••• Cinzel •••
"I don't know when and how but I feel most protected in your presence..." I said, kissing his hand again, his mention is attached to my lips instead of an unspoken melody.
A wide grin appeared on his aesthetic features, grasping his fingers over my cheek tenderly, relaxing my soul in his persuasive touch.
Closing my eyes, I put my hand over his, existing entirely in his touch. He was about to pull me up but De Villiers who surely knows how to ruin our moments came utterly pissed.
Frowning at his presence, I got up, not removing Prince's hand from my skin.
"What are you doing here?" I asked authoritatively, looking at him coldly.
Looking away he replied, "Lunch is served." Rolling my eyes, I sighed in disappointment.
"Shall we go?" I asked Prince sweetly.
He shrugged, passing me a faint smile as we left, not before glaring at De Villiers who seemed pissed every time he saw Prince.
It has begun to exasperate me now.
We went to the dining hall as Theo's voice came, "We are not here to see your romance."
Ignoring, we both sat down, "Nobody asked you to stalk our moments." retorting normally, he scoffed as we started our lunch.
"So what do you think, Axel?" I asked. He sighed, gesturing a defeat signal with his hands.
"What can I do? You left me with no choice. Besides, I certainly don't want to disobey our sweet Queen's order or else we all know what's coming for us. He would torture us to death if we went against you."
I thought he was talking about Prince. I was wrong. He said casually, shrugging his continuing eating. He must be mocking or something.
"You know what, Axel..." I began to say, leaning back.
"Trust is the part which is non-existent with you but I don't work on this baseless delusion." I said, looking up at him with a stern gaze.
"Well, if you expect cooperation. You have to trust us at least this much..." He chuckled nervously.
I smirked, putting down my fork, "If you expect me to trust you then why don't you gain it? In fact, It goes for all of you." I said, gaining everyone's attention, not apprehending what I am talking about.
"What do you mean?" Issac asked.
"Simple, increase the sales of our guns." I said.
"How are we supposed to do it? Things are going in their rhythm for a long time, crime rates are increasing anyways because of inflation- Well, if you exempt Axel." Issac taunted.
I laughed a little scornfully, "You have put up the innocent face of a businessman all this time, Issac still doesn't know how to gain customers? Kinda pathetic. Think for yourself." I jeered, putting my elbow on the table, leaning closer.
"It's not only for my advantage but yours too. Share a portion of free samples with local gangsters, start fights between them, needing weapons to fight with each other, they will come to us. Burn their base and blame it on the other party. Who cares?" I explained the structure I had in my mind which somehow bestowed upon me without recognition.
"Why do you want to increase the crime rate?" Prince asked. Smirking darkly, I turned to him.
"Isn't it simple? To let the higher ups know about the arrival." I answered nonchalantly but Prince seemed distressed- even pissed about something. Raising a brow, I didn't know what to say.
"I must say I was doubtful of your judgments at first but you have surpassed all my concerns, Cinzel." Axel smirked.
"Really?"
"Didn't know you could get this far. You truly are Valencia's daughter, having the same sinister mind as hers, well obviously nothing compared to your-"
"Shut up." Prince snarled.
"To my what, Prince?" I whispered to him.
"Nothing." He scoffed.
Axel praised me but I felt the earth cracking and swallowing me in lamentation. My amusement vanished, replacing it with dread to realize I have done it again.
I never wanted to become like this!
This was not me. What have I done?! Proposing an atrocious plan to enhance terrors, what the hell is wrong with me?
I am becoming a criminal.
Everyone was apparently impressed with me but I sat still, unable to react. Adrenaline rushed in my vein to ease the tension building in my heart but to no avail.
I began to resent myself for thinking like this.
"It's going to be a pleasure to work with you."
While I was lost in a daze, everyone gradually left and I couldn't fathom my words which gained their trust again but left me where I was running from.
My very soul trembled, dragging my mind back to that misery and amid this destruction I could feel Prince's glare upon me which terrorized me more than anything.
Why was this fear so constant?!
"Cinzel." My breath hitched when Prince called me when everyone left.
"Yes?" I asked timidly, swallowing hard, cursing myself for ruining this beguiling day.
"I need to talk to you." he said, grabbing my wrist.
"Prince?" My mouth gaped, trying to speak something but he continued to take me away.
