Chapter 31 - Break Free

"I'm giving you two choices my love," Talia whispered, looking straight in my eyes. "The right for the throne or being happy with me. The same conditions apply. Should you wish for the former, I will kill my mother with my own hands and commit suicide for doing such an abomination. But if you choose me, then I will drop everything right now. Not the guards or the queen will stop me from running away with you."

"Talia I. . ." With a heavy heart, I rolled away from her, sitting on the edge of the bed with my back to the princess. "I don't know what to choose," I murmured. "The throne is my birthright. It was only stolen from me. To give it up would be to shame my lineage and turn my back on my blood. Is there no other choice?"

Talia moved behind me, placing her soft arms around my waist. "Choose one," she murmured, leaning her head on my back. "Cybele I'm tired of this. All this hate. All this talk of death. Every time you vanish or someone takes you away, I become dead inside. If I can only wish for another mother, I would have done so in a heartbeat. But I can't. And this is the life we've been given. So what do you say?"

I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, envisioning the former king and queen dead on the floor of the villa, their lifeless eyes gazing at me. What should I do? They deserve their revenge. But on the other hand, would I be able to live my life without the princess whom I have loved since the moment I saw her? If I were to choose the throne, unhappiness would consume my soul because of the price it took to get it.

"I need you Cybele." Talia tightened her grip around me. "And I'm willing to give you anything to make you happy. Even my life."

Removing her firm hold around me, I got out of the bed and kneeled in front of the princess. "Don't you dare say such things again. If you do, I'm going to get really mad and give you to Van. And you know how crazy that girl is."

Talia smiled at the prospect, though it didn't reach her eyes. "Oh I know alright." She took a deep breath. "Have you made a decision?"

I stood up, watching the princess gaze at my nakedness. It didn't bother me one bit. Instead, it made my blood heat up. "Frankly," I murmured, staring down at her. "I would rather have another round of you know what and eat you up. We can do it all night long," I smirked. "But that won't do because we need to get out of here."

Talia's eyes glimmered with hope. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

I smirked at her. "You owe me another night like this princess."

"Oh please," she said, rolling her eyes in a very un-princess like manner. "We'll do it every second of the day if you wish."

"I'll hold you to that Talia. Now hurry and get dressed so we can go to Van and get out of this place. I'm excited to live my life without all this royalty business." The princess nodded, her honey-colored hair falling like curtains on her face.

Ten minutes later, Talia and I were already in the maid quarters, shaking Van awake. "Whaaaa? Brooke is that you?" the blonde said groggily, squinting to see us in the darkness.

"No, it's Cybele," I whispered. "Get up."

It took a couple more seconds before Vanessa went down the bunk bed stairs. Her short hair was a mess. Like she has been tossing and turning in bed. "I was having a good dream about Brooke you know," she grumbled, facing us. She noticed Talia standing beside me and did a double take. "Your highness, why is the princess with you?"

"We had a good talk," Talia said, smiling widely.

"I smell you guys all over each other. Had a fun night?" Van winked naughtily. "Oh wait, wait don't tell me. I'm just going to get sad because I'm single and maybe cry my eyes out in the corner. Pffft! Couples," she mumbled.

"Enough about that. Get dressed," I commanded.

Van stared me up and down. "Are we going to a sexy party? Because you're both wearing tight jeans and black shirts. Like a sorority. It's that or you've decided to offer me to your cult's deity." She placed her hands on her waist. "Well harhar you two. I'm not a virgin anymore so your deity will probably spit me back."

Talia rolled her eyes, but couldn't hide her smile. Van was hard to hate. "No. We're going to escape from the palace and run away for good. That's why we want you to dress comfortably."

"Well you should have said that sooner. What's wrong with you guys?"

After five minutes, the three of us were huddled in the middle of the room, making a game plan. Or rather, an escape plan. "Listen," I whispered. "I know the layout of this palace like the back of my hand. I also studied the behavior of the guards and the shifting schedule back when I was planning to kidnap the princess."

Talia gave me a strange look. "You did?"

"Yes. There's surveillance camera everywhere so we need to be very careful."

