After the peaceful afternoon, it was time for Asteria to return to her queenly duties, no matter how tedious they were. No one said being a ruler of the demon realm was easy, and Asteria had found that out with first-hand experience.
It was tiring, boring, and although she was in a room full of demons most days, a little lonely. Even if her brother always accompanied her, it didn’t stop all the negative emotions that threatened to explode almost daily. And on the days she visited Orion she was overcome with happiness, and the same peace as before, but it still didn’t stop the aching feeling.
Something had to be done; whether getting rid of the demons who could turn into traitors at any moment, or spending time away from the council. Plus, the constant nagging in the back of her mind told her that the conjectures about Sada could be true. Day by day, his every move, action, and word now seemed overly suspicious, and the contempt in his eyes was becoming more detectable by the minute.
Soon, the time would come for Asteria to confront him, and straighten out all of this mess. Then her reign as queen would hopefully be much smoother.
Boredom was a constant for the queen, but it was even more so for Orion, who was left alone most of the time. When he wasn’t taking etiquette lessons from Xander, and learning about his duties as the king, he would spend time with the queen - which was a welcome distraction from everything else going on - or not going on - at the moment.
For the rest of the time, he was told to stay in his room and not wander the castle aimlessly. It was hard keeping his curiosity at bay, but it was either staying in the safety of his room or becoming some demon’s late-night snack.
It was just that today, the boredom had gotten the better of him and he waited for it to be the night before he ventured out of the confines of his room.
Although he wasn’t sure if it was actually night, because of the sky always being dark and the moon being up high, he had a pretty good idea when the day had turned to evening; perhaps it was the silence that had fallen over the castle or something else entirely. Either way, he felt it was the best time to sneak into the halls and take a tour of his temporary home.
Making his way down the hallway that was decorated with portraits of past rulers and their descendants, Orion admired each one and paused at the one of the current Queen. It portrayed her in an imposing manner, and although it depicted her beauty pretty well, it was nothing compared to seeing her in person; in fact, she was the most beautiful person Orion had ever come across. Smiling, Orion turned away from the portrait and continued his walk down the halls.
It wasn’t long before he got to the end, and he paused in his steps, not sure what he should do next. Being caught outside of his room was something he didn’t want to happen, but he also didn’t want to go back. Closed doors meant there were rooms beyond them that were waiting to be explored.
Deciding, he went to turn around and walk back the way he had come, but muffled voices coming from one room piqued his interest.
Moving closer, and pasting his ear against the door, Orion recognised one voice belonged to the queen’s personal attendant, Sada, and the others seemed to be some members of the council.
Words were hard to put together because of the door being closed, but one sentence could be pieced together:
“Don’t forget the plan. Prince Keir will be waiting outside, and as soon as everything is over, this world will have the rightful king take the throne.”
Comments (1)
See all