men died–my father, one of the most powerful immortals in existence–but he was blinded by his grief… hisguilt.
“The Queen…” I continue, resting my elbows on the table and leaning forward, making eye contact with each one of them. “She saw the possible outcomes of the future, and the Devil has been trying to play with time, to lead us down the path that brings her back. He’s lost sight of who he harms in the process, and hasn’t been doing what’s best for the kingdom. His personal grievances have led his decisions.”
“And what proof of this do you have?” One of the men squints at me, twisting his lips as if he’s not sure what to think.
“Mostly, things he’s said. His actions on the battlefield, and the fact that I’ve been damn-near solely running the kingdom for years. However, I wasn’t sure just how far he’d be willing to go to get what he wants–his war with Heaven–until Alice told me of my mother’s memories.”
Lips part as audible gasps float around me.
“How could see know of the Queen’s memories?” the man to my right asks. “We buried her. Did she exhume her body to use magic?”
“No,” I shake my head, “My father never put her in the crypt. He keeps my mother in a glass coffin inside his chambers. She’s been spelled to preserve her in case he can find her soul.”
The man’s eyes shoot wide, and for the first time I realize how taboo that must seem to them. We did host a funeral for my mother, and until now, they believed she truly was in the crypt. I’m hanging on to her body alone should be a red flag for them.
“Who did we seal away, then?” someone asks.
“No one. It was empty. However, Alice did manage to see the late queen’s memories and within those, we’ve discovered that my brother, Asmodeus, the man we fought against in the clearing… My mother spellbound him to protect him from my father, and when Lucifer found out he tried to force her to have me. Asmodeus stood up to him. My brother didn’t try to blow up the castle, his spellbinding broke, just as Alice’s did when we were stranded in the prison world. It unleashed a wave of power that could’ve desecrated an entire city. My mother put him in the prison world because Lucifer declared my brother an enemy of the crown. It was the one place she knew he couldn’t reach him,” I say, tracing my finger tip along the wood grain.
It’s too soon to tell, but I believe they’ve already seen that my father was lacking… Maybe this will be easier than I initially thought.
“I need you all to know…” I say, gnawing on the inside of my cheek. “The moment I contest him, he’ll try to turn you against me. He’ll try to make me into an enemy, just as he did my brother. I need you all to know that Hell and what’s best for this kingdom is my top priority and I won’t see anymore men die because of his grief.”
Someone chuckles on the far end of the table. “And what of your future wife? She could turn out to be just as dangerous as the deranged High King. What if she becomes a threat to our kingdom?”
“I won’t promise you that I’ll stand in between you and her, but I can promise that Alice has one of the kindest hearts I’ve ever known. She’s of sound mind and body, and she’s only ever done what she believes is morally correct. Should I become king, I can promise that rash acts, such as locking us in a prison world to force a conversation will end. Her power is evolving… and that process causes emotional instability. It will smooth over and I suspect it will very soon.”
A beady-eyed man on the right leans forward, meeting the other’s eyes. “I believe we’ll need time to debate, and we’ll need to see the proof ourselves afterward.”
“And I’ll give it to you,” I say, pushing up from my seat. “Just please know, we’re running out of time. Once the castle returns, I’ll need to know which way you all lean. My father will want answers and if I am to contest him, he won’t wait.”
The men nod as I take my exit, praying as I step into the stone hallway that they’ll hear me out. For both mine and Alice’s sake.
5
Alice
Waking up on the dusty couch, I find Luri peering over me with giant yellow eyes. They’re piercing, as if she’s counting every rise and fall of my chest.
“You’re back.”
“You say that as if you thought I wouldn’t be.”
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure if he’d capture you somehow. Either that, or I was certain you’d be gone until morning, you know, so you can do your mating ritual.”
