Chapter 42

Niklaus:

“This King may have a weakness” I snapped at Ian making Kiara jump at my sudden loud tone. I knew that she didn’t like yelling, but this man was getting on my nerves. We have been trying to find something to kill him with, anything to reverse the spell. But nothing was working.

“He is your twin Niklaus” Ian reasoned and I glared at him. Kiara took my hand in hers and intertwined our fingers seeing how tense I was.

“Screw the bloody day that I was born with that thing called a man,” I said angrily.

“Why not try to find the witch who put the spell on him in the first place?” Kiara asked slowly.

“Tried that Queen Kiara, the woman has been killed a long time ago. Verone feared her trying to break the spell. Therefore, he killed her long before she tried anything” Ian said answering Kiara.

“But why would a witch make a spell on a man to protect him and not herself? She wasn’t dumb as not to suspect something like this happening” Kiara asked frowning. There was a moment of silence in the throne room before we all looked at Kiara with wide eyes. The girl was right, the witch wouldn’t have just made the spell on Verone. She was bound to have used it on herself, and if that was a reality. Then we could find someone to destroy Verone.

“You are a genius my queen,” I said looking at my wife. She raised an eyebrow at me and shook her head at me at the fact that I hadn’t thought of this. But it was true, throughout all these years I never really expected Verone to be back, and even when I did kill, well-tried to kill him, I never thought that the woman who made the spell on him could have used it on herself “find the woman, every witch in the land. She would have disguised herself to conceal herself from Verone. She might have a family. She might be a widow. An old woman. Every single which is a suspect. The women were to be invited to the palace and we were going to track her down”

“How are we going to invite them?” Lorenzo asked frowning in confusion.

“I and Princess Grace will hold a women’s gathering. I am sure that the witches have a different scent from vampires, wolves, or shifters. You would be able to track them down if you catch any familiar scent…”

“There are many women who we have dealt with throughout the year's Queen Kiara, you cannot expect the kings, guards, or us to remember and differentiate between them all” Grace said stopping Kiara who nodded at her. The princess made sense, through the years of my ruling, we have met and been around thousands of witches. But there was still one in mind that Verone used to love. The woman was his lover before he killed her. If he killed her in the first place.

“What guarantee do we have that the witch isn’t on Verone’s side?” I asked the question that swarmed my mind. The woman could have pretended to die or be killed by Verone for them to be away from everyone’s attention. She could have been masked or disguised around us, giving him the information he needed, if he did it, and I’m sure she had helped him, I’m sure that any witch in the kingdom can.

“We do not have any guarantees on that. But we cannot wait and risk any of them going to hurt the people. We can hold the girl as a guest in the palace until she’s given us what we want. We would not let her leave” Grace said looking at Kiara who nodded.

“So, we’re holding her prisoner?”

“More like, a luxurious invitation to the palace where is to stay until we get what we want,” Grace said shrugging.

“What a way of putting things,” I said rolling my eyes at my sister.

“Well…”

I shook my head at my little sister who smiled. She was right though. There was no technical way of finding out and her solution was the best out there for now. The women needed to be here and if I caught the woman’s scent then here and I would be talking and she would be staying at the palace “we would need to enchant the palace though”

“For what reason?” Kiara asked frowning in confusion.

“If the woman is in the palace. She could easily escape when no one is watching and come back. She would have given Verone all the information we had and we would be doing all this for nothing technically” I said and Kiara nodded at me.

“And we need to keep the queen safe,” Lorenzo said and I nodded. There was also the fact that the queen was a human, anyone could easily harm her. Despite her being as strong as she was right now, she was an easy target for anyone and everyone. Vampires could easily want to suck her blood. Wolves would want to take her to their packs, to either be their Alpha’s Luna or to be one of the wolf's ladies. Then we had the witches who I knew despite their respect, true respect, they wouldn’t mind overthrowing me, and the only way to do so would be by taking my mate from me. That would set me on edge and off guard to a point that I would not be able to think straight.

“I would not be leaving the castle, Lorenzo why would you need to keep me safe? It is the people who need protection not me” Kiara said frowning in confusion but Lorenzo shook his head at her. The man had been by her side for long enough to know what she was like, what she wanted and what she didn’t. I had assigned him to her years ago to keep her safe, he had done all he could and at times even what he mustn’t do. The man stayed away from his mate for a while to make sure that my beauty was safe. Therefore, I couldn’t tell him anything when he spoke to her as a brother would his sister and not a guard to his queen.

