Chapter 38: Chapter 38
Vida
Vida’s Apartment, New York City
She had flung a pillow at Tessa’s words; the word love had triggered her to a breaking point. Tessa managed to dodge it while looking smugly at her.
“Yes, Vida Vance and Colter the Hobo, kissing in a tree! F-U-C-K-I-N…” Tessa began singing with a grin while Vida just growled in annoyance and tried to stop her from completing the song.
“Come on, Sads!” Tessa teased her this time, “You surely couldn’t deny it!”
Vida rolled her eyes and tried to shift the topic to Harry Fletcher, while Tessa laughed uproariously.
“Oh don’t you dare start on that, bitch!” Tessa said half annoyed and half amused, “NOW YOU TALK ABOUT HARRY FLETCHER!”
Vida blushed as her plans failed while Tessa shook her head, this time being serious:
“Look hon, Colter might be some kind of a beautiful hobo, but I can sense from his intentions that he only wants to do good for you. Do right by you and treat you well. If you have fallen in love with him, I cannot blame you.” She winked at Vida and then added, “Hell, I’d spread my legs and roll my eyes as he ploughed into me if he wanted to!”
Vida flushed red and pummeled her best friend with another pillow, who was laughing uncontrollably at the situation.
“You guys are obviously going through something, trying to evade each other. Whatever happened in the park, let it stay there” Tessa told her, seriously this time, “Talk things out, that’s how relationships work. Surely you would not have wasted a life with Harry fucking Fletcher just to be awkward with some homeless man now?!”
Those words that her friend said lingered in her head as Vida stared at the ceiling in the dark, Tessa’s soft snores filled the apartment as they had a slumber party of sorts.
Her feelings for Colter, it was confusing. It was a mess. It was distorted. She had fallen badly for a man who first showed up in her dreams of all things.
“I even had sex with him in my dreams!” Vida thought, embarrassed while thinking of the vivid details of the said wet dream.
“Am I in love?” she told herself this time, Tessa simply adjusted in her sleep, “NAH!” she said confidently, “I’ll talk to him, clear the air out with him and save our beautiful friendship!” Vida told herself clearly in denial of what was happening at the moment.
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Gian
Vikalyn, Kingdom of Howard
“I said yield!” Gian roared at the faux Ecanus, smacking one of them with the hilt of his sword, the blood sprayed into the forest’s ground, “I am giving you this chance to tell me what you dumb fucks are up to!”
Yet these pretentious maggots would not budge to the future king’s ultimatum, he had just eviscerated one of them without a second thought and he was willing to do it again.
“Do not force my hand” he said testily, staring intently into their eyes, then collecting himself, “You know what, yes. Force my hand. I have a lot of issues to work on right now, and you idiots would be more than a welcome distraction.”
Aquila, the leader shook his head stubbornly and Gian pointed the edge of his sword at his throat, “Your blood will be great fertilizer for the forest.”
“WE ARE LOOKING FOR THE MISSING PRINCE!” one of the fake Ecanus announced suddenly, Gian turned to him with burning eyes.
“Missing...? Colter?!” he asked; this time the sword was pointed at the speaker.
The Ecanus swallowed nervously as the point of the sword buried itself slightly into his throat, blood started to form at the end.
“Yes, Prince Gian. We are looking for the missing prince”
“Do not go in fucking circles!” Gian roared, smashing the blunt side of the blade against the fake Ecanus’ face, “Why are you looking for him?!” In his mind, he thought they were the part of the group that King Malik had sent.
“We heard he crossed a forbidden portal and we were instructed to find him” the nervous vulture muttered, simply confessing what King Dyron had asked them to do.
“Find him?!” Gian said exasperatedly, he clenched his fists and tendrils of vines wrapped themselves around the vulture’s neck.
“Whatever would you do with Colter?!”
Aquila answered this time, finally getting a sense of what Gian wanted to hear, “We are to find him and murder him.”
It was a bald faced lie, but he had realized that this were the exact words the crazed prince wanted to hear.
