Ritual

Just as expected, the king and queen were very furious when they arrived back at the castle at night. They had spent hours on the road, only to be told that the invitation was fake.

Evelyn was in particularly angry about the stress that she had been put through, and she took it out on her servants.

She really wished to find the culprit, but she had a suspect.

She went to Dahlia's room while three of her servants trailed behind her.

She didn't bother to knock. She just pushed the door open. Thankfully it wasn't locked.

"Who could be that mannerless?" Dahlia whined, pretending not to see Evelyn at first. "Oh it is you. Your majesty." She smiled.

"I know you are behind the fake invitation." Evelyn went straight to accusing her, while Dahlia pretended not to know what she was talking about.

"Invitation? What invitation?"

"You know what I am talking about Dahlia. You were the one behind the invitation to your mother's birthday." Evelyn said.

"With all due respect your majesty, you sound stupid right now." Dahlia said and Evelyn exclaimed in shock, while her servants pretended they were deaf.

"How dare you?" Evelyn fumed.

"I am here, and you are accusing me of sending an invitation that came from Woodrow. How does that make sense?"

"I don't know how you did it, but I know it is you. You would have come with us if it was really your mother's birthday."

"Why would I come with you when I have my husband to be here?" Dahlia pretended to reason with her.

"And you and your fiance didn't bother to attend?"

"You know how rogue prince Raziel could be sometimes." She bit her lips, as though she found it sexy. "He changed his mind about going, and I decided to stay with him. I didn't regret my decision though." She winked meaningfully at the queen.

"Dahlia if you had nothing to do with it, you would have stopped us from leaving, as you were very much aware that it wasn't your mother's birthday."

"Where you go is none of my business your majesty." Dahlia said. "And that actually sounded smart coming from you."

Evelyn frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"You can't understand. Now I would love to go to bed. Thank you for gracing my bedroom with your presence your majesty." Dahlia said with a sweet smile, and Evelyn didn't fail to catch the sarcasm in her tone.

"I know it was you, and I will make a report to my husband, the king. You will be punished." Evelyn threatened.

"Good luck with your report queen Evelyn."

Evelyn left Dahlia's room angrier than she came in. While Dahlia on the other hand was not the least bothered by the queen's threats. There was no logical reason why she would do such. Not like she did anything in their absence.

Without thinking much about the queen, she retired herself to bed.

****

The next morning, Raziel invited Luciana to his study. The human took some time before she went to him.

"What took you so long Luciana?"

"I was getting ready. My apologies your highness." She said with nonchalant shrug.

"Have a seat." He said to her, and she obeyed. She took the seat opposite him, such that they were separated by his working desk.

"May I know why I am invited here your highness?" She curiously asked.

"Three things. First, I have sent people already to search for your sister, within and outside this kingdom."

"I want to help." Luciana eagerly volunteered herself.

"No. You will be sitting this one out Luciana. It might take time to find your sister, and you would be giving yourself heart ache when you become impatient." Raziel declined her.

"Your highness I will be patient. I promise. Just please..."

"No!" He shook his head. "I will not let you. Allow me handle it."

She gave up and nodded.

"Thank you for your help." She then thinned her lips, before looking up at him. "Prince Raziel, I really do appreciate everything that you do for me. You have to reason to, but you still help me anyway."

"You will be paying me soon." He gave a mischievous smile. "You are welcome Luciana." He then went ahead speaking. "Now for the second thing you need to know, I have set up a team in the laboratory that I want you to head." He informed her, and her eyes widened.

"Head? Don't you think you are giving me too much credit? I just know a few things. I am definitely not prepared to head a team that had been working in the laboratory for years."

"Calm down Luciana. I understand you. That is why you would be heading a team I know you can actually handle." Raziel said.

"And what exactly is the work of this team your highness?" She asked with a frown, doubting that she could actually handle it.

"I need you to not freak out okay?"

She nodded.

"I need your experiment produced in mass."

"What?! Why?"

"I told you not to freak out."

"But I am not ready to share the knowledge. It's my secret weapon. And now you want me to share it with a group of people?"

"It's not going to go out I promise." Raziel said.

She looked thoughtful for a while. "What do you need it for?"

