The Crown's Entrapment

At The Lucian, Miran Ocean

It was still daylight, but Xenia and Darius were already on their bed cuddling each other after an intense bout of exercise and bedroom activities. Darius, as expected, made full use of their time last night catching up for all of the lost time that he wasn’t with his mate.

“I have something important to tell you,” Xenia murmured, followed by a heavy sigh.

“Tell me,” Darius encouraged.

“There’s more to my brother’s disappearance than what’s currently stated…” Xenia started. She moved, tilting her head up to look at Darius.

Hearing her, he had a frown on his face as he asked, “What do you mean, Xen?”

Xenia pensively sighed as she replied, “The dragon that appeared on the battlefield on that day was my brother Ezekiel. I don’t know the exact details yet, but we think this means that he’s actually the one cursed among my siblings in part of mother being a fallen angel.” She bit her inner cheek as she continued, “They’re still checking on how this such a thing could’ve happened, but our wizard Lurio had already confirmed that the dragon was indeed Ezekiel.”

Darius moved, sitting up on the bed as he looked at her. Likewise, Xenia did the same, pulling up the bedsheet with her to cover her body.

“You don’t look surprised,” she murmured with a frown.

Darius let out a sigh before pulling her into his arms and said, “Nikolai had the same theory. He wants both of our kingdoms to investigate this matter.” He then smiled at her as he added, “Still, I’m glad that you told me about this, Xen. I’m sure you and your family are all worried, knowing how your kingdom’s denizens would instantly want to put down a dragon whenever they see one.”

“I guess you can say that…”

Xenia let out a content sigh as she leaned into Darius’s embrace. She felt comforted by how he was gently stroking her arm. She knew it was his way of appeasing her somehow, and she appreciated the gesture.

“Ezekiel isn’t harmful. Lurio said that he didn’t hurt anyone on the battlefield except for Helion’s soldiers,” Xenia murmured. “I’m sure he’s still in there… We just need some time to figure things out. We’ll need to get a hold of Ezekiel first, however.”

“I understand. I’ll give out instructions to my men to not harm the dragon and keep it safe whenever possible should they encounter it,” Darius nodded. “On the case of Nikolai’s men, however… I have no rule over his men. Have you talked to your sister regarding this matter?”

“Yes, she’ll be able to handle things on her end from there,” Xenia nodded. “Meanwhile, I’ll continue my battles at Cordon so that we can proceed as planned. Maybe even do the wedding ahead of time should the time permit it.”

Xenia took in a breath before she continued, “I’m ready… I want to quickly wrap up things so that I can later help my family with everything they might need. I understand that you’ll be in a difficult position should you send help while the alliance between our kingdom is yet to happen, but that’ll disappear once we get married. So let’s do that as soon as possible.”

“Don’t you want to skip that part then? The trials, I mean?” Darius asked in suggestion. “I’m the King, Xen, and my word is authority. I can do something so that you won’t need to suffer in those trials.” He seriously offered, “It’s not too late… How about you skip it?”

It was the second time that Darius suggested such a thing, and Xenia had thought that she had already made herself clear on the matter.

Turning to him, she frowned as she said, “We talked about this already, right? There will be corresponding consequences if we ever do that. I told you, I can do this. So just stay put and wait for me to finish the trials.”

She confidently added, “I want your people to respect me, seeing as they’ll become my people too once we get married. If we do as you suggested, Nasser will surely take that opportunity to bring you down. You’ve already reached this far doing things the proper way, and I refuse to be the cause of your downfall just because I wanted to take the easy way out.”

She then paused to gather some air, releasing it in a pensive sigh before she continued. “Look, I know you’re worried, but my family feels the same way. That’s why they wanted to hide what truly happened to Ezekiel from me. But like I said to my sister, I’m far more mature now,” she firmly stated.

“Ever since I met you and a few key people along the way, I’ve learned so many different things. Running away isn’t always the best option, and I need to face everything that might bar my way and do my best to prove that I’m truly worthy. Respect is earned, and I want to earn that respect through every possible channel. Besides, I don’t want Cordonians talking behind my back about how I only became a Queen because you used your power as king to bend the rules.”

Darius could only listen to his mate’s spiel. He understood what Xen meant to say, but he still couldn’t help but worry regardless. The situation with her family right now was a bit too much already. And although she was still showing a brave front, he knew that she was still affected by it deep inside.

“I can tell that look, Darius. I told you, I’ll be fine,” Xenia insisted. “I’ll take this trial that my family is facing as fuel to strive harder for my goals, and that is to stay by your side and be a very good Queen.”

She held a smile as she continued, “Though, I’ll also admit that I want more power so that I can better help my brother… But it wouldn’t be to the extent of wanting to abuse it to support what is wrong. Rest assured that my family also won’t turn a blind eye once we confirmed that Ezekiel will be a threat. But right now, it’s still too early to decide upon.”

Satisfied with what he just heard, Darius tightened his embrace around her. “Alright, I won’t bring this topic up again, and I’ll begin arrangements for our marriage earlier than planned,” he nodded in approval. “I’ll also be relaying this to my mother so that they can better prepare while we’re still on our journey.”

“Thank you,” Xen gratefully murmured.

Darius had a wide smile on his face at his mate’s warm smile, and his wolf couldn’t help but tease him. [Can you see how much she trusts you now? You’re already in heaven just from seeing it in action.]

[Right, I can’t help but feel elated at seeing our progress,] Darius inwardly replied.

From what he could tell, Nikolai still seemed unaware of the fact that they were chasing down the Ebodian prince. Heh… Coordinating this will be hard though, because once he gives Zandro his orders to protect the dragon, Nikolai will be sure to get suspicious of the matter.

Hmm… He will have to plan things out perfectly. For now though, Nikolai will simply have to investigate on his own, confined to avoid making any drastic moves since the dragon hadn’t attacked any innocents yet.

[Things will get very chaotic soon. Valcrez won’t stay idle on this. You know how much of a grudge those elders have against the dragon, especially the purebloods,] Zeus commented. [Nikolai might look calm right now, but I’m sure he’s just waiting for the right opportunity to do his job. He will most likely slay any dragon he might come in contact with, and you know exactly why he has to do so.]

Darius unknowingly released a long sigh. He hated that his wolf was right in its assumptions.

“What’s wrong?” Xen asked, having noticed his distress. “Is there something wrong?”

“Nikolai… Is your sister aware of how Nikolai’s father died?” Darius asked. “How many of the purebloods had died, leaving Valcrez with only female royals remaining who couldn’t continue their line?”

“I’m not so sure. Mineah has always been better than me when it comes to history. I’m sure she studied enough about Valcrez, unlike me,” Xen casually answered. “Why? Is it important?”

“You see, Nikolai’s father died because of the dragons…” Darius explained. “All of Valcrez’s pureblooded males died because of the dragons’ souls that tried to usurp them, and that includes Nikolai’s father.”

Xenia frowned. That was the first time she had ever heard of such a thing. She couldn’t believe that she missed out on so many different important pieces of information by skipping out on her classes. She really thought that they were boring, only for her to be clueless in the present because of her capriciousness.

“Souls? They’re just souls, right? So how can they…”