The Blood King's Bride
Chapter Sixty Six

The men passed wary glances among themselves.

"What do you mean, my lady?"

"I love my fiancé," Firoza said, smiling as she began her little pace around the room. "So obviously, I would do anything to make sure that he doesn't make a mistake. Any mistake he makes would affect me." She paused in front of a small table by the side of the room. A small flower vase was on it.

"And besides, don't forget that I am royalty." She caressed the flower petals between her fingers and then turned to face him. "I am getting married to the blood king; you don't think that

I would possibly be an ordinary woman, do you? I am just as powerful as my husband. Perhaps

even a bit more powerful." She smiled evilly.

"I can prove it to you, and now if you will."

The men turned to face themselves again.

"Just how exactly would you prove it to us?" One of them asked.

"I only need a volunteer," Firoza replied, raising her index finger.

The silence hung heavy in the room till finally, one of them came forward.

"I volunteer myself. Use me." He replied, his face the atom of seriousness. Firoza smiled. She walked over to him, her steps slow yet precise. She stood in front of the man who had volunteered, placing her hands on his cheeks and slowly bringing his face down towards hers. "Open up." She whispered, though her voice was loud enough for everyone to hear. At first, the man was confused, but he slowly opened his mouth, curiosity and suspicions warring behind his eyes.

Firoza bit her finger till it bled, and then she placed a drop of her blood on the tip of the

man's tongue. She moved back from him, her posture rigid as she waited for the effects to kick in. The man remained where he was, though he had closed his mouth as a slight show of

repulsion shone on his face. He was disgusted that he had to drink the blood of a person, even if

it was just a drop, yet he didn't complain and remained quiet.

A minute had barely passed when the change began..

The man began to vibrate, and a pulse of power spread around the room. He kept on

shaking like one who had the case of epilepsy, and just when Firoza was beginning to think that his body might be too weak to accept the gift she had given him, she watched as his muscles bulged and formed, how he seemed to grow a bit taller, broader. His eyes which were droopy sharpened, and the intense power that surrounded him could suddenly be felt by everyone in the room.

"Ha! Ha Ha Ha!" the man laughed maniacally. His colleagues looked at him with awe

and a little bit of fear. Others with greed, as they realized that they would also receive the kind of power he had.

How do you feel?" Firoza asked, smiling gently.

"Powerful," the man replied, his voice deeper than earlier. "I feel extremely powerful."

As he admired his newly acquired strength, their leader turned to face her. She wasn't sure, but she felt the level of suspicion he had for her was heightened.

"What's in it for you?" he asked.

"Me?" Firoza exclaimed, placing her hand on her chest. "Why, nothing of course. I just want your undying support and loyalty. By that, you would not attack the king or his castle, till I give you a reason to. Apart from that, you have your lives to live. You can live it anyhow you want."

The man looked at her one final time, then he went down on her knees.

"You have my undying support, my lady." He said, bowing to her. The rest of the men,

including those who just received new powers, copied his action.

"You have our undying support, our lady."

Firoza smiled.

Elena who stood outside, but didn't go any further close to the door to avoid being

caught, watched as the door finally opened, letting Firoza out of the room. She never looked back as she made her way out from it.

Elena felt like there was more that she hadn't discovered, so she decided to wait there for

a few more minutes. Her instincts were right.

She saw the men coming out of the room, their smiles filled with evil and cunningness.

They were looking at their bodies, studying each other as if something terrific had happened.

The answer reared its ugly head at the back of Elena's mind.

"No," Elena whispered as she watched the men fold their wrists and bulge their biceps. "No," she whispered again, despite the answer flashing before her eyes. She refused to accept what she had seen and what she was sure had happened.

Because that would mean the war she and Calhoun were talking about earlier had begun, sooner than expected.

The Kingdom of Pres.

The King's Palace.

Svetlana had studied the king for weeks, and indeed there were some strange things about him that she hadn't noticed earlier.

The king couldn't seem to do anything without gaining his wife's permission. At first, she had simply thought he was a henpecked husband, but after much intense study, she realized he

did whatever she had commanded him down to the letter. When he was done, he walked back to

his room, almost brainless, and sat, waiting for his wife if she wasn't around.

The queen had been spending considerably more time with her brother since he arrived,

which gave Svetlana the space to study things more clearly.

The king couldn't decide without his wife.

His wife strictly looked after the food he ate.

He couldn't do anything of pleasure without his wife's permission.

It was almost as if he was being controlled by his wife.

