Kol had never been more annoyed by Annalise in his entire life. The walk back home seemed to take forever and a half. Annalise simply would not stop asking about Princess Kiara and it was honestly driving Kol up a wall.
"Kol, do you think she'll find her elements?" Annalise asks for the nth time since they left her.
"For the millionth time, I dunno, Annalise. You know you can't so much as mention the princess at home correct?" Kol asks stopping them both at once and looking his little sister in the eye.
"Why not?" Annalise says stomping her foot in protest.
"Because if you do, we'll be marked a traitor for not killing her! And then we'll all be in trouble! You'll get all three of us killed!" Kol snaps at her making Annalise flinch slightly.
"But I'm worried for her, Kol. I know you are too! You're just not letting yourself worry for her since she's the fairy princess!" Annalise shot back.
"I'm not hiding any feelings for her! She's the enemy!"
"That's not what you thought when she nearly died cracking her head open on the forest floor! or when you thought they were taking her to the morgue! Or when that Axil guy was talking so casually with her-" Kol stopped her by grabbing hold of her arm.
"Annalise you will stop these foolish thoughts at once! I have no feelings for Kiara! I just want to be rid of this stupid gem! Then the two kingdoms will never have contact again and we'll be on our happy way!" Kol yells his pent-up annoyance overflowing and making Annalise flinch in fear.
"I should've stayed with Kiara; you're turning into father much too much for my taste!" Annalise shouted back at him. Kol froze at her words and his annoyance gone all at once.
"Annalise, I'm sorry. I just don't want you hurt, okay? So please don't go off talking about Kiara," Kol said outstretching his arms to her.
"I love you," Kol says as Annalise runs into his arms.
"Now what do we say when they ask why we were gone for so long?" Kol says as they start walking again.
"We say the river carried us further from home than we'd thought it would and that we had to take down a few Fairy camps on our way back," Annalise repeats the practiced words.
"How many camps?" Kol asks.
"Three," Annalise says instantly.
"How many faires per camp?"
"Roughly 20."
"Where were they?"
"By the east river in which we fell in, another in the oak tree forest, and the last on the by the ruins of the eleven," Annalise says.
"Now what do we say when they ask about Princess Kiara?"
"I say that we woke up and the princess what nowhere in sight."
"Good," Kol praises. The two were a few miles from home and weren't thrilled to be back but put up a face of relief.
"Prince Kol! Princess Annalise!" A guard yelled from atop his post.
"Yes, 'tis us," Kol said putting on his prince voice.
"Kol, I'm nervous," Annalise says.
"Me too," Kol said, " But well get through this together." Annalise grabbed onto him and buried her face in his shirt. As the two approached the gates they opened without a second of hesitation.
The head of guard, Donivin came up to the two and gave a bow. "My prince and princess. I am delighted to see you come back home," Donivin said though his eyes looked annoyed that the two them showed up.
"Your father has eagerly been waiting your arrival," Donivin says his annoyance leaking through.
"Good, where is he?" Kol asks heading toward the castle.
"You'll find him in the war room," Donivin said.
"Is he planning something?" Kol asks confused.
"Yes, he is looking for the princess of the Fairy kingdom. Now that he has the gem, he wants to make sure that all the fairy royals are killed. He figured the princess would be the easiest target since she so willing threw herself to save an enemy," Donivin said laughing at the idea of her saving Annalise. For some reason hearing Donivin laugh at the fairy princess made Kol angry but he tried to keep it from showing on his face.
"Yes, that was quite foolish of her to do," Kol agreed though the words tasted like ash in his mouth. He was incredibly grateful for her saving Annalise, but that's where his gratefulness stopped for the fairy princess.
"Your father thinks she's been burned by the iron traps he set in the gem's resting place. They found chunks of flesh melted to some of the traps. With some tree roots holding up the logs. Obviously, she's the only one foolish enough to do such a thing. Especially on her own." Donivin says chuckling. Kol felt his heartbeat race.