"Hold up," Van piped in. "If there's camera everywhere, then the guards should have seen you come and go inside the princess room right? How come we're still sitting here comfortably?" Talia nodded at Van's question, seemingly pondering the same thing.

"Before I went to Talia's room earlier, I stood in front of one of the cameras and held this up," I said, bringing the thing out of my pocket.

"Wait. It looks awfully like the flowers we used to pick on the bushes when we were little," Talia exclaimed in a hushed tone. "You turned one into a bookmark?"

I gave her a small smile. "It's exactly the flower you gave me before. I couldn't let you go even if I hated your mother, so I preserved it."

Van looked confused. "So what does the bookmark have to do with the cameras? Call me a dodohead guys but I don't really understand what's going on. Am I missing something?"

"Or someone," I said patiently. "You see Vanessa. Someone very close to me knows the significance of this bookmark. And that someone happens to be Brooke. I thought to myself that if she's still alive, she'd be watching from her laptop and understand what I'd do when I showed her the bookmark. She switched the surveillance camera off momentarily so I could sneak inside Talia's room. How else could I do it?"

"But if Brooke's really alive, why hasn't she rescued us yet?" Talia asked, looking as confused as Van.

"Well that's hard to do considering that this is a guarded place. Second, we don't really know what her status is right now. Let's just thank our lucky stars that Brooke is watching over us." I finished, looking from my friend to my princess.

"If I've known that, I should have strip teased in front of the camera for her," Van said happily. "Or at least wiggled my bonbons."

I hid my smile, saying, "I doubt that she'd like that." Van shrugged. "Anyway," I continued. "Now that we know that someone on our side is watching, we can easily escape the palace itself using the hidden tunnels or pathways."

"There's a hidden tunnel?" Talia gushed, suddenly excited. "Like a maze? Why didn't I know of this?"

"Because only the original royalty knows this," I explained. "My ancestors have ruled this country for centuries. It is only natural that we keep secrets of our own and pass it only to royalties. No offense princess, but your family, specifically your mother is the first queen who didn't come directly from my line. She's a noble, not a queen."

"None taken," Talia shrugged.

"Good. So after escaping the palace, we just need to go through the garden and into the tunnels, and that is one of the hardest parts because guards are lurking everywhere. Since there are three of us, it would be very easy to spot our group. That's why we need to thread silently and carefully."

"Sure," said both of them with a nod.

Vanessa stood up. "What are we waiting for? Let's escape this madhouse so I can be reunited with your Victoria Secret model best friend."

The walk from the hallway to one of the hidden pathway was fairly easy. As we almost tiptoed and kept really quiet, no one saw us. There were one or two palace guards along the way, but they were either not paying attention, or were really drowsy to even notice someone slipping in and out of the walls.

"Well that was anti-climatic," Van murmured as soon as we got out of the palace and into the garden. "I was expecting to fight with a couple of bitches here and there. Maybe smack Ronaldo in the face. Heck I would even settle for that lover boy Lance just to get off some steam."

"Shhhh," Talia whispered behind me.

"Sorreeey princess. I forgot that you and your majesty were able to blow off steam earlier, if you know what I mean." Van snickered. "Judging from the blush on your face right now, I can sum up that your highness was good. Wish I was there munching on a popcorn when it happened. Invite me next time eh?"

"Quiet." Van immediately closed her mouth. "The tunnel is about 5 minutes from here. If we quicken our pace, we should be there in 3. Stay close to me, duck your head, and do not make unnecessary noises. If someone sees us, kill them immediately or we're screwed."

"Copy that commander," Van said.

Before we could even walk beyond our hiding place, which is a large bush, a horn sounded from somewhere in the palace. It was a long dragging sound, followed by three succession of quick blowing. Van and Talia stared at me with wide eyes. I was pretty sure I was wearing the same shocked expression.

"What's happening?!" I asked, beginning to hear movement in every direction.

"I think someone took a peek in my room and saw that I was gone," Talia whispered, looking scared for the three of us.

