Dalton has to nearly forcibly remove me from his room and drag me to meet up with the others. My heart runs ten thousand times faster than normal every second I think of all that I'm about to do, which is a lot. I'm about to come out as the freaking heir to an entire kingdom. My dad told me the other night that I'm going be a ruler of more people in more nations than any other human has ever been in all of history, other than mom of course. So no pressure. It's just millions of people who are going to be looking to me to know how to save them from the end of the world. No biggie.
Dalton and I walk into the room hand in hand and after smiling to my mom and dad, then dropping Dalton's hand so he could go and talk to his own parents I notice Lance hanging at the back of the room again looking sullen.
All of my worry for other things slips away as guilt gnaws at my heart again. Slowly, but knowing I need to, I walk over to him. "Hey." I half wave and he nods his chin to me.
"Hi." He replies, trying to keep an unawkward eye contact but failing. "How do you feel about everything?"
I sigh and look at the floor. I hate this. We do small talk now? This guy was one of my best friends growing up. I don't want things to be awkward for us, so I tell him as much. "I feel as good about everything as I think is possible, but that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about. I don't want things between us to be weird because of Dalton and me. You mean so much to me and I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to you sooner."
He smiles, a genuine Lance smile, running a hand through his blonde hair. "Nothing can change us, Rose." He tells me softly. "I was here for you when you still had frizzy hair and braces," he jokes as he lifts a section of my hair and tosses it back at me. "I will stand by you no matter who you chose to date."
Of the thousands of weights on my shoulders right now, I'm glad to feel the weight of my torment over him lift. "You know I do love you, right?" I ask him and he laughs.
"I know," He leans in closer. "I've just been friendzoned."
I smack his shoulder and roll my eyes. "Whatever."
"Hey, it's cool." He assures me. "I won't lie and say I actually like the guy, but if I don't totally hate him anymore." I raise my brows at the admission and he rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. "I can tell he really does care about you, and that's what matters. However, if he hurts you, I'll kick his ass."
I laugh. "Ok, sounds like a deal." I tell him. "If Dalton starts slipping you and me will be there to give him a swift beat down."
Across the room Dalton's warm chuckle makes my heart sing. "You both know I can hear you?"
"Yup." Lance and I say together then laugh again.
It feels good to feel normal, even if it can only last for a second.
I bite my lip as dad comes over to me, throwing an arm around my shoulders and kissing the side of my head as he leads me away. "You ready?"
I nod slowly. "Yes." I say tensely. Ready for this to all be over. "As soon as the announcement is made I want to have a meeting with the heads of all of the settlements." I tell him while we all make our way out into the hallway and down the stairs. "It's going to take us all to keep control over the people during the panic that is sure to follow the broadcast and I want to have a moment to meet them each and start gaining some trust between us all. Together we can brainstorm what to do as far as the threat goes." My strong voice fades. "I do wish I had more of an idea about that part."
Dad kisses my head again. "You'll get there."
"I hope so."
"I know so."
He rubs my arm and reaches back to take the bags from mom. "You know," He calls, catching back up to me. "You'll need to take on a board of your own advisors."
I groan. "I don't have time to think of that side of the job right now. I'm trying to stay focused on the task at hand."
Dad nods, holding the door for me to pass out under the awning as we wait for the van to pull around. "I know, but that will be a demand. First thing you'll have to do is get your affairs in order and then we can organize your meeting with the other heads of your settlements."
My head is in such a constant spin these days that I barely even notice the difference.
"It's easy, Rose." Dalton comes up behind me. "Every king, or well a ruler, has a council that is elected by the people and you'll have them to make big decisions with and to handle your smaller issues. But your personal advisors are the people you trust above anyone else. They'll be in your corner and they'll sit in on council meetings that you can't be at."
I sigh and look back to dad. "Who were your advisors?"
He laughs lightly. "I trusted very few." He admits. "Just your Aunt Octavia and Pedro."
"And who are Pedro's advisors?"
"Me." Dad shrugs. "He trusted even fewer."