"Do you have people watching that area?" Kol asks.
"No, but we were going back to look for more clues about the gem. And happened to notice," Donivin said. Kol relaxed slightly.
"I hope after you noticed you kept people there to guard the area just in case. Since it's a shame that you missed the pitiful girl," Kol says as he opens the castle doors without a second thought and turned left towards the war room.
"I'd imagine the bitch is on the brink of death. We had our best magicians on this and made a type of iron the multiples when it mixes with fairy blood. And judging by how much skin we have on those iron pillars; I'd say by now she's had enough iron in her to make at least 3 swords. Hopefully, she'll be alive when we find her so we can get some information from her," Donivin said. Kol felt sick at how casually Donivin spoke of torturing the fairy princess.
"That would be a shame, think how powerful a sword made with iron that grew inside a fairy would be," Kol said trying his best to play his part. He felt Annalise flinch at his words.
"Oh, yes. It will be exceedingly powerful. Faires would quake at the mere sight of it," Donivin laughed heartily as he pushed open the war room doors.
"Kol, you're not going to tell them where Kiara is are you?" Annalise asked inside his mind. Kol looked at his little sister he felt conflicted
"I don't know" Kol thought. He saw Annalise deflate instantly.
"Ah! My boy! Come in! Come in!" Kol looked at his father Dargan trying to hide the disgust that flowed through him at the memory of Dargan throwing Annalise over the edge.
"Donivin has updated me on your search for the Princess of the fairy Kingdom."
"Excellent! Now do tell me your thought process when you jumped in that waterfall," Dargan said his eyes steely.
"I didn't want the fairy princess to escape, so I tried to follow her, knowing you were quite capable of handling the prince. Why let her go when I could follow her and rid the kingdoms of the faires. But alas I was foolish and lost her down the river," Kol said telling a half truth.
"Ah, you are indeed a smart boy. It's okay you lost her lead, because you'll help us find her now that you are back my boy. After the girl jumped into the river the prince went mad and retreated, I assume he went to go search for her. Leaving the gem without a second thought," Dargan said laughing.
"How preposterous that he's goes after his sister when he could've fought back and gotten the gem. But his tie to family weakened him. I'm glad you had no intention of saving your sister, but lucky for us that the fairy girl is so weak willed that she'd save Annalise," Dargan said laughing Kol could feel the anger rising up in him.
"It is a good thing she survived since she'll be quite useful for when we find that princess and interrogate her. She'll be unable to lie with Annalise around," Dargan said ruffling the young girl's hair. Kol resisted every urge to kill his father where he stood for such words. He treated them like two of them a nothing more than pawns on his way to ruling all the kingdoms.
"Yes, it is a good thing," Kol said schooling his words to sound like he agreed. With that a guard burst through the room his face flushed.
"Milord there's been a discovery! A possible lead to the fairy princess!" the guard huffed out.
"Wonderful timing!" Dargan said his voice chipper. Kol felt his blood run cold, had they already found where Kiara was?
"Well spit it out!" Dargan said impatiently.
"The researchers wouldn't say they only ordered me to come fetch you, Milord," the servant said.
"Well, lead the way boy," Dargan barked. Kol followed them out and they were led into the library and further into the researcher's rooms.
"Ah, Milord. Thank you, Richey you may leave," the eldest researcher Theodore said waving his hand dismissively.
"What is it you've called me in here for?" Dargan asked.
"We found some information that could lead us to the fairy princess," Theodore said his voice gravelly from age.
"Could you please get to it already?" Kol asked getting impatient.
"yes, your highness," Theodore said, " Faires have been allergic to iron since the dawn of their creation-" He gets cut off by Dargan
"Yes, we know this already that is why we set those Iron traps. Get to the important part." Theodore gave a withered look but skipped forwards in his story.