Lately, the wife looked at her husband with worry. It was as if she was afraid of

something, afraid of him.

She decided to follow the queen when next she went to have a meeting with her brother. Hopefully, she would be able to get something from there.

She was currently carrying out her usual act of walking around the hallway, pretending that she was a maid. She was free from any of her maidly duties, but she was keeping an eye on the queen, who was monitoring how the king's lunch was made. Svetlana also noticed something different. It was small, but she deemed it necessary too. When she arrived at the castle earlier, all the workers in it looked at the queen with awe and reverence. As they looked at her now, there was fear and detachment in their expressions. She wondered what had been done to them. What had happened that made them change their perception of her suddenly.

She watched as the queen served the food into bowls and placed them on a tray, heading down the hallway.

Svetlana followed her.

The queen bypassed her room, where her husband sat waiting for her, and headed straight to her brother's room. Once she knocked, the door opened, revealing the frowning face of the queen's brother. Svetlana didn't know what expression was on the queen's face, but whatever it was had her brother dragging her inside and looking around the hallway for signs of being followed. Once he closed the door, Svetlana remained poised where she was at. After studying the general for a while, she knew that he would come out again to check if someone was standing in the hallway.

True to her word, he came out again. Once he had made sure that no one followed his sister, he went back to his room, shutting the door tightly.

It was then that Svetlana made her move.

She walked to the general's door and could feel her heart thudding loudly in her chest as she grew closer.

"It's wearing off!" she could hear the queen say, her voice frantic.

"Calm down. Calm down, Navina!" the general commanded, his voice somewhat annoyed to it.

"What are we going to do? The elders were supposed to support me. It was they who had given me this idea. Now there are nowhere to be found."

"The elders have other things to take care of." He said, Frustration clouding his features. "And besides, it's nothing to worry about if he wakes up.

"What do you mean?"

"For someone who had been under your control for long, the only way he would regain

all his memories is true your death, and only if your death is caused by him. He might start to

seem suspicious of you, but he would never hurt you."

"You can't be sure of that." The queen whispered.

"Yes, but that's the only reason I can think up now. He would be having flashes of his

memories, but he wouldn't regain them fully till his death. I am not sure of the properties, but I remember my sister telling me and Daruki at one time."

"I don't want him suspecting me. He is mine, brother! I love him!"

"Trust me, suspecting you is going to be better than when he finds out the whole truth

and hates you for it. That kind of hate would only be eliminated through his death." "No, that can't be. He loves me."

The general looked at his sister, pity and amusement shining through his features. "Navina, you stole his mind and control from him, killed his wife, and forced him to do

your bidding for years. He never loved you sister, no matter what you have come to think. You only convinced yourself of that because you commanded him to tell you so."

Svetlana had heard enough. She quickly turned and ran out of the hallway, straight

towards the castle entrance.

The king of Neba was right.

Something was wrong with the king of Pres.

She ran to her secret hideout and was grateful to find her partner there.

"We have a situation," she said just as she entered the house. The spy looked at her and, noticing how she looked, he dragged her towards a seat, then quickly went to fetch a glass of water for her. She promptly drank it in one gulp, expressing her thanks when she was done. "What happened?" he asked after she had calmed down a while.

"The king of Pres is under mind control. He had been now for a very long time, I'm assuming almost two decades." The spy eyes widened.

"How did you come to this conclusion?"

"I overheard a conversation between the queen and her brother. The queen was worried about her husband regaining his full memory, and her brother had said that he couldn't get all his memory, without causing her death. He might begin to seem suspicious of her, but he wouldn't kill her because he wouldn't have the guts to. The queen wasn't happy about the thought of her husband being suspicious of her, and her brother replied to her, saying it was better than the extreme hate he would have for her if he was to regain his memory."

"Wow." Her partner said, dragging a hand over his face.

"I also noticed something. But I have reported it to the king. It seems like all the people

in the kingdom are waking up from some kind of slumber. They don't know what is happening,

and all of them have gaps in their memories, but they are scared and restless. They do not trust

the king anymore, and they look upon the Allikans with fear and suspicion.

"I also noticed the same thing too among the maids," Svetlana said, thoughtfully.

"The first time I had arrived here to spy for the king was to gain information on his

daughter's death. The maids and other servants spoke of the king and queen with reverence. Now

recently, they look at them with fear and suspicion.

"It's like a veil is being slowly lifted from everyone's eyes." "Yes," Svetlana replied, nodding her head in understanding. "We have to tell the king, and immediately." Her partner said. "Something dangerous is at work here."