That explanation was all it took for me to grab the princess and Vanessa's hands and run for our lives. The sounds of footsteps were everywhere as we went. Sometimes it would appear like someone was running beside us, though we didn't see anyone. At one point, the yells of the guards seemed like it was coming in front, and if it were true, I knew we were either dead, or had to fight our way out. But nothing of the sort happened.

We continued running with our heads down low and no one chasing us, not even once. It must have been luck. It must have been my dead parents watching over us. But whatever you called it, we ran out of that luck soon enough. Because standing a few meters from the main escape tunnel were Lance and Alessandra.

"What is going on?" Lance said, wearing his usual attire of jeans and dress shirt. It made me wonder if he was out for a stroll in the wee hours of the morning. He looked directly at Talia. "Princess what are you doing up? You should be asleep right now. The guards are also everywhere looking for you."

"Step away Lancelot." Talia had a steely gaze in her eyes. "We need to come through and you're in my way of happiness."

Lance gave her a confused stare, looking from me to the princess. "I'm not sure I understand princess."

Van stepped forward, tapping her left shoulder with her right fist. "No time for explanations lover boy. When the princess says move, you need to move." Vanessa lunged for the kill before anyone could stop her. In a moment, she was on top of Lance, punching him hard in the face.

Lance tried to defend himself with his arms, but Van looked like a wild animal who escaped from the zoo, so he couldn't do anything at all. Plus she was laughing manically, making me think that this girl was once institutionalized, though I knew it was only her outlet because of what we went through the past couple of days.

Amazingly, Alex tried to peel Van from Lance. "Cybele! Please, Lance is innocent. Make your friend stop." Van didn't listen. She started to grab the guy's hair, as if wanting to pull it from his scalp. The entire time, Talia and I were there standing with our mouths wide open, staring in shock.

"Stop it! Lance is my boyfriend!" Alex choked. Van immediately ceased the torture, blinking at Alessandra in wonder. "Please let go of him so we can talk this out," Alex pleaded once again, raising her hands in surrender.

Van waited for my signal. "Do as she said," I commanded. As per my request, Vanessa got off from Lance, dusting herself off like nothing happened. I turned to Alex. "Explain now or I let the animal lose again. We're running out of time."

Alex nodded, kneeling to see if Lance was alright. She stroked his hair endearingly. In turn, he shifted closer to her. "Listen Cybele," she started. "I told you before that we are all the queens' puppet."

"So?"

Alex looked defeated. "Years ago, Lance's family was pressured by the queen so he would marry the princess. They were only children then and he didn't know any better," Alex murmured. "Hell, all of us were children then and we couldn't do a thing, so Lance was forced to be Talia's fiancée."

Alessandra swallowed hard and continued. "When we became teenagers, Lance and I met again at one party hosted by a noble. We got to talk, and after some time, we fell in love with each other." Talia gasped, making Alex look at her. "I know he was engaged to you princess, but he didn't love you at all."

"Don't worry, the feelings mutual," Talia brushed off, appearing glad, like weight has been lifted off her shoulders. "All of you know that I'm crazy for Cybele. But what's the deal with you? If you're in love with Lancelot, then why did you go for Cybele? Don't tell me you have the hots for her because she's mine. And yes we've branded each other."

Alex shook her head. "Unfortunately, your mother found out about me and Lance. The queen felt like she was being fooled, so she decided to make things a bit harder for us."

Lance looked up, his right eye beginning to swell from the earlier attack. It looked like a raccoon or wide animal scratched his face. Van appeared to be pleased with herself beside me.

"I told the queen that I couldn't marry Talia because it was Alex that I love," Lance spoke, sounding like he swallowed sand. "But then, the queen found a way to grab hold of Alessandra and her family's funds. She threatened to freeze everything or bankrupt them if I didn't pursue Talia. The same goes for my family."

Lance looked apologetic. "I know it was wrong of me, but Alessandra's sister is ill, and she needs medical treatment. If the money disappears, her sister will die, and I cannot live with myself if it happens. Alex loves her sister so much."

"And," Alex supplied, her forehead crinkling in dismay. "The queen told me that I should go for Cybele or else. It was a slap in my face and Lance, but we couldn't do a thing. We just went along with it." Her gaze flitted to Talia. "You're not like your mother and I'm very sorry that a person like you got stuck with her."