"If I tell you, I will have to kill you." Raziel said, and Luciana frowned. "Trust me."

Luciana leaned back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest.

"How much is my payment? I am about to give you the formula for a weapon of mass destruction."

Raziel shook his head in amusement.

"Will a thousand gold coins be enough?"

She looked thoughtful. "That's a large amount of money prince Raziel, but I don't think that will do."

Raziel chuckled. "Now you are being unfair Luciana. It's not like you are selling me the right to it. It still belongs to you. I am only borrowing." Raziel negotiated.

"I assume I would be keeping my knowledge to myself then." Luciana said.

"Two thousand gold coins." Raziel said.

"Three thousand."

"Fine." He then extended his hands for a handshake, and she took it.

"Nice doing business with you prince Raziel." She chuckled to herself, and Raziel realized he just saw a new side of her. She took every opportunity that present itself to her. And her happiness seemed genuine. He didn't even realize he was smiling.

"I am rich." Luciana squealed, but her mood quickly deflated when she realized that she had no one to share the money with.

He suddenly leaned in and grabbed her wrist, and she was pulled out of her depressing thoughts.

"You are improving Luciana." Raziel said in a rather serious tone.

"Improving?"

He examined her wrist. "Look. You haven't cut yourself in a while now." He then frowned. "Or did you continue cutting your upper arm?"

"No your highness." Even her didn't realize it. Before she could not go a day without inflicting serious wound on herself, but now...

Instead of her to be happy about it, she felt bad. She felt like she was betraying her family.

"You should be proud of yourself Luciana. You have been through so much, and you managed to pull yourself out. Honestly, you are the strongest person I know." He said to her.

"But this feels wrong." She whispered.

"It is okay to be happy. It wasn't your fault that your family died." Raziel said.

"Prince Raziel, do you know that I had the chance to save my family? All I had to do was give myself to Lord Kruger. I protected myself and I lost them."

"Luciana the only person to be blamed here is this Kruger guy, not you. So I want you to stop blaming yourself. Nothing that happened was your fault."

Luciana nodded fervently, as if trying to convince herself to believe him.

"You will be okay Luciana. Just give it time." He said again, and she nodded.

"And for the last thing." Raziel began when he noticed she wasn't too sad anymore, before standing up and walking to her side. "I want your blood."

"What? I thought you were just offering me comfort." Luciana uttered in disbelief.

"When I act like a gentleman for too long, I feel like I am losing myself."

"So you need to do something roguish."

Raziel only shrugged, before pulling down one of her sleeves to expose her shoulder. Luciana tensed when she remembered his lips on her the last time. She tightly shot her eyes in anticipation.

Raziel's palm caressed her bare shoulder for a few seconds, before he bit into her.

*******

That night, Raziel and Dahlia was summoned by the King and Queen.

"Your highness please tell me that the king don't actually have the document." Dahlia said in urgency as they walked to the throne room.

"He does."

"What? So I went through the stress of sending the fake invitation for nothing. Please tell me you won't be signing the documents."

"I will."

"How can you do that? I will not be signing anything with you." She protested.

"I am the only person needed to sign. You have nothing to worry about Dahlia."

She grabbed his arm. "But your life would be bind to mine. You might die if you don't marry me."

"I know what the blood oath entails Lady Dahlia."

Dahlia gave up and nervously followed him, hoping that he had another plan. She thought she escaped the claws of forced marriages, but now she was literally going to be bind to one.

When they got to the throne room, it was just the king, queen and a witch who was to perform the ritual were present. The witch held a small wooden pot and a small knife.

The king then briefed Raziel about the ritual that was about to happen, not knowing that he already knew.

"Father you don't have to do this. I already agreed to marrying Dahlia, and I am not changing my mind this time." Raziel said, pretending to be taken aback.

"You have given me a thousand reasons to doubt you son. And this will also clear every doubt from Lady Dahlia."

Dahlia forced a smile at the king and nodded in agreement. She wished she could run away.

"Your wrist your highness." The witch said to him.

"You should do it if you really have no agenda. And to save your beloved people of Kazeera." The king said.

"You have threatened me enough with Kazeera. It is getting old." Raziel said.

He then took the knife from the witch and cut his wrist, allowing his blood drop into the wooden bowl.