While he was taking me, I couldn't help but to notice the grimace flickering in De Villiers's eyes but my mind was too vexed to comprehend anything else.
"Prince I-"
I tried to speak but he pushed me inside the room, kicking the door close.
Pushing me roughly against the wall, a squeak left my lips, convulsing by the fatality of his presence hovering over mine.
"You surely have begun to indulge in what you detest." He mocked.
Lifting my chin, locking his demanding orbs with my frightened ones. My heart began to beat rapidly, intoxicating my mind by the fear running in my veins.
"Prince Please-" I said, calling him in a croaky voice and was about to hold his face but he grabbed my wrist, knowing my smoothness is futile.
"All this reverence is meaningless, sweetheart."
His tempting tone wrapped itself around my neck vehemently, grasping my senses by the vicinity, locked between his arms holding me securely,
"So you better indulge in the breath I have granted..."
His voice converted into a scowl, shutting my teary gaze, I tried to suppress the sob residing in my vocal cords.
"Unless you want me to take them away."
A tear rolled down my cheek when he said it. I knew my pain was grazing his skin. That's why he is disturbed about my condition but he shouldn't have said it.
"Why are you doing this...?" I asked in a barely audible tone.
"You know." His cold tone came.
"You promised to save me from this! Educing terror was not necessary! You could use other ways too, Prince. Why do you choose the method which hurts the most? I can't stand you like this... Please... Please." I began to growl, pulling his shirt.
His gaze softened for a moment, traveling down to my lips, scrutinizing my powerless form with compassion.
We both knew there was no other way, I will become a fiend if this continued and this was essential to keep my sanity but I didn't want him to scare me anymore.
"I will be like this, even if it hurts, but I am not going to let this happen. I have promised myself."
Declaring, he held my waist firmly with one hand and pulled my hair to become adjacent to his level, pulsating my heart badly by the wavering distance.
"You are scaring me, Prince." I whispered, heartbroken.
A glint of sorrow also gleamed in his eyes but hidden behind layers of affectation, didn't let him show his true emotions.
"You should be." He whispered, leading his hand from my hairs to my neck, brushing his quivering lips over mine.
Pulling his shirt with anguish, I opened my mouth to speak something but a soft voice escaped my lips,
"Prince, please.."
"Cinzel, please..."
His response came immediately in a hopeless tone, tightening his grip over mine.
I sniffed trying not to cry but before we could get out from his uncontrollably miserable state the door banged open.
We abruptly pulled away and saw De Villiers there.
"Alright, I am so done with this fucking charade."
He had removed the voice changer, back to his normal raspy and austere tone, the one I heard when we first met.
I gasped and was about to say something but he grabbed Prince's wrist.
"You are coming with me, Princy." He said a weird nickname which left Prince horrified.
"De-" I tried to speak but he dragged Prince away with him.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I shouted, going after him.
He stopped at the main hall as everyone pointed their guns at him. Shrieking at the site, I was about to rush to Prince's side but De Villiers held my wrist.
"What the hell are you doing?! Put the fucking gun down!" I shouted, my heart deluged in extreme dread to see Prince there.
"I should have known." Prince sighed, putting his hands in his trousers, looking back at De Villiers with a ruthless gaze.
"You are so dead, Prince." De Villiers hissed, took off his mask and threw it away.
Taking a closer look of his face, apart from his long brown hairs and lens! See! His eyes are green eyes!
His features were utterly hard, knitted together to form a sharp structure. The eyes are beastly than the glint I have seen in Prince sending a bad omen that he wasn't what he seems.
"Mindless of you to assume you can escape my domain, Princy. Do you think anything can be hidden from me?"
"Nathaniel." Prince breathed out as my whole being stiff, a deadly shiver went down my spine, staring at his face.
He is... Nathaniel? The one Prince told me about? He was there all this time.
The biggest criminal of the underworld. The Plague Doctor...?
"N-Nathaniel?" I called him fearfully, he stopped turning to look at me for a moment, passing me a soft smile but my whole being was immobilized.
"Are you alright, Cinzel?" He asked and was about to touch the side of my face but I yanked his hand away, trying to get away from him.
"It doesn't concern you! Remove your gun from Prince. Now!" I yelled.