Talia bowed her head. "No. It is me who should apologize in behalf of my mother."

I leaned closer to the princess, tilting her head up. "Never bow down to anyone Talia," I whispered. "It's not your fault that your mother is. . ."

"A bitch?" she smirked.

"Something like that," I agreed. I turned my attention to our companions. "If anyone should apologize here it should be Vanessa for attacking Lance," I joked.

"I love you your highness, and I'd be willing to die for you, but no way!" the blonde sneered. "Tea this, tea that," she said, making motions with her hands. "I say if you want your tea. Get it you freako. And as I've explained, I'm a rock star. Rock stars don't serve anyone. We're just born cool. Sorry if you can't handle it."

Lance laughed. "I'm not mad at you. But you punch like a maniac."

The conversation was cut short when we heard palace guards getting near our location. Looking at Van and Talia, the three of us understood that it was time to go. I stepped near Alex, who stood up with Lance. "Alessandra," I murmured. "Talia and I are escaping. We're never going back."

"What about the throne your majesty?" Alex asked in surprise.

"I don't care about it anymore. When the queen dies, you will have it because your family is the highest ranking noble. Be a good leader with your king."

"But," Alex said with wide eyes.

"Search in that direction for the princess," a palace guard shouted near our location.

"Let me handle this," Lance said quickly. He turned to me before he went. "I know now why you look so familiar. We've met before when we were children my queen." Lance smiled. "Do you know that if things were a bit different, you and I were supposed to be married?" I shook my head no.

"Well it's true. Farewell your highness." He looked at Talia. "It was nice to be engaged with you even if it was all pretend. You're a better person than your mother." Before the guards could even reach us, Lance ran through the bushes and to the other side, intercepting them.

"Sir Lancelot," I heard a guard say in surprise. "What are you doing out of your room?"

"I was taking a stroll when I heard you guys. What seems to be the problem?"

"The princess is gone. Have you seen her?"

"No I haven't," Lance replied. "If I do, I'd report it to you guys. Oh and maybe she went to the pond. It's her favorite place. I'll accompany you there or you'll get easily lost."

Their voices faded in the distance, but we weren't clear yet. More and more footsteps were coming near us. If we wanted to escape, it was now or never. Without hesitation, I jogged to the bushes in the corner, parting it with my hands. There in the other side was a large stone.

"Come help me with this Van," I called. Together, the two of us moved the heavy stone aside, revealing the entrance to the tunnel leading outside. "Go on Vanessa, Talia and I will follow you." Van did as I commanded, disappearing in the darkness of the tunnel.

Talia walked to Alex and held out her hand. "This is probably the last time I'll see you. Let's part as friends."

Alex shook her hand with a smile on her face. "Take care of our Cybele."

"My Cybele," Talia corrected, smiling to the other girl before letting go of her hand and looking at me. "Be quick or I'll miss you," she whispered, heading to the tunnels without a single glance back.

It was my turn to say goodbye, but before I could open my mouth, Alex walked purposefully in front of me and kissed me on the cheek. "You would have made a very gorgeous bride. Too bad I'm in love already." She winked.

"About the throne," I said hurriedly.

Alex cut me off. "I know you'll be back someday my queen. Until then, Lance and I will take care of it for you. Your parents were kind to everyone. You deserve it. Not me, not Lance, and definitely not Esmeralda." She pushed me to the direction of the tunnel. "Go now. I'll close the opening."

"Okay," I mumbled, ducking my head and entering the dark abyss. Inside, it was cool and comfortable, but it was as if the light was switched off, and I was literally blind. It took a moment before I could get my bearings. "Talia?" I called out.

Something soft and warm held my hand. It was her. "I'm here. Always am," she whispered. "I think Van is just a few meters in front. Let's go to her."

"Sure."

As I walked slowly beside her, I said a quick apology to my parents. Mother, father, I thought. I'm leaving the throne to be happy. If you're there watching me, please guide me and Talia. At the back of my mind, I wondered what would happen next. I guess we all just have to find out in the next chapter.