Chapter 52
Jasmine's POV
The crown had a strange power emitting from it. The kind of power I’ve never felt before and it wanted me to put the crown on my head. I reached for it and held it in my hands. It felt like the crown or its power recognized me. As soon as the crown touched my head Ares dropped to his knees and gasped.
“What’s wrong, what did I do?”
“You didn’t do anything Aryana. The crown recognized its true owner and its power burst out, alerting all the demons that the true Queen, the rightful heir to the throne didn’t die and she’s ready to take back what belongs to her and was brutally taken away from her family hundreds of years ago.”
“You’re telling me that every single demon felt this power including the one whose family was behind all this?”
“Exactly. And there’s no turning back, they’ll do everything to destroy you, but now you have an advantage. They underestimated you, big time and you found the crown and took back the throne. They weren't expecting this and they’ll panic now and make a mistake. All you have to do is discover that mistake and defeat them once and for all.”
“And I’ll do exactly that. They will answer for their actions. I still want to look for clues, do you want to come with me?”
“I won’t this time. I don’t want them to notice my absence in case we’re being followed on Earth too.”
After Ares left I made my way back to the mansion to see if someone returned home. As I came out of the forest a crowd had gathered in front of the mansion. Someone important must live there and I’d wait for hours if needed to discover who that person was exactly. Everybody was talking about the strange power and everybody wanted answers. That made me think. Dimitri was on Earth and in his absence who could be the second most powerful demon among the leaders. And then I realized that person could only be the head of the council, Hector. The mansion belonged to Hector and his family. Could it be that he was behind everything? I needed to gather evidence before accusing him. As time passed, the crowd grew larger and larger. Finally Hector arrived with Ajax.
“Silence! Each of us felt the strange power from earlier and we’ll investigate it further. So far we couldn’t find the source of it, but we have to eliminate it as soon as possible. That power was strong and nobody should be able to possess it. I couldn’t get hold of the King yet, but the council unanimously decided that the person with that power has to be killed immediately. You can return home now and carry on with your chores and duties.”
“What if the stories are true and the rightful heir to the throne didn’t die like we thought? You would kill the heir without an ounce of remorse? I remember that my parents told me the stories that were passed down, but the younger generation decided to forget about them.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. That Royal family died centuries ago and the current bloodline took the throne.”
“I’m not talking about that family, but the other one. Everyone seems to forget that there were two Royal families. If you’re so sure that all of them are dead, why are you so nervous?” - the old man was right. Hector was hiding something.
“I-I’m not nervous. Just surprised. Why would you bring up those ancient times? It’s impossible that the bloodline had survivors. We all know that Nicholas disappeared when he was a baby and never returned.”
“You’re right Hector, he disappeared, but nobody found his body. What if he didn’t die and the bloodline continued?”
“Listen here, old man! I know that your family supported the Vasileiou family, but they’re long gone. You can tell everyone who still couldn’t let go of the past to stop with the conspiracy theories.”
“These are not conspiracy theories, but facts. Let me tell you Hector, if the Vasileiou family is still alive all of the families you mentioned will support the true heir. It might seem like we settled down, but in reality we were waiting. Waiting and hoping that the Vasileiou family is still out there somewhere waiting for the perfect moment to take back all that belongs to them. You still didn’t answer my question. You would kill the heir without an ounce of remorse? Hades, the God we worship, chose that family to rule. Would you go against him?”
“Do you realize what you just said? This can be considered an act of a traitor and the punishment is death. And answering your question, if the Vasileiou family is back, I’ll do my best to guide the heir, but that is simply impossible.”
I was listening to every word while analyzing Hector. He was afraid of something the man said and repeated the same thing all over again. Hector was sweating. If a person has nothing to hide he wouldn’t be a nervous wreck. I needed to know the number of demons who stood up for my family. I was standing beside Hector, but I couldn’t reveal myself there. I carefully walked to the back and became visible so I could ask the question.
“How many demons are still supporting the Vasileiou family?” - but nobody could see me, because I was invisible again.
“Who was that? Who asked the question? Come here!” - Hector shouted frantically.
“There are at least a thousand demons in the whole realm who still support that Royal family and I’m sure others will join too when the true heir comes back.”
“Stop it! Guards, take the man to the prison and lock him up! He’ll be executed tomorrow morning, before sunrise.”
“I don’t think that the King would be happy that a nobody like you is making this decision.!” - I said.
“Who are you? Came out from your hiding? Do you know who I am? The head of the council. You can’t talk to me like that. It seems like you want to join the old man tomorrow morning too.”
I carefully took the crown from my head and exchanged it with the one that Dimitri gave me. All I wanted to do was show them who I really was, but I needed to turn all these people against Hector first.
“I’m not sure that you should talk to your Queen like that Hector or you’ll be the one in a prison cell.”
“My Queen! I didn’t see you, I thought it was another person who still believes that the Vasileiou family is still alive.”
“Guards, release that man this instant! He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“My Queen! You can’t release him, he’s supporting the Vasileiou family.”
“Hector, I advise you to stand down, before I do something I’ll regret. I heard the conversation, every single word. You can’t force anyone to change their opinion about certain things. It seemed to me that you’re nervous for some reason. What are you hiding Hector?”
“I-I-I’m not hi-hiding anything. I’m just nervous that a rebellion might break out.”
“Then why are you stuttering like an idiot? For God’s sake! You’re the head of the council, a pathetic one I might add. You don’t even know what’s going on in the realm. On top of that you held a meeting without the King? It seems to me that you’re a bigger threat than the man you claimed to be a traitor.”
“The Queen is right.” - could be heard from the crowd. I reached my goal.
“That's not true! I’d never betray the demons!”
“You say the demons. So you’d betray the King without a blink of an eye?” - he didn’t have the time to answer, because Cecily stepped beside him. I sharpened my senses with Daphne’s help and eavesdropped on their conversion.
“Father, I checked out the place. It’s missing.”
“Damn it! We underestimated this little bitch, but how could she go inside? There’s a barrier.”
“It wasn’t there anymore.”
“It’s bad. She got the crown, she can claim the throne now. She’s here now, but she didn’t say anything about that. You have to help and steal it back from her. As far as I know she doesn’t know that we’re the ones behind everything and we have to keep it that way. Now go and get back the crown from her. We were so close to claiming the throne for ourselves, but Dimitri had to change everything. And now she can take it from him without difficulties. She has everything. Dimitri as an adelfí and the crown Hades gave to the first Queen.”