I nod, chewing my lip as everyone piles into the van, filling up the back rows first and then me, dad, and mom slide into the first row. In the driver seat is a guard of Lance's that he says is new and wouldn't recognize us right off the bat. "Whoever I want?"
He nods, then smirks a little. "I'm assuming you'll want to keep the Hand position the same?"
"Yes." I answer a little overly enthusiastic. I'm just secretly, and maybe not so secretly, thrilled that dad isn't going to give me a hard time over him. "Ok, so, advisors...You obviously." I tell dad and then bite my lip. "Pedro if he's willing, Lance, Octavia if she and Logan decide to come out too, and then...Malcom."
"Me?" He gasps, looking genuinely caught off guard as the street lights shoot into the van like strobe lights as we rush up the deserted highway.
A couple of others look just as surprised but Dalton and dad both give me a tight nod of approval. I turn back in my seat to look at him. "Yeah, well I know you said you hate palace life and all that, but without your help I never would have gotten the intel I have or have had the right mind set to get back here. Plus, dad mentioned that you were really helpful in getting me back." I shrug. "I still think you're an ass, but you're an ass that I think knows what he's talking about and who somehow or another I trust. So if you want the job, you've got it."
He blinks fast, still shocked but nods once and I smile before turning back to the front.
A few minutes go by in silence where I try not to think at all, but that never has worked for me. Even before all of this my head was always a racetrack of thoughts revolving round and round. After a while I turn to face where Dalton sits with his mom and dad. "Hey, Nathaniel?" I ask softly, not trying to disturb the quiet of the van. He nods a polite acknowledgement. "I was wondering, can you teach me about my ability? I want to be able to learn to use it the way that you do."
He smiles warmly, he looks so much like Dalton when he smiles. I guess I hadn't noticed before because Dalton never used to smile. Now he gives me a matching one to his father's. "It would be my absolute pleasure, Your Highness." He bows his head and it makes me feel a little silly but I guess I need to get used to that.
"What the-."
"Is that?"
"Fuck!"
The car is filled with everyone's nervous shouts or hollow gasps.
I whip back to the front as we hit the gravel road that leads into the valley between the hills where Castrum de Petra's little secret entrance city hides. I see instantly what everyone else does.
The sky over the little city is a glowing orange against the darkness. The car moves in a little closer, taking a curve to where we can see the city and tears well in my eyes when I see it engulfed in flames. On instinct alone my body jolts from the seat and I fly out the door.
"Rose, no!" Someone shouts but I can't listen.
I run towards the city but strong arms yank me back, holding me protectively against a hard chest. "No!" I scream at the top of my lungs. "Please, no!" Now that I'm out of the car I can hear it too. The loud crackling of the flames and the even worse sounds of shouting. Painful shouts. Down the road from us and within the crescent shaped city a battle rages.
"Rose," Dalton yells over the noise. "You need to go! You can't be here!"
I shake and thrash until he releases me. "I can't just leave them! We have to help!"
I run again, this time with everyone right at my heels behind me. We creep up to the side of the city, peeking from behind the last building in the row. From our vantage point a sick thought hits me. It's happening. "No!" I cry. "We can't be too late! We can't!"
Before us there is nothing but fighting, and very little blood. My people rush from the burning building, trying with everything they've got to take out the Casters. Very few find success. As quickly as a vampire can lunge for one, they're just as quickly dropped to the ground and throats swiftly cut. We have to outnumber them by a hundreds, but it doesn't matter. We can't win against their magic. All it takes is a few hushed whispers and the beings that thought they were more powerful than god himself fall to the ground with a thud of finality.
I feel useless on the sideline like this, and my sentiment must be shared because Dalton and Lance suddenly break free from me and rush out into the madness. I try to keep up with them, but I lose them in the crowd. As if it wasn't bad enough already now I have to worry about them out there too. I gasp as blood sprays into the air, landing at our feet and speckling my shoes with crimson.
