Puppet to the Crown

Chapter 23

“What does Axel want?” I asked Sharada as she led me down the dimly lit hallway. Sharada failed to answer me. Instead she continued leading me through the twists and turns of the house. Her silence left me feeling perplexed and antsy about the present situation.

By the time we reached Axel’s office my mind was reeling with questions. Sharada shoved the door open and practically forced me inside, before promptly slamming the door behind me. Axel was sitting at his desk bent over scanning a stack of papers. As usual he hardly acknowledged my presence in his space.

“Why am I here?” I asked quietly as I approached him and plopping down in the seat that had been pushed up across from the desk.

Slowly Axel peered up at me. His eyes were full of repulse and distaste. What the hell did I do to him? “I have a message for your master,” he growled angrily.

My master? What was he on? Upon seeing my confusion he continued, “You know the princess.” He acted as though I was the stupidest thing on the planet. It is so not my fault that I forgot I was supposed to be a servant.

“Okay,” I muttered quietly feeling slightly deflated. Now I was a freaking messenger for myself. Instantly his hand snapped out towards me handing me a neatly folded letter. Without hesitation I shoved it into my pocket.

“Don’t read it,” he demanded, before turning back to his work.

Silently I sat there waiting for him to continue the conversation. It didn’t appear the he had anything to say so I asked him a question. “You’re a criminal. What did you do?”

His eyes snapped up to mine. He didn’t look pleased as he stood up and ambled over towards me. “Don’t ask things that you don’t want to know. Now get out.” As if one cue Sharada swaggered on inside a smirk adorning her lips. Slowly she walked over to Axel while swaying her hips in a seductive manner. Axel accepted her with ease as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and placed kisses on his neck.

Although he accepted her kisses, his eyes remained locked on mine as I sat there staring at them. This was so strange and awkward, I was very unsure of what to do. Who the hell did these people think they were? Random fits of anger pulsed through my body. Finally having had enough I stood up and barged out of the room away from the pair. When I slammed the door shut behind me, I could hear Sharada’s laughter filling the room.

In my anger it hardly took me a minute to decipher the halls. Relief filled me as I shot out the front door only to find an angry Nathan and a confused Hannah waiting patiently for me. “What the hell was that?” Nathan barked at me stepping forward.

A shrug was my response. My happy excited mood had been destroyed, and all I wanted to do now was go home. “Let’s get out of here. We can go find Harmony if you want. I want to meet her,” I told him trying to deflect his questioning.

Nathan didn’t buy it.

“What the hell happened in there? What did they do?” Nathan snapped grasping my wrist and tugging me towards him. It felt like I was being jerked around by everyone lately; Edmund, Daniel, Axel, Tyrone, and Nathan. The male species was way to difficult.

“They didn’t do anything, okay?” I snapped at him, “Just leave it.”

Somehow Nathan let it go, and began leading us out of the lower district towards where he suspected Harmony was. “They’re staying in the Royal Inn,” he explained to me smiling lightly. Okay this new bipolar Nathan was not working for me in the slightest.

Glancing over at Hannah I saw the concern written across her face as she stared at Nathan. What was wrong with him?

In the end I found us quickly approaching the Royal Inn. Something inside of me told me to run and leave. I was feeling completely uneasy about the situation as we approached the front door of the inn. Two broad, slender, deadly looking women stood on either side of the door. Their hair was a pale blond and had been weaved into perfect braids. Anyone with eyes could see the witch blood that ran through their veins.

“We shouldn’t go in there,” Hannah whispered staring at the women wide-eyed. Instantly I nodded in agreement.

Nathan didn’t listen to a word we said. Instead he darted up to the women and began speaking in a hushed voice. They let him pass through the front doors of the inn without a problem. “We have to go get him,” I muttered approaching the women. Fear rippled through me. This wasn’t right. Why were the witches even in the city? They should be in the woods where they belong.

The pale blue eyes of the witches locked on to mine. “You can’t come in,” one of them said with a high-pitched demanding voice. My hands snapped over my ears. It was like a thousand dogs all howling at the same time right in my ear. I doubled over in pain. Upon removing my hand I saw scarlet red blood dripping down my fingers.

“Why not? He’s my brother,” I snapped at him horrified by what had just occurred.

“You’re an abomination. You can’t be trusted,” the woman retorted with a slightly quieter voice. Hannah looked confused as I flinched away from her voice. Was it not effecting her the way it was effecting me?

“He’s my brother, he’s the same as me,” I retaliated.

The witches’ eyes would not leave my face. They looked angry and hostile as they stared me down. It was as though they had a personal vendetta against me, but I’d never met them in my life. What was going on?

“Nathan belongs to us. Now leave or you’ll regret it.”