Chapter 62
"What are you getting at Alexander? I fail to believe that after all this time of putting up with the king and carrying out his orders, you all of a sudden don't mind having him killed. And the two of you are childhood friends. You don't just kill childhood friends so easily. You're trying to set me up, aren't you?" She pointed a finger at him accusingly. Even the first time when he said he would help her deal with the king when they were in the forest, she didn't believe him.
Alexander grabbed her judgy finger and pushed her arm back to her side. "There have been plenty of childhood friends who killed each other. I made an oath to protect the crown which protects the people. It's no secret that Darius has been abusing his power as king and I have to be the one fixing it up. I can't do that forever and it is better to just get rid of the problem. There have been some plans to kill the king before you showed up."
Artemis gasped surprised by this. Chaos hadn't informed her about the secrets of the palace. That know it all didn't let anything fly by him when it concerned anything bad. Why hadn't he informed her there was a plot to kill the king? Did he really not know? "When was it decided that Darius should no longer be king?"
"It was brought up a few months ago when he had a family burned because he believed they might have ties to witches. He was out and stumbled across the family. Unfortunately, I wasn't around him or anyone else who would be able to convince him to let the family prove their innocence. That was the last straw for many people who cared about the well-being of the kingdom," he started to explain.
"The idea to get rid of the king and have one of the sons of the king's relative become king wasn't brought to me first. The people questioned my loyalty to the king and if I would have them imprisoned. A friend of mine, Leon, was the one who brought me into the plan. Even if you weren't angry with the king, he would have died soon."
"You know you could still die afterward for plotting to kill the king right? All for people who won't remember what a good thing you did for them and will drag your name through the mud." She knew many humans would be relieved the king was dead and though they had sung praises of Alexander for helping them so much, she knew many of those same people would cheer for him to be killed for disposing of a king they hated. It wasn't worth helping people who'll sing a different tune the next day.
"I know that but I am fine with it. I can't stop Darius from doing whatever he wants with his kingdom anymore. My advice will only be heard at that moment and then he'll go back to doing as he pleases. About childhood friends, Darius was a good person in the past who truly cared about the kingdom and wanted to protect the innocent but the pressure from his father changed him."
Alexander believed that if the previous king had taken a moment to stop criticizing Darius and truly helped him to learn from his mistakes, Darius would have been better today. He was doubted many times in the past which prompted him to want to become more power hungry and make those people not be able to say anything to him as king.
"I see. Must've been hard to find the last solution for peace by killing your friend. Okay, we can work together but I am not taking that bracelet off of your hand. I still don't trust that you won't try to turn on me. I will not hurt humans and just go for the king," she extended her hand out for them to make the deal.
"Deal," Alexander agreed, shaking her hand. "Wait," he called when Artemis staggered forward holding her chest.
"I've been away from the forest for too long. It's hurting," she groaned, clenching her chest from the sudden pain. It wasn't like she had been out the entire day for it to be acting like this and they were almost back there. "Those fools must have heard me talking about them and did this. It's going to take a lot more than this to kill me. Hey!" She yelled when Alexander swept her off her feet and held her in his arms.
"W-What are you doing?" She asked pushing to get away from but he kept her in place.
"Carrying you back to the forest. You can be disgusted all you want but I'll get you there quicker than if you walk on your own. You can hit me all you want."
Artemis knew all she had to do was order him to put her down and the bracelet would do its thing to force him to put her down. However, there was a pain in her chest or heart that might hurt with each step she took. He was so focused as he hurried back to the forest with her that she didn't bother to tell him to put her down. She wasn't as disgusted by his touch as when they first met. "Just this once I'll allow this," she muttered.