Chapter 197 - 196

"What do you want to talk to me about?" Kai asked. 

He hadn't seen his father in years and the first moment Aleron saw him he grabbed him by the arm, hiding him behind the huge back of the golden throne. He was curious, very curious. 

"I want to talk to you about the bloody people and why I have been gone for so long." 

"What do you mean? Weren't you on a mission on the border?"  The prince asked his father, a deep frown growing on his confused face and Aleron sighed, shaking his head in a negative motion.

"My son is running around the human world cursed and I would just run around as if nothing happened?" 

"Mother certainly did." 

"I love your mother but I am not her Kai. Your mother has too much on her shoulders and it is partially my fault. I am not trying to excuse her, I just want to be honest but the topic here is not your mother, it is you." 

"You're making me worry." Kai said, feeling his heart race slightly. His father's expression was stern, looking at him right in the eyes but as he sensed his son's worry he smiled, meaning to calm him down. 

"When you left Kai…a few days later I returned…" 

Flashback

"Where is Kai? He wasn't at dinner tonight, his father came back and he didn't even want to greet me?" Aleran had asked Cecilia. He was laid on his bed, watching his beautiful wife brush her long white hair as she sat in front of the mirror of her nightstand. Her pale long fingers grasped the golden brush and traveled in her silk like hair until Aleron spoke. She stopped, turning her head and facing him. 

Cecilia actually loved her husband, it was a bond that had been formed through years and years of hardship, they were what someone would call a power couple, even if they didn't like each other at first they fought and fought to reach where they were, their story, a mystery to most. Because they had that specific bond Cecilia could never lie to him, the only person that had seen her vulnerable, begging in the mud, only Aleron knew. 

"About Kai, something happened." she said, a sigh escaping her lips. "I did not mean for things to get that way but with this child everything is difficult. He is too much like you when you were young and there are things at stake now, the crown, his siblings, he doesn't understand how fickle everything is. One mistake and we will all end up again…" 

"Cecilia…" Aleron said as he stood up, calling her name with a gentle tone. He approached her, his big palms resting on her cold shoulders and he kissed the top of her head, caressing her skin. 

"I…I didn't want to do this to my child." she stuttered, looking at her reflection in the mirror. She wrinkled her nose, disgusted with her own beautiful reflection, it was the first time her plans had gone so  wrong, it was the first time he didn't have the time to think or fix things. 

"What happened Cecilia?" Aleron asked her again. "Where is Kai?" 

The queen told him everything, about the werewolf, about the Bloody People and the Blood oath. Aleron was shaking, he was angry at her, his lips a thin line and she couldn't dare to look him in the eyes, she couldn't stand the judgemental expression or the fists forming on his sides. The king turned his back on her, breathing heavily.

"This time, you went too far. Kai is not the crown prince, he could be with that werewolf if he wanted to. He doesn't need to produce an heir. But even if he was…how could you torture him? Make a deal with these criminals? Now they are after him, Cecilia!"

"I was desperate!" Cecilia exclaimed. "You really think he could be with a werewolf? He is still a prince. The palace is shaking, everything is bound to change and we are on countdown. I have fought all these years to keep our family alive, to keep us at the throne because if there is no throne there will be no Avgers. You know that very well don't you?" he asked him, her eyes cold. "No mistakes are allowed."

"Even at the expense of our children?" Aleron asked her, her eyes widening as she gasped.

"Kai will come back soon, he will be safe in the palace and with that werewolf out of the way he will be able to finally be the prince he is supposed to be."

"What prince? Our child will not come back! You know him, he is not like his siblings." The king said, rubbing his forehead. "Shit!" he cursed, kicking the bed. "We fought so hard to be where we are, we killed so many to take these crowns and we have kept secrets to stay here. But that does not mean you will put our family in danger! This throne, we took it to keep the family we wanted to make alive, we took it from my brother to stop the tyranny and you dare to look me in the eyes and tell me that you used the same means as he would?" 

"How could you say that to me!" Cecilia shouted, standing up and rushing towards him. She hit him on his bare chest. "After everything that your brother did…how could you…"

"That's what you've been doing my love. You're losing yourself trying to keep that crown. But I will not join you in this madness. I will leave tomorrow." Aleron announced.

"What, you just came back where…"

"I will find a way to break our son's blood oath." the king announced. "He needs at least to free himself from that which his mother cursed him with." 

"Aleron…"

"I don't want to hear anything else."

Aleron had been gone for years, returning only now when he heard that his youngest son had returned. All these years he had been searching for a way to free Kai, taking his silence away. 

"Father…you and mother….your brother….what had happened?" Kai asked once his father finished his story. 

"You have a tendency to focus on the wrong things don't you?" Aleron asked with a faint smile as he patted his golden head. "That should not be one of your worries now, maybe one day you will find out about it. Your mother and I haven't spoken in two centuries but I did get to find a way to stop your curse." 

"You did? Then what is it?" he asked, a small hope igniting in his blue eyes. He could talk to Philip, he could tell him everything. 

"The caster must willingly cut off their hand. The one they used to seal the oath." Aleron announced, troubled.

"You mean mother, she will have to cut off her own hand?"

"Yes." 

...

The Avger family has a secret...any ideas what it could be?

Thank you for reading!