The Next Crown Prince

"Candace! Are you okay? What's wrong, Love?" Slate was first to reach her. He dropped to one knee and took her hand in his large warm hands.

"Anaïse." Candi gulped. "She's back!"

Slate heaved a sigh of relief.

"Yes. You scared me when you started crying." He looked at her with concern. "If you're worried that she is once again your competitor…"

"No, no." Candi waved her hand in protest. "I was just glad that she didn't die in that horrible attack. It didn't look like a stunt she pulled just to have something spectacular to display at an Avgo event that wasn't even an elimination event."

"It wasn't a stunt. Someone did try to kill her, and they almost succeeded, but the Avgo stone kept her brain cushioned and alive until her people could get to her and help her repair herself."

Candi breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank heavens for the Avgo protection power. It wasn't fail-proof and it didn't protect completely, but its power was real. It had saved Candi's life on more than one occasion.

But from such a height…she could only imagine how bad it must have been for Anaïse. The blasts that hit the other women at the previous event had knocked Jenna and Valeria unconscious, even with the Avgo stones protecting them.

"Was the memorial service the only one you got a chance to view?" He asked.

Candi nodded. "Did you get a chance to see all the performances?"

Slate shook his head. "I only watched yours. I didn't care about any of the others."

She looked up into his brilliant blue eyes.

"I nearly missed the whole thing because I was waiting for Dante, Lucas and the twins to show up at my dressing room and they never did. I'm so glad that you, Byron, and Leonardo are okay but I'm so worried about them."

Slate's eyes were murderous. "Leo and I are looking for them right now. We'll find them, don't you worry."

An alert sounded from the main deck and Slate turned back towards the crew.

"Your Royal Highness," one of the space warriors approached him. "The Emperor is hailing."

Slate nodded and gestured for Byron to join them as he waved for the virtual call to come through where he was.

"Ah. The Prime Warrior in his finest outfit!" The Emperor called out in a booming voice. He looked over at Candi. "I see my Daughter-in-law is there too."

"I am also here, Father." Byron called out as he joined Slate and Candi, dropping onto one knee on the floor on the other side of Candi's chair.

The Emperor nodded at Byron and turned to Slate.

"Do you know where your other brothers are?"

"We are looking for them right now, Father." Slate responded

The Emperor growled under his breath.

"You can stop looking. I know where they are."

"Where—"

"The space pirates have them." The Emperor interjected as a tick began working in his cheek.

"I thought it was the Avians," Candi muttered to herself.

"You're not wrong, Daughter-in-law. The Avians hired Space Pirates to pick up all the Erenveil Princes they could get their hands on."

The Emperor turned to Slate and Byron.

"Leo and Slate got lucky. They were in the warships so they couldn't be touched. The rest of you were with Candace down on Nymphalidae and got scooped up."

He turned his eyes on Byron. "Had to play both sides to escape, eh Byron?"

Byron grimaced. "I do what I must to survive."

"What did you do?" The Emperor asked. "Promise them your first-born son?" He laughed bitterly. Wasn't that what he himself was faced with?

Byron gave him a wry glance. "I told them I would take Candace hostage and turn her in, so they let me go."

He gave an apologetic look at Candi who grimaced and poked him in the arm with her elbow. He grabbed her arm and held it tight against his body, his face full of remorse.

The Emperor roared with laughter.

"I was close. Not your first-born, just your first love."

Byron turned angry eyes at the Emperor.

"I lay all this rot at the feet of your generation."

"And I accept my failure to protect my children!" The Emperor roared. "You boys are adults and can take care of yourselves, but you are my children, and I am still the Emperor."

He cleared his throat and looked away.

"The birds know you are no longer the Crown Prince of Erenveil, Byron."

Byron lifted an eyebrow in an uncaring gesture.

"They are willing to trade Dante for you." The Emperor sniffed.

Byron's jaw dropped.

"What? My maternal family wants to jail me?"

"No Son. They want you reinstated as Crown Prince. Once I formally reinstate you, Dante will be returned unharmed."

"Why? I'm an illegitimate son." Byron turned and stared at his Father. "I can't be Crown Prince even if I wanted to be."

"Because they don't want Dante to be the Crown Prince since he is part insectoid. Your aunt has us between a rock and a hard place."

Byron's eyes glared red. "Does she think she will get her Empress title back again? I hope you told them to go rot in hell."

"I did." The Emperor threw back his head and laughed. "And no, she's not stupid enough to think that she can bargain her way back into the Empress position. She just wants you back on the path to the throne."

The Emperor's purple eyes grew hard and cold.

"I granted that woman leniency and allowed her to return to her world and she abducts my first-born son."

His eyes grew merciless. "The next time we meet, I will not be so kind. She may be the mother of one of my children but that does not give her the right to harm another of my children."

Slate rubbed his eyes. "So now the birds declared war on everyone?"

The Emperor shook his head.

"Not everyone, no. Most of the Merfolk are on their side. So are the Reptilians and the Marsupials. Even that far-flung planet Earth is on their side."

Candi grimaced. She wanted to disown Earth. They had been nothing but an embarrassment to her ever since the start of the Avgo Events.

"The space pirates seem to be with the birds as well." Slate rubbed his jaw.

The Emperor shook his head.

"They're mercenaries. They'll kill whoever you tell them to kill if you have enough money to pay them the price they ask."

"Then they will also return people if the price is high enough. Poppy knows the leader of the space pirates. I will send her to talk with them." Slate mused.

"That will work with the twins and Lucas, but it won't work with Dante. He's a special case and I've already made arrangements for him to be released within a couple of days."

"Speaking of which." He indicated with his finger. "Who is in control of Dante's warships right now?"

"I am." Slate threw back his head and gazed at the Emperor. "In my hands are 75% of all the armed warships of Erenveil. Leo holds the other 25% that he cobbled together from the conversion of hospital ships."

The Emperor nodded his head. "And Poppy?"

"She's in control of one section of Dante's armed guards called the special forces, and she reports to me."

"Good. Good." The Emperor rubbed his head. "I am just worried about the fact that the twins' intel did not see this coming."

"They did." Slate responded. "They warned us but we decided to go ahead with plans for the Avgo Events at Nymphalidae to draw out the factions that were responsible for all these acts of war and terrorism."

"Father, what are your plans to extract Dante?" Byron asked the Emperor.

"I had no plans. They approached the Empress and gave her an offer she could not refuse." He gritted his teeth. "She had a choice. A dead son or a living one."

"What was their demand?" Byron's red eyes burned with a fury that was scary to behold.

"They want Dante dethroned and the Crown Prince title to be restored to you, but the Empress said that it was widely known that you are an adopted son, which meant you could not legally take up the Crown Prince mantle."

"So they compromised." He sighed with a heavy heart.

The Empress has told me to remove the Crown Prince mantle from Dante and place it on the next Prince down the line."

"What???" All three of them gasped.

"The next prince after Dante is…." Candi whispered.

"Lucas???" Byron choked out.