Gian glared at Aquila with burning eyes, their words were like music to his ears, here were idiotic scape goats who he could easily blame when Colter dies. While the other one protected the secret that King Dyron had entrusted them with.
‘Then that means I would not worry about him breaking out of Tralfagar…” Gian muttered to himself, walking off, ignoring his trapped victims, ‘I need not think of anything else and just let these assholes do the work for me… If that moron dies out there that minimizes the chances of father forgiving him and actually giving him the crown.’
His selfishness filled his bones, an evil grin spread around his face as he turned towards the tied down vultures, “Very well. Let me just confirm the facts as I heard them, you want Colter Howard, the missing prince killed?”
Aquila and the others nodded solemnly, the group finally realizing what Aquila was up to.
“Yet you need coordinates and directions to get to the forbidden portal?”
More silent nodding as the vultures suddenly felt the environment shift, everything was now going in their favor. They were now taking advantage of Gian’s desire for power and his pent-up frustration at having to deal with Colter, the missing prince.
“Why do you want to kill him?” Gian asked suddenly, realizing that these pretenders could be spies of the king and incriminate him.
“Simply because he is a threat and that he is an arrogant creature” Aquila lied, of course they did not want the prince dead, King of the Darkness, Dyron had specifically asked them to bring him alive and well. He had wanted Colter to be the catalyst for the downfall of the Kingdom of Howard.
Gian’s eyes glittered with malice and they felt the vines around them loosen, “Indeed he is!” he agreed with them this time, “An arrogant asshole that needs to be taken care of. Give no more reasons, I need not know of them.”
Aquila was aghast and incredulous at how naïve and trusting Gian was, ‘His thoughts become irrational when it comes to killing his own flesh and blood’ the vulture thought darkly, slightly afraid and annoyed of Gian’s ambitions.
“I do not know who you are, what squadron you serve and what banners you raise” Gian told them, pacing around with a malicious smile, “But I sympathize with your cause. Colter is a detriment to the kingdom, to my rule and to everyone else. His death will benefit me and the kingdom as a whole.”
Aquila had no choice but to go along with Gian’s monologue, fearing that going against him would only delay king Dyron’s plans further.
“I know of the portal you seek, and I may be of assistance. Only if you promise me that you will leave Colter lifeless in wherever the fuck it is he is right now.”
Aquila nodded again, shocked at how such a peaceful land harbored hidden hatreds and hidden agendas. He had believed that the Kingdom of Howard was a beautiful land where everybody respected one another and showed love. Well, this was at least what he had seen when he was scouting as a mere vulture for King Dyron.
“Say no more of what you are, who you are and where you came from. I share only one cause with you, know in your minds that I realize that you are not of my kingdom”
His arrogance in claiming that it was his kingdom emanated, he was not even the king yet, but here he acted as if he was the head of the state.
“Kill him and whatever happened here will be forgotten” Gian told them, at the same time making a plan to slaughter this group once they step out of the portal to make sure there were no loose ends.
The vultures simply nodded their agreements once more and Gian told them to follow him.
They did.
It was a harsh voyage, the forest was unforgiving and the landscape punishing, they were used to flight and not walking around like flightless creatures. But then, they found their quarry. The rabbit that Samuel had told Aquila about was in their sight.
Gian simply grinned and motioned for them to follow it, the vultures ran after it and he was right behind them.
It took a few more minutes and then they found themselves in front of the forbidden portal. It was the same as how Gian remembered it, shimmering with power and giving of a tempting allure.
Even some of the vultures were mesmerized by it, as he noticed.
“Do not give in to the temptation” Gian said promptly, cutting of their reveries, “Jump into it and take Colter’s head.”
The vultures agreed once more, not wanting Gian to get a whiff of their plans to bring back Colter alive to King Dyron.
As they crossed the portal, Gian grinned, “Finally. All the pieces are in place. Colter will fall in the foreign land he is in and when those idiots find their way back, I shall dispatch of them.”
After the last of the vultures crossed, he disappeared into the brushes, not knowing that there was another spectator. She had followed them ever since he trapped the vultures. She had listened in on all his plans and she was someone that Gian had betrayed.