"We found traces of there being a group of faires that had a cure for their iron poisoning. But they seem to have run off to somewhere because there has been no trace of them in generations. We think that the princess would've gone and tried to find this group. It is said that they hated the idea of fighting for a gem that cures all, so they split. But no one knows where it is," Theodore says. Kol felt shock coarse through him, never have the teachers found something this quick before. It would be mere days at most for them to find out where Kiara was. Kol felt the sickening feeling run through him.
"Kol my boy, you look as though you have something you just discovered," Theodore said a smug smile on his face.
"Kol don't tell them!" Annalise hissed.
"And if I don't and they find out I knew they'll kill both of us!" Kol said thought to Annalise.
"Yes, a thought struck me, surely if they were against these wars, they'd go to a place were neither of the sides had access to. A place that was neutral territory for the dragons and the faires, that we haven't been to before," Kol said giving them a hint that would save his skin and still help his father.
"Hmm, yes good thinking, your highness. I will look over the most logical areas they would flee to and I'll have the most likely option sometime within the week."
"Good, we'll see you then," the king said.
"As for now, we'll have a feast to celebrate the return of my children," the king said pulling his two children with him. Kol felt his nerves go through the roof. He felt sick at giving such a hint. He surely gave them too much information, and now Kiara didn't stand a chance. Kol was in no mood for a feast.
~~~~~~~~~
The palace felt much too cold and aren't without Kiara in it. Alexander had tried his best not to think about it, but at times like this when he took a break from training and battle strategies, he felt the chill.
Kiara really was the light in this palace without her it felt like everything moved much slower and duller. Alexander had sent so many search parties out to find her. His fear for her only increased when each search party came up empty.
He'd lost both his sister and that stupid gem. Now that Kiara was gone, he realized how stupid that gem was. And that she'd been right the whole time about it.
He still couldn't think what had possessed her to jump after that girl. It's not liked the loss of the little girl would've had any impact on her life. it just some fairy girl that was there at the wrong time wrong place.
He understood now why Father hadn't allowed them into battle for so long. Kiara had no idea how fighting worked she was never the kind to hit the books, more of a hand on. Maybe Father's death had really messed up her thinking.
Alexander tried to reach out to her yet again, ever since they were little Alexander had a knack for always knowing where his sister was. Now it felt like she never even existed. Not that she was dead but that she simply disappeared completely.
The idea chilled him. He hated that he had no idea where she could be. He prayed that she wasn't with the dragons. That they didn't capture her and torment her. At that thought he flashed to the training they'd done for that exact situation.
It was when they were 15 or so and they were being trained for being captured by the dragons. Their tutor, Angelo was a harsh man. He threw the two of them into the jails underneath the castle. He treated them like true prisoners. They were starved and tortured. Beat constantly. The two of them weren't allowed to help each other. Kiara was surprisingly resilient and never lost her cool.
They were told about the people of the healing word, the ones who fled soon after the war started. The ones who had a cure to iron poisoning. And in the torturing sessions they were trying to get the information about the healers. It was Kiara and his job to keep their mouths shut for as long as possible. And when one of them broke they'd get their ear nagged off by Angelo. Then have a few weeks to recover then do it all over again.
One of the final situations was he and Kiara were pulled out of their cages and tied to a chair. Alex didn't think much of it until they pulled out a chest full of iron weapons.
Alexander could still remember the fear that spiked in him at the mere sight of the iron. And the fear when he watched them cut into Kiara with it, her screams. They still haunted Alexander at night sometimes. Because Kiara was stubborn and refused to give up their secret, they kept cutting into her. She'd scream each time yet gave no answers.
They kept going until Alexander told them the information. He'd always break first, Kiara was strong enough to keep her composure. This situation had happened a good number of times. He'd tell them what they wanted if they hurt Kiara enough, and she do the same for him. But they often started with Kiara because that was his weakness, and everyone knew it.
Seeing Kiara in pain was his biggest weakness.
After that session, their father found out and put an end to it. Alexander pulled himself from out of his memories and continued his way to the war room. his heart still heavy with old memories.