Crystal Hearts • Book 2 Of The Crystal Trilogy • ⏸

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Caroline had freed all her friends from the dungeons and was currently fighting to free everyone else that was unfairly imprisoned. Her father, though, had locked himself away in his office and wouldn't let anyone enter.

He hadn't expected this turn of events. He never suspected his brother would advance at him first and now he was one step behind and beating himself up about it.

Caroline thought that he didn't deserve it. He deserved much, much worse for everything he'd done.

When she freed Phoebe and Edgar (the latter first, because she thought he might have an actual heart attack due to his fear of mice and rats), she spread a rumor in the dungeons that they'd be free, if not before the final battle, by the time it all begun.

The people were getting ready. The war was closer than they thought.

Phoebe and Esme had gone back to showing Caroline and Edgar how to attack and hold their defenses in case of an emergency. Soon the castle would be under attack, so getting caught in the crossfire wasn't really that unlikely, especially for Caroline who was royalty and next in line for Alastor's throne. If anything happened to him and she refused to give up the kingdom, Daniel would have to get her out of the way and she was convinced that he wouldn't bother to ask questions.

She had to be prepared. Even if Crystal was with her father and tried to keep him at bay, Caroline just couldn't risk it. She'd been brought up in a way that she no longer had really high hopes and was generally suspicious of her enemies.

She might have agreed with Daniel, but he wasn't a confirmed ally so she had placed him in the enemy category. She was one of these people that never saw shades of gray; everything was black and white to her. If she didn't fully trust someone and their motives, she was immediately suspicious of them, and even though these people weren't always on the top of her list, she would remain wary of them until they proved themselves.

She never had that problem with Phoebe. Esmeralda had been a little weird at first, running away like that when asked about her sister, and Edgar had been putting up an act, but they they all had proven themselves as her most trusted friends and that's exactly what she'd needed at a time like this; friends.

She wasn't exactly ready to move on from Faith, which was the main reason why she'd tried to ignore Phoebe's advances. She couldn't deny that she felt protective over the youngest Harrow sibling and that she liked her a lot, but she thought it wasn't quite the time to try and start a relationship. Maybe after it was all over, if they were still alive and the feelings hadn't gone away...

The thing is that times were weird and Caroline wasn't one to act on impulse. She liked having plans, because this way she felt like she could control what was happening. That's why whenever her father got the best of her or predicted her moves, she felt helpless and failed. That being said, she wasn't going to start anything romantic that would make her more vulnerable at a time of war.

She knew that her father was a little extreme when he taught her that she shouldn't exhibit any emotion because it was proof of weakness on her behalf, but this time he might actually have been right. When someone wants to hurt you, they look for soft spots and weaknesses. If you let them find out that something is important to you, that's where they're going to strike.

Caroline wasn't going to give anyone that leverage. People already knew she cared for Crystal, Esmeralda, Phoebe, Violet, Edgar, Lux and Gwen. She might have even cared for Scott, though she would never admit it. If she got into a closer relationship with anyone, they'd be the main target for anyone who may have wanted to get back at her. Faith had been an example of that; Alastor killed her to get Caroline to marry Edgar (which actually failed, but that's not really the point here).