-Darius- Pregnant… Did I hear correctly? I knew how long it had taken the other Katherine and me to have their first child… or our first child, and now Katherine was telling me she was pregnant. She was pregnant! I could hardly wrap my head around it, and I kept looking at her, unsure what to say. My thoughts wouldn’t come together. I just kept looking at my beautiful wife, who seemed so confused that I wouldn’t answer her, but I sat there like a mute person. I hadn’t expected that. I thought we would wait years for a new baby, but now Katherine was pregnant again. She was making our family grow, and that happiness completely overwhelmed me. I had not expected how much it would stun me. Not because I was sad. I was just so overjoyed that I didn’t know how to respond. "Darius?" she called again. "Yeah…" "You sound disappointed," she whispered, but I shook my head, finally coming back to myself. I pulled her closer, then kissed her over and over, shocking her as I did. She let out a
-Katherine- I looked around the bedroom that Darius and I had stayed in for a few weeks now. I hadn’t realized just how much I longed to stay before I actually had to leave. I looked around the place, feeling such joy in my heart and thinking about all the good things that had happened here. I knew we could come back and visit, but once we had taken care of Silver and Acan, we could never come here to escape again. We could never spend weeks where it was just Darius and me acting like a lot of responsibilities weren’t waiting for us. I knew I would be a very involved queen in the affairs of Adorna. I would be making huge choices, and therefore, I couldn’t be running around like there weren’t people depending on me every day to listen to their problems and find a solution for them. I had to find a way to make things great again. I had to find a way to make the people happy every day, and I knew what a challenging task it was to make everyone happy. There were always those who just wou
-Darius- Coming back to the castle did not bring us any happiness. As we rode through the big gate, listening to the wheels running over the stones as we neared the big staircase, both Katherine and I grew more and more tense. Outside, there were many people waiting for us, making it seem like we were the king and queen coming back from a long trip. I knew my brother was doing extra to truly make it seem like he wanted peace with me when we both knew he didn’t. He wanted his soldier and smartest advisor back, because I knew none of those older advisors could tell him what to do in this war. If they could, they would have done it, but no, they had not managed to give my brother the advice he wanted and needed. Therefore, me coming home meant he might just win the war after all and become the great king who took care of the Dark Ones even though he never set foot on the battlefield. But that was how stories worked. They were fabricated by those in power and those who survived the war.
-Katherine- Silver didn’t even try to make an effort to make this work. She would rather stay mad and sulk than act as if we could be around each other. I didn’t mind. I didn’t plan to spend that much time with her. It wouldn’t work. She was too on guard with me now. I would rather work on getting people on my side and not be associated with Silver to make sure that they would see that we were different and that I wasn’t friends with a person like her. She was awful! I couldn’t put it into any other words. She made everyone around her feel bad, and she didn’t care. I wondered if there was any real love between Acan and her. Maybe they just found these same qualities in each other that made them think they were in love, but they weren’t really. Acan had admitted after all, when drunk, that he had wondered what it would be like to be married to me since Darius and I made it seem so easy to be together. There was nothing truly easy about it. We worked hard. We loved each other, but we a
-Darius- Going to this dinner, I knew, wasn’t going to be fun. Acan and Silver were already there with their boys. Henry was sleeping with his room guarded. No one would get inside, or we would know, and we would make them pay for even trying to come for our son. The tension was once again very thick and uncomfortable. Acan tried to seem cheerful, but Silver stayed mad. We didn’t care, though. Katherine and I sat down beside each other, and we began eating a little. It was so silent, though. No one said anything. We just kept focusing on our food. I had no idea what to try to come up with. It wasn’t nice being in that room. I didn’t even feel very hungry because the energy was so thick and awful to sit in. I chewed slowly, and every bite seemed to cost me energy. "How about going riding with me tomorrow?" Acan suddenly suggested. I smiled and nodded. "Sure, brother." "Will give the women some time to reconcile as well," he pointed out, but Silver now glared at her husband, and Kat
-Darius- Acan and I continued to talk, and I noticed that the longer we talked and the more he drank, the more his guards were coming down. He was slowly letting me in again, and I tried to hide the wicked smile on my lips. I needed him to be less guarded with me. I needed him to allow me to enter his heart again, if he even had one, and to want me close. Only then could I turn things around and turn people against him. Eventually, though, he grew too tired and told me he was going to rest now but that we would be riding together tomorrow. I told him I couldn’t wait, even though the idea did not thrill me at all. I couldn’t think of anything worse, but there was no way around it. I finished my drink, then walked back to my room, finding my wife sleeping. I left it shortly just to check on my son, who was heavily guarded but also sleeping. I walked back to my own room, undressing and finally joining her in bed. She woke up a little, moving closer to me, and then fell right back to sle
-Katherine- So many of the people were angry at Acan and Silver. I had taken guards with me before I went to the city, but I listened to complaints all day. I made sure they felt like they had someone they could come to to talk about their struggles. I listened to everything they had to say and began feeding them ideas about taking down Acan and Silver. I was never straightforward about it. I just left small breadcrumbs that I hoped would turn into more. I hoped they would follow my little trial and see the benefits of getting rid of Acan and Silver, and I did seem to awaken something in them. A need. A fire that glowed in their eyes and told me they were considering it. It felt so good to see, because it was like watching the dream house that Acan and Silver had built only for them to have to watch it crumble. It gave me a sick, satisfying feeling knowing their lives would be destroyed. It made me feel incredible to know I would be the cause of it as well. I would be the reason why
-Katherine- Darius and I retreated to the room later after spending some time with Acan. I was already in bed when he joined me, pulling me close and kissing me on top of the head. "I was a bit worried about being away from you today. I saw you went to the city. How did it go?" he asked. "Perfect." "Perfect?" he asked. "You have no idea how angry the people are, Darius. They want Acan gone. I can feel it. They just need an opening, an option, and I am trying to find one," I informed him. "Any ideas?" he asked. "No, you?" We both thought about it for a long time. I knew if I could create an opening for the people, a way inside to get to Acan and Silver, then they would do the rest. They would attack, and in the middle of that attack, we could strike. We could do what was necessary. It was all coming together, but we needed that small part, that moment that would be the perfect option to hurt them. When was that? When could we finally be free of Acan and Silver? Darius ran his fi