Alicia was struck dumb and completely silenced by the pained look in the boy’s eyes. If she had not seen it for herself, she would not have believed a young one such as Kyle would be able to feel and go through such agony related to relationships. Most people tend to look down on relationships between youths as they seem young and do not take things seriously. After some time, she could only reach out and patted his shoulder as her face became tender like a mother who was consoling her child. But before a word could leave her mouth, someone appeared before them. It was the ginger head, Lucas.
“His Highness said, we’re leaving immediately. We’ll wait for you two downstairs.” He said and then disappeared. Kyle also politely bowed to Alicia and hurried to his room to get changed and packed up to leave.
Alicia was already prepared, so she stayed outside Kyle’s room and waited for him. She was still thinking about the boy’s confession and she could not help but think that Ezekiel must have brought Kyle along with him to keep him away from Lilith.
While Alicia’s mind was occupied with thoughts about Kyle and Lilith, the boy emerged from the door and they both headed downstairs where the rest of their company were waiting.
They boarded a car and traveled for a couple of hours before stopping somewhere in the middle of a desert. Upon making sure that there were no other humans around, the group started to move. The moon was full and bright that night and there were no trees in the desert like the places they had visited before, thus making their movements swift and visuals clear. It was in that way that the company moved speedily towards the agreed destination, each hoping that this would be it for various personal reasons only known to each one’s hearts.
The place was a stretch of flat land, barren of any dips and curves but one could only view sand – tonnes of it – as far as the eyes could see. The three vampires continued leaping forwards at high speed while Zeres and Alicia used their teleportation to reach the crystal cave. It was easier for them to go faster than usual because they do not need to be vigilant for any hidden enemies that could pop out of nowhere, unlike in the forests. That was one of the benefits of traveling in terrains such as the desert. Enemies need to come out at you directly instead of being able to ambush from various hidden locations.
However, as the men seemed to be enjoying running freely like bullets in the seemingly endless empty land, Zeres and Ezekiel suddenly halted. Lucas and Kyle also stopped a few steps behind Zeke, and they saw him looking behind them. The witch queen still had yet to catch up.
“You guys can go ahead. We’ll follow you immediately,” Zeres said, glancing at Zeke – a silent conversation seemed to be happening between them – before disappearing.
Lucas and Kyle looked at Zeke and the man just stood there, staring silently behind them. The two thought that they’re going to wait for the witches, but Zeke moved and turned back to face forward. “Let’s go.” He said, causing Kyle to whip his head towards him in utter disapproval.
“B-brother… can’t we at least wait for her? What if something bad happened?” Kyle looked extremely worried, and it seemed like he was already itching to go after Zeres.
“No.” The prince’s response came so quickly as if it was made without thought that Kyle gritted his teeth. “She won’t like it if we wait for her,” Zeke added and Kyle’s jaw loosened. He creased his brow, confused.
“Why would –”
Zeke raised his hand to stop Kyle. “That’s enough, Kyle. Zeres is already there for her. Let’s go.”
Kyle stood there, unable to understand when Lucas patted his back and whispered in his ear. “Don’t worry about the witch queen, that Zeres is an immortal like Alexander so he can protect her better than anyone of us can.”
The young prince’s eyes widened. He was not aware that Zeres was actually the other immortal he had heard about before. He had met Alexander many times and though the man liked to tease him, he was as scary as his brother. And that’s why Kyle would have never thought that the silver-haired man he had been hanging out with for so many days now was actually an immortal with dragon blood!
“Now, let’s go.”
Kyle looked back one more time but eventually followed after his brother.
Meanwhile, Zeres silently gritted his teeth the moment he materialized a few steps away from Alicia and saw her panting. Her hands were on her knees as support, and she looked weak and out of breath. Zeres had been noticing Alicia’s slowing pace for a while now and he also had noticed the weakness she had been trying so hard to hide. She had been acting fine in front of the others during the last few days, even though Zeres could almost not feel any power from her anymore.
He was growing anxious as he watched her weaken day by day and god knows how many times he had stopped himself from reaching out and offering his help. The only thing stopping him from doing that was due to his certainty that his proffered help would be rejected thoroughly and adamantly. For he knew Alicia would not budge as long as she could still manage things on her own.
Slowly, Zeres approached her, and he saw her stiffening up and gritting her teeth, looking down at the sand – either in anger or irritation at her own helplessness. Her hood had been blown off by the wind and Zeres saw that there were more strands of her hair turning ash-grey compared to the previous time before they left the Black Forest.
Finally offering her his hand, Zeres calmly spoke. “Don’t use whatever that’s left in you anymore, Queen. Hold on to me.” There was no sign of worry in his voice.
When she lifted her face to look at him, Zeres was shocked that her eyes had also begun to turn greyish. He could hardly contain his reaction to those silvery grey eyes, but he ruthlessly clamped down on his turbulent emotions and persevered in keeping his face impassive. “Take my hand, Alicia, or else those three vampires will come back to check on us.”
Alicia bit down hard on her dry and slightly cracked lips but it seemed Zeres’ last line had pushed her to accept his offer. She reluctantly put her weak hand in his, and Zeres immediately clasped it as if making sure never to let her hand go even if she decided, later on, to pull away. He could detect almost no trace of the strong power she once had and now she even felt weaker than a normal human. Unable to hide his expression anymore, Zeres used his power to make them both disappear and followed the traces of the vampires that are now ahead of them.
****
A\\N: My new book SPELLBOUND is exclusive only on p.a.tr.e.o.n. If you want to read it and support me at the same time, visit this link w_w_w.p_a_t_r_e_o_n.c_o_m\\kazzenlx (remove the underscores when you type the link)
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