Hidden Princess

Chapter 12

"Apolônia! There you are," Demétrio says in Portuguese as he takes a step towards me, but both Alex and Dário move to block him from me. "I've been searching everywhere for you. We must get you back home right now."

"I'm not going anywhere with you Demétrio." I say, lifting my chin and meeting his gaze.

"Come now, Apolônia," he says, stretching out his arms towards me. "I would never hurt you dear."

"Yeah because having my brother and my father killed didn't hurt me." I scoff at him. "Demétrio, you are a sick bastard and you will never be the king of Eplea. That title will belong to someone else." I see Remigio sneaking back in the front door behind Demétrio and his men.

"Now, now, Princesa. You can't break the treaty that your father signed. You can't even be named queen until you are married." Demétrio gives me that evil smile that makes my skin crawl. He pulls a gun out and points it at Alex. I see one of his men fall behind him, then the other. Demétrio is too distracted to even notice though. "Is he who you were going to try and replace me with. You were going to try and name him king? Shall I kill him too, Apolônia?"

"I wasn't talking about Alex," I say, stepping in front of Alex to block him from Demétrio. "And I never said that I would be queen. There is someone else who has more of a claim to the throne than I have." I step towards him. "You never had a chance Demétrio."

"You're lying." He says, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Am I?" I ask, tilting my head to the side. "After all, the agreement said that if we were to marry, you would only become king should there be no one else ahead of me to take the throne. And not only will I not be marrying you, but there is someone with a claim to the throne ahead of me. You should never underestimate a Vasconcelos."

"You lost Demétrio," Remigio says as he cocks the gun in his hand and points it at Demétrio's head. Demétrio turns around and looks at Remigio.

"You're supposed to be dead," He spits at my brother. Remigio just scoffs.

"You should hire better hit men. Someone who knows how to take down a prince that has all kinds of military and combat training." Remigio smirks. "Also, I've talked to King Mateus. He didn't even know that you've been doing all this. And your brother is pretty pissed off that you killed the king of Eplea. He told me I could deal with you however I see fit."

Before Demétrio could even move, Dário has him on the ground. Alex and Xavier pull me back to the other side of the room with Cami. I turn away from the scene in front of me, and take a shaky breath. I never thought I'd be able to face Demétrio like that. I lean on Alex as he wraps his arm around me and leads me into the kitchen.

"Damn, I never thought I'd be able to talk to him like that," I say as I sit at the counter next to Alex. "He always terrified me so much, I never thought I'd be able to pull that off."

"Girl, I didn't understand what all you said to him, but you were a serious badass in there." Cami says as she hugs me from behind. "But does this mean that we don't get to go to Eplea?" She asks, a little disappointed.

"Actually, it means we can wait until you guys are out of school for the semester." Remigio says, walking into the kitchen. "Dário and I are taking that asshole back to Eplea tonight. Then in a few weeks when you guys are out for the semester, you can all come to Eplea with Nia. Knowing our mother, it'll take a few weeks to plan the coronation anyways."

"Where am I going to stay when you two leave?" I ask, looking up at him.

"You can stay with us," Cami says, but I see Remigio shake his head.

"Yeah, like I want my little sister to live in the same house as her boyfriend," He says. My cheeks turn red and I look down. "No. She's going to live here with Brígida and Xavier."

After Dário and Remigio had left with Demétrio, the four of us are sitting in the living room when Alex's phone rings.

"Hey dad," He answers the phone. "No we're fine, something just came up that Nia had to deal with and she asked us to stay with her. Yeah, it took longer than we thought it would. Cami and I will be home soon. Yeah see ya then." He hangs up the phone and puts it back in his pocket. "We better head home now." He says to Cami, who just nods. He turns towards me. "I'll come by sometime tomorrow okay?" I nod and he smiles at me before him and Cami head towards the door.

"Bye guys!" Xavier calls out as they leave. I sit on the couch, fidgeting with my fingers and my leg bouncing. Xavier looks over at me. "You okay, Nik?"

"Oh you know, I just learned that my brother who I thought was dead for three years is actually alive, and then my sadistic stalker ex-fiancé shows up and points a gun at the guy I've fallen in love with and threatens to kill him," I say running my hands through my hair. I look up to see Xavier grinning. "What?"

"You just said you're in love with Alex," he says and my eyes widen.

"But, but that's not possible," I say. "We aren't even dating. Hell, I ran away from him when he kissed me last night."

"But you said it, which means you are in love with Alex." Xavier taunts.

"I don't even know what love is really like though, so how could I possibly be in love with Alex?" I ask. "I've never had a relationship before, so I don't even know if what I feel for Alex is actually love."

"Your heart skips every time he smiles at you, and you feel sparks every time you kiss," I turn around to see Xavier's mom, Brígida, standing in the entrance of the living room. "And you'd do anything to keep him safe and happy, even if that means not being with him. That's what love is sweetie." She smiles at me as she comes to sit next to me on the couch. "It's very nice to meet you Apolônia. I'm Brígida, Xavier's mom and -"

"My aunt," I finish for her. "Remi filled me in," I say, giving her a small smile. "Is all of that really how you know if you love someone?" I ask. She gives me a small nod.

"It is. That's how I felt with Xavier's father, and I haven't found anything else like it since." She reaches over and takes my hand in hers. "This boy that you feel all this towards, must be very special to capture the heart of a princess of Eplea."

"Why did you leave Eplea?" I ask. "And why did Papai and Mamãe never tell me about you?"

"Well, it's a long story. My father sent me away after my mother died. He didn't know how to handle raising a daughter and he wasn't going to find someone there to take care of me, even though I was sixteen and could basically take care of myself." She takes my hand. "Five years later, my father died, and Aloísio took the crown. He came to find me and ask me to come back home, but I was happy here. I was engaged to Xavier's father, and yes he knew that I was a princess, but I couldn't ask him to leave his life behind and move to Eplea with me. So we made the choice to stay here."

"But that doesn't explain why I never knew about you." I say.

"That's because I asked your parents not to tell you about me, unless something happened where you would need protection. Which is how Remigio found out about me." She squeezes my hand. "If I was kept a secret, then you would always have somewhere safe to go if something ever happened."