“With a witch in the castle Queen Kiara, you would be in more danger than those out of the castle. The witch could try and take you hostage to get to the king, You would be the king’s weak point, the king’s enemies would know that and might take advantage of that” Lorenzo said looking at Kiara who looked at me before nodding at Lorenzo. I knew that she realized that his words were true, I go mad if she gets ill. The idea of her being hurt or taken away from me would make me go crazy.

“What do you suggest we do?” Kiara asked Lorenzo.

“We have a home. Me and Giovanni, it belongs to our family. Our wives, children, and mother live there if the king would allow it. Then we would take you there” Lorenzo said looking me in the eye waiting for my approval. I knew that his option was the best that we could take, I didn’t know anyone else to trust more than Lorenzo and Giovanni to keep my wife safe. I knew that they would die to keep her safe.

“You can take her. She is to stay at your place after the witches have gathered and I’ve found Rosetta” I said looking at Lorenzo who nodded. Kiara raised an eyebrow at me at hearing the witch's name. I was never one to speak of that woman though I had known her well growing up. She used to go to the same school as me and Verone. We grew up together as friends. She and Verone somehow ended up as lovers. Though he couldn’t find his mate, he didn’t mind being with her. He loved her as much as she loved him. They took one side against everyone, her mother didn’t agree on their relationship claiming that Verone would leave her the second he found his mate. Rosetta made sure that the man never did find the woman that completed him.

It was said that she put a spell that blocked him from seeing her, whether or not that was true. Verone never found his mate, he never looked for her, and never thought of where the woman might have been. I regretted not pushing him to find his beloved. Things would have been a lot more different if he had found her, maybe she would have given him the love that he missed or wanted, the woman would have completed him in ways that no other could. His stone heart would have been enlightened, but seeing as he was happy with Rosetta, or at least, was pretending to be happy. No one could interfere, not even the witch’s mother who was killed by her daughter.

“Then I believe that everything is settled. We would need to start preparing for this gathering as soon as possible to ensure that everything is done and taken care of accordingly” Ian said and both Kiara and I nodded. The faster we got over this the better it would have been for the whole kingdom. I was a king who didn’t want to risk his people’s lives. I didn’t want to think of them being harmed at the hands of a man who we fought for a long time before, I was NOT going to lose the trust I had in the people who gave it to me when I was first crowned king. I had made my mistakes before, yes, I admit. I had hurt the people along with Verone. But the people who were hurt were those who have hurt MY kingdom’s people. Men who took advantage of them for the sake of ‘science’ or ‘experiments’. I never took it as far as Verone did and I never intended to.

Being a king was being a nobleman, it was also earning the trust and faith of your people. I was not a king that believed in frightening his people for power. The people would respect a man who cared for them. Who took care of their needs, made sure that they were safe from all harm. I was to punish them if they made a mistake. Some limits were not to be crossed. But I would never do anything to harm them. I would hurt who dares harm them, and I would not be merciful in doing so.

I squeezed my wife’s hand which was in mine. She could feel and see my worry, I was forced to make a choice that would send her away from her home to be sure that she was safe. Despite not wanting to, I knew that it was the best option to be taken. I could not risk the idea of her being harmed in any way. She knew that hence she didn’t object. Though I could feel it in my bones her not wanting to leave my side, the mating bond, and our recent marriage making our chests ache at the thought of being away from one another.

I brought her hand to my lips and kissed her knuckle. Both our eyes met and I nodded at her, assuring her that it was going to be okay with my eyes. She smiled and nodded trusting me. I knew that we would get past this, this was just one of the challenges that the two of us needed to take in this world.

I looked at my family and guards who were looking at us waiting for my order. Giving them a curt nod, both dismissing and sending them to their duties. They got up from their seats and bowed to both me and Kiara before walking out of the throne room leaving the two of us alone.

“Well, looks like you and I are going to have a little battle to take care of,” I said looking at Kiara who raised an eyebrow but smiled.

“A little battle may or may not be an understatement” Kiara winked and I laughed “but we’ll get through this Niklaus, I know we will”