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Celeste sauntered the halls, but then she came to a sudden halt and her sharp vampire eyes fell on the ceiling, watching as the icing spread at the top making a loud noise.
"Bloody hell Nicklaus" she murmured, at this point, they would all freeze to death, this was becoming more unsettling. The storm wasn’t enough outside but now she wasn’t so sure they were safe on the inside, how alarming can this get?
"Your highness", she turned at the voice, she saw Bartholomew swiftly approaching her, she folded her arms, sighing. And here comes this one...
"What?" she asked, slightly irritated by his mere presence.
"This Palace is getting colder by the days, I tried to reach the Emperor but-"
"His chambers are covered in ice, practically the coldest, I can’t even get to him too" she shrugged.
He raised an eyebrow at her words. "You seem calm about this... you should know we’re in the direst situation we have ever been... the Emperor is unstable... that could threaten every Vampires life in the Realm"
"And you think I do not know that?" She took a step closer to him, looking right at his eyes like flames, they were orange but seemed like the flames themselves and she wasn’t intimidated by his godly height either.
"My brother is suffering all alone in there and there’s nothing I can do, watch your tongue!" she said through clenched poking his chest with a finger.
"My tongue is right where I want it to be"
She huffed at his words. "I see your words are still as foul as ever Barry," she said smirking, knowing he hated that name.
A growl rumbled within his chest. "Don’t call me that!" he said through clenched teeth and his fangs were already bare. That name made his skin crawl.
Their eyes lingered on each other for what seemed like seconds as if speaking with their eyes and as if the storm was about to blow any second.
"I wondered how you made it to be my Brother’s royal adviser"
And then he snarled, and her smirk only broadened, how she loved tempting his patience.
"Oh don’t tell me you two are about to kiss," Alaric said rubbing his temples, he was suddenly beside them watching both of them like they were two kids having a serious fit, they seemed just like that to me.
"Kiss? Not this foul beast!" Celeste snapped at him.
"Foul beast, your highness?!" Bartholomew said with clenched teeth his patience slipping. gods he has always been patient with her, she was fiery.
"Yeah right... whenever you two cross paths it’s always like the volcano is about to erupt, well hate to quench it off so soon" he points to the freezing walls. "We need to do something before we all become vampire popsicles"
"I have tried to reach the Emperor," Bartholomew intoned.
"Yeah but that will not help us... we need a warmth spell or we will all be dead by morning"
"Other than that dearest brother... we have to find that hidden enemy of ours" Celeste spoke up.
"Hidden enemy?" Bartholomew asked, puzzled.
Celeste faces him. "Right we haven’t filled you in have we?" she said with a smug look and he couldn’t resist an eye roll.
But right now he was very curious. "Filled me in, in what?" he demands from the two royals.
"That someone has bloody altered our memories since 2 thousand years ago" Alaric intoned with a smile but it didn’t reach his heart. It was more like dead broken humor.
Bartholomew’s heart slammed a loud heart beat. "What?!" he was completely stunned, did he hear right?
"Of course, we should fill him in... we need every help we can get our hands on," Celeste said with a nod, although she gambled that Barry here won’t be of much help.
"Wait what do you mean altered? Our memories?", he was still trying to wrap his head around this discovery.
"Means our memories were tampered with, don’t you know English or have vampire language got your tongue again"
"I very well studied my English perfectly as you can see" he snarled.
"gods you two not now!" Alaric yelled, but his words didn’t matter right now, the volcano has once again risen from its temp.
"Ets jes fres tuo fres tues" Celeste snapped in vampire language.
"Hes turs hirr ries kies!" he rants back.
"Come on! The situation we have at hand is more alarming, shove it off you two!"
"Right brother," Celeste said not taking her eyes off Bartholomew’s and he did just the same. "Let’s get down to it... we need a warmth spell", she adds before storming off. "You two should keep up too, there’s much to do"
"Her temper is something else" Bartholomew pointed out.
"Yes I can see that and you have always been a gentleman to tolerate it," Alaric said tapping his shoulder.
Bartholomew eyed the path she took, before huffing and looking away.
"Have you heard anything about the Empress yet?"
"Our searches have been futile... she doesn’t want to be found," Alaric said in a serious tone. "We have to find a way to solve what we’re currently facing here"
"This enemy you speak of... the one responsible for altering our memories, who could it be and why?", he knew whoever it was must be someone powerful.
"We are yet to find out but the alteration is centered on Lena’s death"
"The Empress’ death?"
"Yes a certain mystery lies there and whoever it is... do not want us to remember"
"A secret in her death" Bartholomew said with trembling eyes, he couldn’t make sense of it himself. "That holds answers"
"This may be out of place but I think the Empress is safe wherever she is..."
Bartholomew’s eyes narrowed at his words. "You think..."
"Yes Bartholomew" Alaric said with certainty in his eyes for he had deduced the possibility, the timing of everything was awfully convenient.
"I think the enemy may be amongst us"