Chapter 92: Chapter 92

As expected, guards were stationed at posts but few in number. They were even only there because they had to protect the prince who is dying or already dead.

Ñiraka sighted Avril by the trees to the right of the magnificent fountain. It wasn't too dark because of fairy lights decor, but the guards couldn't see her from the place they stood. Ñiraka sighed and walked straight to the guards in front of the building. There were four stationed there.

“I come to deliver a message for my father,” she said straight up in that voice she used when she was still glorified. The guards looked her over in faces that showed she might have been trash.

“Why would he send you?” one of them asked.

“Something like ‘because I'm his daughter?’” she asked sarcastically.

“Go away. You are no longer allowed to step foot in the prince's—”

“Why? Because I was replaced by a human? The human you're going to kill tomorrow, but disgraced me because I knew her plans and tried to kill her first?”

The guards didn't say a word.

“I want to deliver a message for my father,” she repeated and crossed her arms. Their gazes met the blood on them.

“The guards outside also wanted to dismiss me, and one mistakenly used his sword.”

They stared at Ñiraka like she had just told them the sky was green. Apparently, these set of guards were not as foolish as the ones she deceived outside.

One of them frowned deeply at her.

“We politely ask you to turn around and out of this palace,” he said curtly. She glared at him.

“Just pray I don't become the Luna someday, or you would regret this night,” she threatened. His primal instincts got him clutching the hilt of his sword as he glared back at her.

“You would need the Prince to become Luna, except you want to marry his father,” he replied calmly.

“Not out of my power.”

“Turn around, Lady Ñiraka,” another guard growled. They were all in their defense stances, but weren't using force because they still had a little respect for her.

She exhaled, and was about to turn around when—

“Let her in,” Camper's voice ordered from behind her.

“There were strict orders not to let anybody apart from noblemen in,” the first guard countered. Camper stood in front of him, tall and gallant.

“And she's here on behalf of her father. I just saw him give her the order to let another nobleman in on something.”

“That a telephone call can't let the nobleman in on?”

Camper's eyes turned lethal as they pierced the guard through.

“How about I telephone Beta Federico that some guard named...” he looked at the guard's name tag, “Jernan didn't let his niece in to deliver a message to him.”

The guard took a step back then glanced at Ñiraka.

He looked at the other guards who nodded.

“Please accept my apologies. I was just following due protocol,” he said and shifted aside. Ñiraka almost huffed at him as she passed him by, wiping her bloodstained hands on her trousers. Camper glared at the guards who lowered their hands before he followed Ñiraka in. Almost instantly, after they closed the oak doors behind them, the dungeon alarms rang. They had finally noticed who had escaped her cell. The officers who fell unconscious would not remember anything that happened though. They would only realize what happened.

Camper gripped Ñiraka's arm.

“Where in the world is she?” he growled with clenched teeth.

“Still don't trust me, do you?” she asked. He exhaled and released her arm gently.

“Where is she?” he repeated.

“Are there guards stationed at the prince's garden?”

“No.”

“She sneaked to the back during our squabble with the guards. She says there's a way up to a balcony there.”

Camper took three seconds to process the information that made little sense. He then gripped her hand again and hurried them towards the kitchen area where there was a staircase Dakar always took to the balcony behind the palace. It had a door that led to the backyard, too.

However, Avril had made it into the quiet palace a few minutes earlier. She had tried to hide in the kitchen as planned, because no one would really come over to search there. But the house was so quiet and empty, she felt tugged to go upstairs—to Dakar. She knew her way around the building, and knew a thousand and one places to hide just in case something came up.

Gently, yet fast paced, she moved up the stairs. Checking the hallways before entering. She got to Dakar's floor, and found the door creaked open. There was a voice coming from inside. A voice pleading...and there was another harsh voice.

“Just tell me...tell me where she is,” the pleading voice said. It was hoarse, and cracky.

“There's nothing to be done. She'll be executed,” the harsh voice replied.

Avril paused as her heartbeat spiked. She swallowed and took more steps to stand by the door.

“No. She never...she never hurt me. Don't touch Avril. Don't you touch her.”

“What does this girl mean to you, Prince Dakar? You just woke up and with no iota of strength, yet you're throwing a fit for a human girl.”

“Please, father. I'm begging you, spare Avril. She's my life. She's always been.”

“I will, if you tell me one heavy reason why I should. And why you chose that human to be your concubine in the first place. You better convince me, because I'm hell-bent on burning her in a few hours for trying to take my son away from me.”

A heavy silence lingered, and Avril's heart thudded loudly. She fearfully moved backwards and would have moved away if not for the next words she heard.

“I chose her that day because I've always known her. She was with me on the island. I didn't know how she ended in Remus, but I couldn't let someone else have her when she was the f*ucking love of my life.”

Avril's eyes widened, her legs wavered like dry sticks in the wind and she fell to the ground—bracing her palms against the floor to stop her fall. The door was yanked open by someone who must have heard the sound, making all eyes turn to her.

“Avril,” Dakar called. But his heart fell when he saw the look on her face. He had just succeeded in breaking the woman he loved.