"Did you just suggest we kill the nobilities during the funeral?" Elys spoke, disbelief painted all over her face. "Have you gone crazy, Prince Aleksander?!"
The princess was beyond shocked to even hear it from the same person that had a total breakdown a week prior to the masquerade ball.
"You can use your powers, can you not?" the prince turned to her expectantly.
The princess backed off a bit, pushing herself as far away from the prince as she stood up from the chair adjacent to him. She accidentally knocked the coffee table in her rush, the clatter of tiny broken figurines crashing to the ground.
She couldn’t believe he’d be this bold to assume she’d use her powers for him.
The audacity to even ask!
"I don’t know if I have mentioned it before, but I am not comfortable using my powers for your own gain," the princess said, putting down her foot to emphasize her point.
Aleksander leaned back to the sofa’s backrest. He swung a leg over the other and then with a contemplative face, looked at Elys as if he had something he wanted to say to her but decided to keep quiet.
The princess felt a bit uneasy with the way Aleksander had turned quiet.
"Princess, if I understood you correctly, you have a burning hatred for the vampire kingdom, right?" the prince asked her.
"I don’t think you’d even have to demand from me for an answer," the princess immediately responded, a bitter taste spreading in her mouth, "I am just cooperating as much as I have been to stay alive, but if I had the chance..."
Aleksander’s eyes slowly turned to dangerous slits. His gaze still locked on the princess; a smile lifting from the corners of his lips. Then, the prince leaned forward and he brought his palms together in front of him.
There was an air of confidence that has started to return to his eyes – a bit too much of confidence in her opinion.
The princess regarded Aleksander with great suspicion. Even as she had told him the truth about her identity and his demeanor had dramatically became nicer, she still knew the prince wasn’t entirely good natured.
Princess Elysianne still couldn’t bring herself to fully trust the bastard prince.
"Sit down, wife," he beckoned Elys back to her seat. "I think what I have in mind will be of great interest to you. Sit, princess, sit."
Elysianne raised a curious brow. The last time the prince had actually piqued her interest was the time he agreed of her bringing a maidservant over. But even after that, she had to fight and bargain herself for Cordelia to stay.
"What is it?" Elys asked as she held his gaze while she sat down. "This better be good or else..."
Her tone wasn’t left unnoticed to Aleksander.
The prince waited for her to settle down and be comfortable in her seat before he began speaking. When he was finally convinced Elys was definitely all ears for him, he straightened his back and then turned serious.
"Princess, what do you say if I offer you a front row ticket to your most coveted dreams?" he asked the princess.
Elys’ face was stoic but deep inside she swore the prince definitely had caught her interest.
"What is in it for me? I assume there is a catch to that," Elys asked, pretending to put her interest elsewhere other than Aleksander’s question.
"You get to see the whole kingdom fall down to your liking," the prince answered her. "A once in a lifetime opportunity to exact revenge for how my half-brother and the other vampires have pillaged your kingdom."
With the mention of the whole vampire kingdom falling down, a smile appeared on Elys’ face for a fraction of a second. How wonderful it would be to dance in the midst of the wrecked kingdom. To see the vampires suffer as much as her people had suffered.
No.
The vampire kingdom will suffer worse than the Northern Kingdom. If Elys had her way, she would make sure that the people who were responsible for the death of her people experience more than hell on earth.
Princess Elys got so lost in her sudden surge of bloodlost that somehow, she suddenly thought of just going berserk with her magic.
After all, the vampires had been the reason she was forced to use such a dangerous spell in desperation.
Wouldn’t it be just fair for the same disaster to happen for them? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, as they say.
’No!’ the princess stopped herself. ’There are many innocent people - slaves and servants who were once free people too. I must not be swayed by emotions.’
The princess tilted her head and watched as how Aleksander tried to convince her. The offer did interest her, she had to admit. Although, there was something she thought didn’t sound right.
He was definitely playing with words, as he hadn’t said anything about what she has to do in exchange. She knew that the offer wasn’t just something he would hand over to her as a gift or purely out of the goodness of his heart. Was the prince even really kind or was everything he said just an act?
Nothing in the world right now came easy.
Princess Elysianne believed that if anyone really wanted to achieve something, one must act on it themselves.
"Then if you say that that is your offer, may I know how you would be able to give that to me?" the princess asked further trying to get the prince to spill his real intentions.
Aleksander leaned back and spread his legs in a cocky manner. His eyes had returned to its cold silvers awhile back, but now it had shone its golden hue once more. Somehow, Elys understood the change in his eye color meant he had a sinister plan brewing.
He raised his hands beside him, as if to announce something grand. "Just one thing," he paused for a grand effect, "I will take my rightful place as the king of this kingdom and then tear it down to pieces until nothing is left of its damned people," Aleksander proclaimed.
The princess was partly amazed, but mostly stupefied at how cocky the prince has become. Wasn’t it just weeks before that he had a complete breakdown on how powerless he felt against everyone?
"Didn’t you say it yourself that you find it difficult to make a move with the other nobilities against you?" Elys pointed out, "how would you even manage to get to the throne without anyone hindering you? You are really going to fight for it? By yourself? Hah!"
"My blood is the only direct descendant from the royal line," Aleksander said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Even as I am a bastard, the vampire canons state that only blood from the father passed to his son will be declared and accepted as the rightful heir to the throne. My father only had Dominick and me."
Elys smirked, "I am impressed by the sheer amount of courage that you have in you, your highness. But blood won’t be enough, would you be able to fight in the case of a coup?"
Even with nobilities dividing to back him up in their hopes of getting leverage if he did become king, Elys knew there would always be a chance of another group that would want to steal the crown. The laws aren’t set in stone, they can be bent to the current ruler’s liking.
And whoever won, will definitely be the one to decide on that.
"You are still beating around the bush, your highness," Elys scoffed. "Just spill what you have in mind so we can get this thing over with."
Aleksander chuckled. The princess was getting impatient - but she was definitely listening. That was what he had aimed from the beginning.
If the bastard prince went directly to the point, he knew Elys would have declined in the blink of an eye. He knew she still had reservations by the way she reacted on the first hint he dropped.
"I believe I have the means to achieve that if I really put my mind into it," he replied with much confidence.
"Then do you mean to say that I just get to watch from behind or do you want me to take action as well? Because I don’t think you yourself would be able to do it alone," she countered.
The prince stared at Elys and then closed his eyes, as if he was truly convinced that he would be able to achieve what he had in mind.
"Nobilities would be clashing for power, knights and other officials separated on who they will support. I know all of this, because I have seen it happen too many times in my own kingdom as well," Elys added. "Who do you have to support you?"
Aleksander opened his eyes and his golden orbs met with Elys’ ruby jewels, "I have you."