Chapter 15: +Chapter 15+

*…a few moments earlier…*

Kade opted out of dinner as well when he heard that the witch refused Lucien’s offer, he had no interest in eating a meal alone with the other King. As a matter of fact, he had no interest in dinner at all.

He lit up a cigarette and walked to a window to let the smoke out, an ashtray balanced on the window panel. He was thinking of returning to Wolfden; although his second-in-command could handle things quite well, this wasn’t the time for him to be taking a vacation.

Marion was also not the last witch alive, it would be difficult to access witches living outside the West Continent but it wasn’t impossible. Maybe he should be the bigger person this time and leave the troublesome witch to King Lucien.

A soft thud brought him out of his reverie, making him look out the window in time to catch a maid walking off. He frowned as he watched her walk away from him, it was a little odd for a maid to be behind the palace but it wasn’t like he knew how the place was run.

Kade went back to staring at the dark sky and contemplating his choices when his thoughts strayed back to the maid. He tried to lean out further out of the window to catch her retreating figure before she completely went out of view when something caught his eye.

He stared at the strange object for several long minutes without being able to make sense of it. It was a little odd for the servants to air out the sheets by throwing them out the window - whose room was that anyway?

The answers to all of his unasked questions slowly clicked, the lit cigarette falling out of Kade’s fingers to the dirt below where it was instantly extinguished. It was the bloody witch!

He straightened up and nearly knocked his ashtray out the window in his haste. He had taken off all of his clothes in preparation for an early night because he had plans to leave for his Kingdom early the next day.

Kade dressed up in a flurry, pulling on cargo pants and getting his arm stuck in the wrong hole while trying to put on a muscle shirt. He cursed as he bumped his shin into a side table, forcing himself to calm down. He didn’t like how much the thought of her escaping unsettled him.

Unless the witch could teleport, she wasn’t getting away so fast. So he sucked in a deep breath and properly wore his shirt before opening his door and striding out. He didn’t even bother to check the witch’s room because he knew she wasn’t in there and his calmness only lasted for a short while before he broke out into a dead run.

Lucien stepped out of his room in time to catch King Kade disappearing around the hallway and that was enough proof he needed to immediately go check up on the witch. He was already dressed in his night robe, the deep blue velvet catching the light and holding it in.

He knocked on the door a tad impatiently, white-blond hair in a top knot as he waited for a response. A couple more tries without a response was enough for him to kick the door down.

Lucien fully expected the witch to be gone but he wasn’t prepared for the view behind the door. He would have guessed that Kade had decided to steal the witch under his nose and make a run for it but it looked like the brash North King didn’t have to do anything because the witch had run off all by herself.

A grin stretched on Lucien’s face as he stared out the open window with the tied-up bed sheets going over it, this was incredibly entertaining for him. Without bothering to change into something more appropriate, he swept down the hallway after Kade.

The servants spending the night in the palace knew better than to intervene when they saw their King striding powerfully down the hallway, wearing his night robes which somehow transformed into a product of high fashion when he wore it.

Kade swept across the foyer, immediately throwing orders around to get a car ready for him which he hopped into, tearing out of the gates.

In the dense silence that ensued after King Lucien also left, the guards simply watching his car peel off through the open gates, a cell phone rang, startling them.

A guard picked it up, it was one of the higher-ranked guards so it was easy to guess who was calling - King Lucien’s second-in-command Bryce. No one really knew what the werewolf looked like as he never left his joined rooms and office, that didn’t hinder his capabilities though.

“Close the gates, you’re going to let a draft in.” He scolded with dry humor in his voice, unfazed at the fact that his King had just dashed out of his palace after another King without a single explanation.

Bryce had already found out the reason for their strange behaviors and was quick to send maids to take care of the now ruined sheets and clean the bedroom in time for the witch’s return. He would have known right away when the witch escaped due to the impressive surveillance setup in his office but he didn’t make a habit of spying on guests or anyone at all.

Surveillance mostly covered the exterior of the walls and occasionally the hallways of the servant quarters to keep an eye on them. He switched off the cameras connected to the witch’s bedroom and returned to his work desk to continue working.

-+-

Mari coyly tucked her hair behind an ear and leaned over the window only to come face to face with the very last person she wanted to see, her blood running cold.

“Where are you heading, ma’am?” Kade asked humorously.

Mari clenched her jaw and jumped backward, taking off down the street. She knew that running was pointless considering that King Kade was literally chasing her down with a car.