Chapter thirty

Everyone frowned when they heard Irene’s words, what does she mean by it was not really him? He is standing right in front of them isn’t he? However, Edward didn’t care about what she said and just asked, “how could you let yourself be a pawn?”

Irene closed her eyes, even she had been blaming herself. “It was a moment of weakness; she was too strong and her spell took…”

“I don’t care about that,” Edward interrupted, shocking Rasmus and Sean. He always cared about what happened to Irene, so why was he acting indifferent now? “Where is my mate?” he asked.

Irene couldn’t bring herself to speak, she could already sense that the man cared not about her anymore, how could she tell him that they took Aliyah just as she was going into labor? Tears pooled in her eyes as she stared at him but didn’t say anything.

“WHERE IS SHE?” Edward asked word for word that his voice sent shivers down everybody spines.

“She…she was taken,” Irene whispered but she suddenly felt the man’s fingers tightening on her neck, choking the life out of her.

“Tell me one good reason I shouldn’t end your life now,” Edward said, his eyes burning blue like it had done when he was fighting the Nebuzars.

Rasmus immediately rushed to stop the man but with a flick of his hand, Edward sent him flying and he tumbled on the ground, many feet from him. Sean couldn’t believe his eyes, what has gotten over Edward? He would never hurt Irene nor Rasmus before, what changed now. “Prince Edward, you are not handling things the right way,” Malachi said but the man’s icy glare shut him off.

“Don’t think I have forgotten what you did, Malachi and in case you think I am here to save you, think twice. None of you valued my presence so my only intention is to get my mate and leave. So if you think you have the right to tell me what to do, you must be dreaming,” his voice was cold, devoid of any emotion and his very words brought fear upon every onlooker.

“Edward please…we will find her,” Irene squeaked out and the man glared at her.

“You were supposed to protect her!” he said, however, a sharp pain on the mating mark on his neck made him let go of Irene and stumbled two steps back. He shut his eyes tightly as he crouched down, his hand covering the place the mark was on his neck.

“My prince,” Rasmus yelled, rushing to the man and not caring that he had hit him just a while ago. “Are you okay?”

“Edward,” Irene called to make sure he was okay but at that moment, she froze and her eyes turned ashen.

“Irene?” Sean called, rushing to hold the woman, knowing instantly what was wrong with her having been with her for months.

“I know where she is,” Irene said after and then, Edward opened his eyes, his icy glare landed on her, silently telling her to say where Aliyah was. “She is in a room, a dark room and it looks like a palace.”

Edward stood erect and without a second word, sprinted out of there in a flash. Damien stared at the place the man once stood and glanced at Irene. “You are the pure blood witch, the one that the witch Melissa wanted to take her powers?”

Glancing at the man, Irene frowned, “how did you know that?”

“We went to visit the witches of Westwood Mountain and they told us that the only solution to our problem is the child Aliyah is carrying. How is Prince Edward alive now when we all saw him die?”

“I can’t begin to answer that now as I also don’t know, however, it is the last thing on my mind. Aliyah is in danger and if she ends up not being saved, we won’t have only the demon king to fear but the prince as well. You saw him just now, whatever that brought him back to life took something from him and his only priority now is finding his mate,” Irene explained.

“Then can you lead us to the place you saw Aliyah? Could it be that she was taken to the prince’s palace?” Malachi asked.

“No, my guess is that she is in the demon palace and the place is really far from here. I hope that Edward gets there in time before any real harm has befallen her otherwise,” she shuddered in fear and glance at Sean and Rasmus, “let us go, I will try performing the location spell along the way.”

“I will come with you,” Steven stepped in, “I need to make sure Aliyah is okay myself.”

“Who are you?” Irene asked.

“He is Steven, he had been of a great help since you were unconscious,” Sean answered.

Irene nodded and started walking away when Damien and Malachi stepped out, “we are coming with you,” they said and Irene said nothing and turning, Damien commanded Ethan on what to do while Malachi sent the rest of the nightwalkers back to their council to report the new news to those that stayed back before following Irene and the rest.