"Or else what? What has he ever done for you, huh? All he ever did was to steal your life away from you!" he yelled back, halting my breath with his fury.
"Who are you to meddle in my life, huh?!" I yelled back, tears blurred my vision.
"I am your biological Brother, dammit! " he shouted.
To say I am astonished would be an understatement. I blinked, trying to compete with his words.
Hoping to find it as a joke but I realized he wasn't when a tear pricked in the corner of his eyes, holding my arms, breathless, mournful.
Now I understand why Prince said he will kill everyone if I say.
"All this time I thought you died with our mother. This bastard hid you from the world. I.. I couldn't even know you exist. And they all expect me to let them live after stealing you away from me. That Prince is brainwashing you. Cinzel-"
To his sorrowful words, I replied truthfully in a broken tone,
"I know they haven't done right by concealing my identity. I know it was too much for me to bear that an ordinary girl like me is involved in such a toxic life. I couldn't even know that I have a brother... But Nathaniel.."
It was all making sense now, they were fearing me, they were obeying me, it was not me... They followed me because I am his sister...
It was all his power.
"Despite all this.. I want to run away with Prince. I don't want him to die. I need him." I whispered, putting my hands over his, gritting my trembling lips as he was flabbergasted.
"Cinzel..." Prince called me sadly.
I whiffed, trying not to cry as Nathaniel continued, "Why can't you notice he has blinded you?! It's clear his fear manipulates you, you act upon his words like a puppet. What does-"
"I love him!" I shouted, shutting my eyes, lowering my head.
"I love him, I love him, I love him. Even if I am scared, I love him. I love Prince, Nathaniel." I whispered in a soft sob but before my tears could fall I wiped them and stared back at his pitiful gaze.
"That's why. Put them down. It's an order!" I shouted, glaring at others who hesitantly lowered their guns and turned back to Nathaniel.
"Prince told me if I tell you to kill everyone who made my life miserable, you will do it for my sake. I know it must be hard for you to consider me dead." I paused, trying to make him listen, afraid of him as well.
He is the number one Mafia ace, who wouldn't be frightened of him?
"A-And when you have found me alive, you wouldn't want me to lead a devastating life but Nathaniel, I hate this life. I hate what I have become. I can't take it anymore, It will kill me... I want to run away with Prince.. It's hurting me. I want to run away from it. I love Prince, I want to live with him..."
I began to cry, relaxing at my display of powerlessness, he pulled me into a hug as I began to cry in his embrace, noticing the same locket as mine around his neck.
"Really...?" He asked hesitantly.
"Yes." I nodded with a sniff.
He hugged me, his warmth gave me strange numbness. An insurance I never knew could occur. His arms didn't feel repugnant even if it's the first time. They were warm.
"Why..?" He whispered, holding me close.
"Cinzel, tell me once what they have done to you and I swear no one would dare to hurt you again. You have no idea how hard it was for me to consider my family dead. I can do anything for you, just tell me." He said sorrowfully, trying to reassure me but if he had come before, I might tell him to kill them all but now, I don't want to lose Prince.
"Prince saved me all this time. Believe me, he did. It was Zaniel who wanted to use me, Prince only disrupted his plan." I said, hoping to convince him or else he was determined to end Prince's life here and now.
We remained like this for a while, "I missed you so much." he whispered, kissing my forehead and pulled away.
I was not used to the warmth of a sibling so I remained motionless.
He gave Prince a death-stare who put his hands in the air, smirking a little, taunting him.
"You heard her. Do you still want to make your sister a window?"
"I swear, if it wasn't for her, you wouldn't be alive." He snarled, moving back, leaving me as I ran to Prince, hugging him.
He wrapped his arms around me, kissing my head, taking me in under his shade of salvation.
Nathaniel scoffed at us and moved back, "One tear and you're dead, Princy." Nathaniel proclaimed and left.
I sighed, looking up at Prince with a grin.
"Cinzel..." He called me lovingly, caressing the side of my face, "Hmm?"
"Say it again." He whispered, moving close to my face, a blush rose to my cheek, smiling sheepishly as I confessed.
"I love you, Prince."
Laughing huskily, he whispered back before tying his lips with mine in a mystic harmony to wallow in my intense feelings for him.
"I love you too, Cinzel."