Chapter 0129
Emory
I hear about Lex being sent off as a hostage at Scarlett Thunder from my maids after he’s already left. I don’t get the chance to say goodbye. Lex and I may not have started out on the right foot, but I still feel bad he’s essentially become King Peter’s prisoner. I want to talk to Kane about what happened but hear he’s in a meeting. I’m able to find Rainier who has a rare spare moment where he’s not doing something for Kane.
“Lex said it’s better this way,” Rainier tells me. “It would have been an awkward scene if he stopped to say goodbye to you, and Lex doesn’t find that entertaining. That chaotic little shit has a dramatic flair.”
“I still wish I’d had a chance to say goodbye to him. It’s not easy being a prisoner in a castle filled with your enemies,”
I understand that feeling more than anyone. Kane treated me more like an honored guest rather than a prisoner, but I was terrified when I first arrived at Castle Graystone. Even when Kane brought me to a nice bedroom, and I got to wear beautiful clothes and jewelry, I didn’t feel safe. I hadn’t known who to true and I felt isolated and frightened.
“I can’t imagine Lex is having a good time in Scarlett Thunder. His family is here,” I remind Rainer.
He shrugs. “Don’t worry about Lex. He has a remarkable talent for surviving odds. He’s like a handsome, blonde cockroach that refuses to die.”
I know Lex isn’t completely helpless. He’s a vampire, and he is still faster and stronger than any wolf shifter. How he will fare around other vampires, I don’t know. He isn’t a trained soldier like Rainier.
“Why would Kane send Lex to be a political prisoner?” ask. “I know they’ve had their differences, but isn’t this dangerous?”
“Someone had to go. Kane tried to dissuade him, but Lex really wanted to go for some reason. He chose this for himself. Kane did not push him into it.”
Η
“He volunteered to be a hostage?” I can’t believe my ears.
“It shocked me too. I didn’t know he had in him. I still think he has an ulterior motive behind all of this, but Kane seems to think his brother is being selfless and noble for once.”
“Maybe he did it for Kane.” I had sacrificed myself for my sister because I wanted to protected her above all else when nobody else would. Lex surrendering himself to King Peter in order to help Kane isn’t as far fetched of a concept to me as it is to Rainer. Lex could have done this for one simple reason–he loves his brother. And that is more than enough of a reason for me to believe that there is no ulterior motive. Rainier frowns. “I can’t believe that. The Lex I know is not that kind of man.”
“Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think you do,” I point out. “And people can change, even vampires as old as dirt.”
“Ouch.” Rainier put a hand over his heart. “I’m not that old. I’m in my early hundreds, thank you very much.”
“And that in shifter and human years is as old as dirt,” I tease him. “Your bones would be dust if you weren’t a vampire.”
+25 BONUS
Chapter 0129
Rainier rolls his eyes before turning away to leave. “In that case, I’m going to go rest my bones before they disintegrate before your very eyes.”
I’m about to tell him I’m only joking, even though he knows that, when Helga runs up to me. She looks harried.
I look at her in concern. “What’s wrong?“.
“You have to come, Princess,” she says, urgently. “It’s your father. He’s been attacked.”
The shock hits me like a lightning bolt. I’ve spent days trying to forget my father is even in the castle. The news that he’s been harmed urges me to go find out what happened immediately. How is that possible when he’s in the dungeon?
“Where is he now?”
“He’s been brought to the infirmary,” Helga answers. “Dr. Martin is looking over him.”
I start walking briskly toward the infirmary. Helga follows me along with Rainier who stopped his retreat when he heard Helga’s proclimation. The maid says she doesn’t know any more details about the attack. She was informed by a guard who’d come looking for me in my room.
