William

William wasn’t sure why the yacht was still in the marina, their journey should have started already. He was tempted to leave and return to his mother, even if she insisted he should be there, but he wasn’t sure why, the problem was between his siblings, he wasn’t the one fighting for the crown.

He looked at his brother Charles, King Charles, and his wife Leticia. They looked at ease, but William knew it was just a charade, he didn’t believe that they have forgotten or forgiven all the things his sister Emily had accused them of when their mother had chosen Charles as her successor and not Emily who was the oldest of the three. But now Emily was acting as if there was no problem between them, and chatted with them as if they were all good friends. William saw Faakhir, Emily’s husband, enter the room, but he wasn’t alone, his sister Nysa was with him. He knew that as Emily’s husband Faakhir had every right to be there, but why the hell was Nysa with him? She was not family, and William couldn’t think of anything worse that having to be with both of them. Before his brother could call him closer to greet them he decided to go somewhere else.

William couldn’t stop thinking about his mother, especially her last words to him: “It’s better if I stay here, it would be safer for the both of us this way.”

He hated the way his mother refused to talk clear to him. He knew it was something all seers did, but he hated it all the same.

William spent the first week hiding from his siblings, he didn’t want to be part of the charade. At least he knew that Emily was happy because of it, he could force her to tell the truth with his power and then it would be impossible to continue the charade that they were trying so hard to maintain: the happy family charade. It was in the night of the seventh day that William noticed something wrong, the sky looked wrong. As he went looking for the captain he noticed some black shapes moving on the deck. He was going to investigate when someone grabbed him and put a hand over his mouth to stop him from screaming.

“Calm down, Your Highness,” said the person that was holding him, “I’m here to help you, we need to get out of here.” William nodded his understanding and he was released.

“Can I trust you?” William asked, using the tone of voice that was his power, the one that could guaranty that he would be answered with the truth.

“Of course my Prince.” The guard smiled, glad that the young prince was taking the precaution to check he was trustworthy.

“What’s going on?” William asked as they walked through the yacht.

“We’re not sure, but there’s enemies on board. Your brother is safe, some of the guards are taking him and his wife to the yacht tenders, I was sent to look for you.”

“What about Emily?” William had a bad feeling.

“We think she is with them.”

The guard took him to where the speed boat was being prepared to take them out of there. Just as they reached the others they heard a shooting.

“We have to move faster,” the guard warned. He grabbed William and pulled him closer to the boat where Leticia was already boarding.

“Brother!” William called Charles. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure, but we have been invaded, we’re being moved to safety while the guards deal with this.”

Just then the enemy arrived. It was chaos, they started shooting the guards. William’s guard pushed him to the boat, but then the arm pushing him disappeared, William looked back in time to see the guard falling and blood exploding out of his head. He was frozen, he heard the screams, but couldn’t understand what they were yelling. He saw Charles surrounded by guards, they were moving closer to him.

“Move!” Charles told his brother. Leticia, already in the boat, was yelling.

When William started to board he was grabbed by invisible hands and pulled back. He saw people fighting and then heard a gun and then Charles was falling. He didn’t heard anything else, he saw Charles yell and Leticia fighting a guard, trying to get out of the boat and back with her husband. But the guards took the boat away, taking Leticia and her unborn child to safety, leaving William and Charles behind. Not that William blamed them, he wanted them to be safe, and he was sure they would be dead if they stayed. He moved closer to Charles, but he could see it was too late, his brother was dying. William saw from the corner of his eye a gun being pointed at him.

“Enough,” called a voice that William couldn’t help but recognize.

“We have to get rid of both of them, either could be a problem in the future.” Another familiar voice.

“I don’t think my mother will make the same mistake twice, she has no choice but to name me queen.”

William felt Charles fading, he actually saw his last breath. “Why?” William asked in a whisper. “Why did you kill him?”

“I think that’s kind of obvious,” Faakhir said, “he was on our way.”

“He was your brother!” William told Emily, ignoring Faakhir.

“But he took my birth right.”

“You would make a horrible queen, you are too busy taking care of yourself to take care of your people.”

“I won’t make the same mistakes our parents made, the people is here to serve royalty, not the other way around.” Emily was showing no remorse, and William felt like the Emily in front of him was another person, she had never been a warm person, but neither the cold one in front of him.

“How are you going to do this?” William infused his voice with his power, he needed to know. “How are you going to justify our deaths?”

“That’s easy. A malfunction in our ship took us out of route and we ended up in the Dark Kingdom’s territory, we were attacked by one of those dark clans and we barely escaped, unfortunately my dear brothers weren’t so lucky.” William remembered the sky and understood why it looked wrong, they were in forbidden territory, too close to the Dark Empire.

“Even if you can fool the people, mother will know what you did. Are you planning to kill her too?”

“No, she is going to help me. And you are going to make sure that she does. She already lost one son, she will do whatever we tell her to do to keep you alive.”

And then Emily smiled, a smile that made William cold. And he remembered his mother’s words: “It’s better if I stay here, it would be safer for the both of us this way.”

“What would you have done if my mother had accepted to be on this trip?” William used his power again, he needed to know.

“If mother was here, both of you would already be death. But this is better, this way I will have mother’s support and people will do whatever I told them to do. Take him to his room, tomorrow we will transfer him to another vessel that will take him to his new home.”