Darkness Rises-Harry Styles

Chapter 27

"Don't think that there is no danger just because the water is calm."

Rose's POV:

It's been two days since we've seen Seth. Harry has been nagging me about my past and how badly I was treated by him and my parents, but I have been able to keep him from knowing in full detail what has happened to me.

That was something that I didn't want anyone to know. Because I don't need sympathy from anyone, I've had enough of that. I'm not the same beaten girl who had to be hospitalized for seven months after I was found. I've grown to be so much stronger than that.

Or that's how I show myself to everyone, but deep inside I know that I'm still beaten by them, the injuries done to my heart will never fade away. That is the one thing that I knew for sure. Because no matter how hard you try to hide it on the outside, the pain is always still there on the inside.

And it sucks.

Breaking away from my thoughts, I took a deep breath, finishing my hair in the mirror before placing my tiara on my head again. Every time I saw the tiara I cringed, thinking about how Seth's torturous hands held them. The fact that he came into my room while I was sleeping made me scared to fall asleep.

Shaking my head, I walked out of my room to see Harry waiting for me once again, by the stairs. I gave him a bright smile, making sure that I seemed happy for him and he bought it, smiling back at me and taking my arm, carefully leading me down the stairs.

"What I don't understand is how clumsy you can be. I've never met anyone that falls as much as you do." Harry teases me and I laugh, shaking my head and nudging him with my shoulder.

"I help make sure gravity still works. I told you before that I do gravity checks." I joke with him and he chuckles, his eyes twinkling with amusement as we make it to the bottom of the stairs. "We need to find a way to make sure you don't fall. You take off in a run and fall down, and we'll be running a lot soon. That could cause us a lot of trouble." he says to me and I scoff.

"I'll fly." I say sarcastically and Harry laughs, giving me an amused look. "I don't think that's possible, love. Good try though." he says and I roll my eyes. We walk towards the library, our now normal place to go to so that we can talk in private.

Once we get inside, Harry closes the door behind him, both of us walking to the chairs and taking a seat, sitting in silence for a moment before Harry speaks up.

"I've thought up of a way to figure out who is doing all of this." Harry says and I raise an eyebrow, curious to know what he may have figured out. I know Seth is a big part of this, as well as the rest of them, I just don't know who else is involved.

"It's obviously someone on the inside, other than James, since he said he had an accomplice. I don't think that he was talking about Seth, either." Harry starts and my heart hurts at the mention of James' name. His betrayal still feels fresh in my memory, as well as Seth.

"So you want to figure out who else could be working with them from the inside?" I ask and he nods his head. "I don't think that it'll be anyone obvious either." he says and I can't help but roll my eyes.

"Nothing we ever figure out is obvious to us." I comment and he nods his head with a humorous chuckle. "Obviously. So that's why I've ruled out a few people. The ones we should be concerned with are the people who visit the palace often." he says and I look at him confused.

"Why them?" I ask and he gives me a reassuring smile. "If they visit the palace a lot, then they must've been able to talk to people, including James before he died, and got inside information. The people who work here wouldn't have a clue why they would be being questioned and may give out the information easily." Harry states and my mouth drops a little, knowing what he meant.

"So if we figure out who visits, or visited, the palace the most, then they could be our top target?" I conclude and Harry nods his head, taking out a sheet of paper and handing it to me. "The palace guards keep a record of everyone who comes in, and I managed to get the paper that had the names on it." he says and I nod, looking over the names.

Most of the names were familiar, people I knew who often talked to me. They included Celeste, Luke, my mother's seamstress, my father's councilmen, and one name I didn't recognize as well. "Who's Rena?" I ask, not recognizing the girls name.

"I looked it up. She's one of your mother's personal maids who comes in every week just for your mother. Apparently she does a special cleaning in your parents room and makes sure everything is in line." he says and I nod.

I wouldn't expect any of these people to do something bad against Dragmere. None of them. As far as I knew, every single one of these men and women loved being in the Northern region and would give their lives for Dragmere.

"I don't know, Harry. I don't know if any of these could count as suspects." I say doubtfully and Harry sighs. "I know, I was hoping that you may have found something peculiar about one of them that you could recall." he mutters and I try to think of anything that could help us out, but I couldn't.

None of them ever questioned me about Dragmere or requested any information about anything. Then again, why would they ask the Princess herself when they could sneak around to get to the more willing people, like the maids or the cooks?

"They wouldn't have come to me." I say aloud and Harry gives me a grin. "They would've gone to someone else, someone who wouldn't know any better to keep things enclosed within the palace." I continue and we both grin.

"Maybe we can see if one of these people talked to a maid to see if they knew them. If we could find out anything from that, we could get even further into solving all of this!" Harry says, standing up in excitement and I follow his lead, standing up and giving him a hug.

"Maybe it's not too late after all." I whisper into his ear and his grip on me tightens. He lets go of me, kissing my forehead before taking my hand and tugging me out of the library.

The floor length golden dress I was wearing caught on my foot and I stumbled forward, hardly catching myself as Harry's arms wrapped around my torso, lifting me up.

"We definitely need to find a way for you not to trip." he teases and I roll my eyes at him, playfully sticking my tongue out as he stands me back up, taking my hand again and walking forward, no longer trying to run with me.

"We could start on the fourth fl-" Harry starts, but was interrupted when a loud noise boomed throughout the palace, the floor beginning to shake terribly. I held on to Harry, looking around with wide eyes until the shaking stopped.

"What was that?" I ask fearfully and he gives me a nervous look. "The takeover is obviously moved towards the Northern region." he says and my eyes widen. "No." I whisper and he sadly nods his head to me as we hear people begin to scream.

"Now we have to defend Dragmere, because if the palace falls, the whole Kingdom of Light will be destroyed."

Uh oh! Hehe, you all should know by now that I love cliffhangers...and I am sorry haha. But what do you think of this chapter? Short as it may be, it leads up to some very serious and interesting chapters. So please continue to Comment and Vote! I'll try to update in a day or two if I can (finals permitting) haha!