I try and fail again to run out to do something. Surely if someone gave me a knife or something right now I could be helping. I'm human, they can't chant their way into a win against me and I doubt any of them have any real fighting skills, not that I do either, but I still want to try. Anything it better than just watching my people be slaughtered, my boyfriend and friend included. Is he even my boyfriend? We never talked about it. I may never see him again and I don't even know if he was my boyfriend or not.
My dad holds me back firmly while I cry, hiding along the side of the building instead of being of any kind of use. I should have listened. I was wrong to have waited and now this is my punishment.
I whip my head to the side when above it all I hear a familiar woman's laugh.
"Oh, god! It's happening! I have to do something!" I jerk. "Dalton! Lance! Come back! Hurry!"
Pure adrenaline pumps through me and yet I still feel weak and my mind isn't pumping up any solutions. All I know is that my vision is coming true and I can't see Dalton or Lance anywhere. My heart twists in my chest as a fight comes a little too close to us and Malcom makes quick work of shoving a fist through the caster's chest and pulling out her heart. The man she was fighting looks behind me at dad a little stunned like he recognizes him, but the commotion doesn't leave him time for that. He runs as far and as fast as he can.
I'm still scanning the crowd, knowing what's coming, and I still can't find them.
"I've got them." Dad shouts to me and then his grip on me is gone, replaced by my mom as dad shoots off into the fray.
"Dad! No!" I scream, my body not able to take much more. I can't lose everyone I love today. Not today. Not like this.
I spot the top of Elenora's head as she walks out on the other side of the fountain, a group of caster's surrounding her and the doctor protecting them. She looks up to the sky and I scream.
"No!" My voice scratches up through me but Dalton slams into me, his arms winding around my waist and pulling me back a little further, dad and Lance on his heels. They get out of there without a half a second to spare. The smoke spins and swirls in the air above us, painting eerie pictures in the sky.
I watch as Elenora's lips move, and suddenly the fire is gone, most of the smoke with it. It's instantly easier to breathe, but not for long. With a string of more whispers, and a flick of her wrist, suddenly all of the vampires within her rang, hundreds at least, jolt up into the air. The live ones, the dead ones, all of them. They levitate in the sky high above the fountain and city and Elenora laughs as her casters all link hands and walk ahead of her.
I hold back a squeal when I am suddenly being drenched in red liquid. I don't have to look up to know what it is now. The bodies are being bled out. Not to be used for experiments or cures or even to make a monster. It's just for sport. Elenora is enjoying this. The blood rain falls on us all and I'm pulled even further back.
She and the doctor walk forward again, and I can't stand the sight behind them.
The cloaked people follow behind them, prisoners in tow, drug by their chains, my Papa Pedro among the others who I now recognize as council members. "We have to help him." I plead. "I can reason with her. Tell her who I am."
"Rose, no!" Dalton snaps.
"Stand down." My father says to the others behind me.
"Daddy, we have to help him." It's a pointless beg, but I beg nonetheless.
He shakes his head at me and I crumble into Dalton's chest, his arms changing from restraints to support. "Getting ourselves killed won't help anyone." Dad whispers me, ushering us away from the city as quickly as possible. "They've got Pedro and every one of the council members. The people need you even more now. Castrum is a loss. We've all got to get out of here." He opens the van door for me and Dalton pulls me in behind him, cradling my head against his chest. "I trust the Master of Scotland." He nods to himself as the car starts moving. "That was one of his men that I just saw out there and if he managed to survive, Master Tiwen knows of me by now. We go there and make the announcement, then we leave. We don't want them knowing where you are."
I hear him, but I can't process.
All I can do is see that blood.
Upon blood rain, a new blood shall reign.
It happened and I did nothing to stop it.
It's my fault that all of those people just lost their lives.
(A/N) Crazy stuff happening with Rose! Can't wait for you all to see what will happen next! On another note, I wanted to let you all know that I have started a new book today called Well Beyond Expectation that you should go check out now, and also the rating and review option on my Author's Facebook Page is now working properly for anyone who wants to help me out. The link to my Facebook is in my bio on my profile here if you need it! Thanks so much for reading guys and I hope you're all excited for more:)