***

Aliyah’s eyes widened open upon hearing what the man said despite the pains she was going through. All she could think about was Irene’s story, the first prince had asked the palace maid to drug the dark prince and had set him up which Mariah had seen and left the palace that night, killing herself after that. So, he is trying to tell her that he is Edward’s brother, the first prince that started it all? No wonder she thought they shared the same familiarities.

Kaiden smiled seeing the look in her eyes and the emotions that flicker through them. “Tell me princess, have you finally put two and two together to get four?” he laughed. “I heard a human say that in the human realm some months ago and I loved that, it’s so good to finally use it.”

“You are the first prince, Edward’s brother?” Aliyah whispered.

“Aye,” he took a step closer, bringing his face to hers, “I am Prince Kaiden, the rightful heir to the throne but your darling mate bought our father over because he was mighty and feared. Or let me just put it this way, because he was heartless and dangerous. Now, it is my turn to be that, so don’t you give me that look that I am doing something bad, he had started it all and I wish he could be looking down on us now from the underworld and see how you are at my mercy.”

“Dear prince,” a voice called and he turned around to see the hooded woman, “times a wasting, hurry up.”

Kaiden nodded and turned back to Aliyah, “don’t worry, I won’t make it hasty for you, I will give you the joy of seeing your death before it claims you.”

“Oh, your heart is already darker than I imagined,” the woman chuckled, “how I love dark hearts, it is something Selene can never fight for with me,” she cackled.

Kaiden went back to his shelves of potion and picked a vial, the content was bright green and he walked back to Aliyah, “don’t worry, this won’t kill you but it would bring you an unbearable pain,” he said, grabbing her jaw and popping open the vial.

“Why don’t you just kill me?” Aliyah whispered and her jaw hurt from how hard he gripped her.

“I need to kill the bastard in your stomach first so that when you finally die, I just need to cut him out of your stomach.”

“Have you heard about stillbirth dear princess? That is his aim,” the woman said and her pale lips smirked, “I just love everything dark. Imagine the pain of carrying a child in your womb only to give birth to a corpse,” she chuckled, showing pearly white teeth, “oh, I’m evil but I love it.”

Kaiden wasted no time in pouring the liquid into Aliyah’s mouth but this time, she spat the entire content on his face before he could force her to swallow. Angry, Kaiden slapped her so hard that her face was thrown to the side and when he forced her to look at him again, his handprint was bright red on her cheek. He softly caressed it and sighed, “now look what you made me do, don’t do that princess, I am not a patient man.” He sighed and went back to the shelve and got the exact same potion, “this time, you are going to be a darling and swallow every drop.”

“That is going to kill my child,” Aliyah spat out.

“But that is what we want darling,” the woman said, “we want him dead.”

Kaiden grabbed her jaw once more and popping the vial with his thumb he brought the bottle to Aliyah’s lips. “Drink.”

“Never,” she said and without a word, he slapped once more and right before she could recover, he delivered a blow to her stomach and she let out a blood curdling scream.

“There are many ways to kill a child, dear princess, you just have to choose one and be done with it,” he said, grabbing her jaw forcefully again and traced the cut on her lips due to his slaps with his thumb, “drink.”

Aliyah looked at him with blood shot eyes and she sniffled and spat on his face, “over my dead body.”

“Have it your way,” he said and hit her once more on the stomach and with the pain came a sharp contraction that made Aliyah scream on the top of her voice. It felt like from her stomach down to her legs were broken as she was suddenly numb there. “When the mother dies, the child dies as well,” Kaiden commented and raised his hand to hit her once more when a strong wind blew in the room, followed by a looming darkness. He turned to the woman and raised an eyebrow, “what now?”

“It’s not me,” she said and then the voice ranged in their ears and resonated around the room.

“How dare you hurt my mate?”