Chapter 22

Tobias POV

I was watching little Rosie play in the gardens again with more maids when one of my personal guards came to tell me that the maid I sent to my nephews room had been caught and taken to the dungeons. I had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to find what I was looking for. I had to find a way down to get without being seen. No one can know I’m tied to her or that I sent her in there. I left the window to start going to the library with the bird that alerted me. There’s one passage no one knows about still that leads into a maze of tunnels through the palace.

I found the door and made sure no one was looking when I entered it. Lucky for me the library seemed empty today. Personally if I had my inheritance this place would only be open to the royal family. Not anyone who wanted to come in. This knowledge should only be for royal blood. I entered the tunnel and remembered how to get down to the dungeons. When I got down there she hadn’t been put into a cell yet. I waited for them to shackle her and close the door to the cell the prepared for her. Once she was in and the guards left I walked over to the cell and opened it.

“Nala, nala, nala..” I said slowly. “Tsk tsk. I told you, you couldn’t be caught.” She immediately locked eyes with me and started at me in horror. “Please! I did everything you asked! Everything is ready for you! I just couldn’t find what you asked for!” She was practically begging. And I loved it. “But you still got caught. Didn’t you?” I said as I walked over and kneeled in front of her, grabbing her chin to keep her eyes locked on me. “Whatever am I going to do with you? I can’t just let them torture you and let them find out I sent you”. She started crying again and tried to talk so I removed my hand. “Please! I did everything you asked! Don’t harm my child!” She begged almost yelling. I quickly silenced her, “shhh, shh, I will keep my promise. But I can’t let them question you. I’m sure you understand. It would put a kink in my plans.” I said standing back up.

I always carried an extra vial of poison with me for situations like this. Although the one I had right now was a cruel punishment. Did she deserve it? No. But I’m nothing if sadistic with what I like. I turned back to her and she had for the most part stopped crying and stood up watching me. I walked back over and put a hand on her cheek. She had stopped crying then. I sighed and waited a moment. I took her by surprise and hit her stomach as hard as I could. I could feel two of her ribs break and she fell, gasping for air. I grabbed my bottle of poison in one hand and her throat in another, I bent down to reach her face level and kissed her, making sure she couldn’t breathe. Then I propped her mouth open and made her drink the poison. She choked on it for a minute and as I started walking out of the cell back to the hidden door to go back to my room, I took one last look as she started throwing up blood and listened for her last breath then walked back to my room.

One problem taken care of. Now to end the first part of my plan and start the next. This world will be mine soon enough.

Immyria POV

We reached the queens castle and put our things into our respective guest rooms. We met Aster in her office and the three of us sat down in front of her. Before we could speak up Aster started talking, “What I have to tell you is going to be hard to hear. I need you to save all your questions until the end.” We all nodded. She looked absolutely exhausted, like she hadn’t slept in days. She took a deep breath and started, “I have done a rabbit hole of an investigation on your family. From the time the dragons disappeared to now. The dragons disappeared when the bloodlines were changed. We don’t know exactly who or when but a high royal child, a dragon child, was stolen and replaced with another child. Your father’s line is someone else’s family line. Not the dragon line. I spent days searching the time history trying to see what happened or why it stopped. You are not the true high royals.” She stopped for a moment to catch her breath.

While she caught her breath I couldn’t breathe. We weren’t actually royalty. We weren’t who we thought we were. I guess on the other side of that, no one else knows that either. She continued and I was distracted, “I don’t know where the high royals child went or if they still have a bloodline from that time. It’s been shrouded by magic from me. However, this explains why the dragon protectors haven’t been seen in hundreds of years. But it does not explain how no one noticed a babe being replaced in a royal palace where there are hundreds of guards.” She stopped again and I looked at my brother. I could tell we were thinking the same thing. We were both having a hard time accepting this. Our whole lives have been a lie and that of who knows how many people before us. And it was our ancestor that caused the dragons to disappear. The real high royal could’ve been killed for all any of us knew and there was no way to fix it.

Everything felt like a lie. And I couldn’t sort out my emotions. Especially what would happen if this got out to other people. I was brought out of my thoughts by a crashing sound. Celia was already over helping Queen aster. She had fallen and passed out. “GUARDS!!!” I yelled as loudly as I could and they came running in. As soon as they saw their Queen they rushed over to her. “Hurry! Run and grab a healer! We will get her to her bed and meet you there!” He yelled to another guard. Then looked over to us, “my prince, will you help me get her to bed? It’s just in the next room!” He asked with a panicked look. My brother nodded his head and help move Aster to her bed in the next room.

It took almost 10 minutes before the healer arrived and I was pacing from the amount of stress. I felt like my skin was vibrating. He rushed over to Aster who was just lying in bed, unmoving. She was breathing. But she wasn’t moving. The healer looked her over and placed a hand on her head and closed his eyes. We waited with anticipation. After a minute he opened his eyes and started talking, “The Queen will be fine, she just need rest. She hasn’t slept in more than two days and over exerted herself. Let her rest until she wakes and make sure she gets a good meal when she wakes up.” We all nodded and made sure we told the guard. We left her to rest and went to tib’s and Celia’s room to talk. Oh gods there was so much to process…