Take him

Evelyn's father stood up angrily from the seat, followed by his wife. Raziel's father also stood and they all went to the front, where the knight stood.

"Where is he? Where is that prince?" Evelyn's father yelled as his chest heaved up and down in anger, drawing the guests' attention to them.

"Where did he say he was going? What work does he have?" Raziel's father asked.

"I have no idea your majesty. He would not tell me."

"Don't tell me he left already."

"He did your majesty."

The king was aware that most of the guests were supernaturals, and some of them could hear them, so he signalled for Evelyn's parents to calm down, but they weren't having it.

"This is an insult to my daughter, my family, my whole kingdom." The entire hall became tensed, and the guests started to murmur.

Raziel's father turned to the knight.

"Gather your men, find the prince and bring him here."

"Your majesty?" The knight thought he misheard the king. How could they possibly bring the prince back? They were directly under him, and are used to taking orders from him, even more than the king.

"Don't make me repeat myself."

"Yes... yes your majesty." The knight having no choice but to obey his king, left to do as he had been ordered.

Raziel's father turned to Evelyn's father to calm him down, but before he could say anything, Evelyn came crying to her father.

"I don't want to marry him anymore father." She cried, feeling embarrassed. Most of the guests eyes were on her, silently asking questions. She couldn't take the embarrassment. "I want to marry another prince father. He... He locked me up in the dungeons." She finally confessed to her father, and a gasp was heard from the guests.

"Oh dear. Prince Raziel did that to you?" Her mother exclaimed. She held a surprise expression, which slowly turned into one of disappointment.

"Your son did what?!" Evelyn's father yelled. By then, the guests were slowly beginning to depart the hall in murmurs. Evelyn's vampire hearing picked up some of the things they were saying, and it only made her more embarrassed. She lowered her gaze, not wanting people to look at her.

"Forgive my son. He didn't mean to... Raziel can be irrational sometimes."

"He even locked my daughter up? And I am just hearing about this?" The king's eyes held anger towards what had been done to his precious daughter. "This is the end of our relationship king Mikael." He then turned to his wife and daughter, without waiting for King Mikael to respond. "We should leave. Our carriage is outside."

Mikael watched them leave without calling them back even though he wanted to. He was a king, and his pride would not let him.

"The ceremony is over." He then declared to the remaining guests who stood up to leave.

Hours passed, and neither Raziel nor the knights and soldiers sent to look for him were back. The king was angry, and no one in the castle dared to misbehave. Raziel has given him yet another enemy. The king of Baelington didn't say anything about starting a war, but he knew better. The king's pride was hurt by the prince's embarrassment. He was also angry about his daughter's maltreatment.

Mikael was in his chambers, but he didn't seem to catch any rest. Many kingdoms were against them, and his son didn't seem to care. He knew that it was only a while before they would wage war against them.

A knock on his door made brought him back to reality.

"Speak!" He demanded.

"The prince has returned your majesty." A guard said from outside.

"Send him here at once!"

"Yes your majesty."

The king waited a while, only for the guard to come back without the prince.

"His highness refused to see you your majesty." The guard said in an almost shaky tone.

Without wasting another second, the king pushed the door open to go look for Raziel himself. He checked his chambers, but he wasn't there. The king went ahead to search for him in the library but, he still couldn't find him. It was when he checked the training grounds before he finally found him. The prince who left his own wedding was training with some of his army.

"Raziel!" He called, and the prince turned to him, while others bowed in respect to the king.

"Your majesty."

"You dare ignore my call?" He walked up to his son, and before Raziel could say anything, a slap landed on his face.

"Do you realize what you have done Raziel? How dare you abandon your own marriage Raziel?"

"I never agreed on marrying her."

Another slap landed on Raziel's cheek, but he just stared at his father who only got angrier from his lack of reaction.

"Are you aware that a potential strong ally just turned into a lifetime enemy?"

"They would not have been your enemy if you didn't try to impose marriage on me. I let you know from the very beginning that I am not interested in getting married to her. If you wanted the alliance so badly, you would have gotten married to her yourself." Raziel responded coolly, making his father's temper flare.

"You will invade Kazeera and bring me the king's head as your punishment."

"I am not doing that father." Raziel insisted, staring his father in the eyes.

"Take him!" The king ordered, and the two soldiers closer to Raziel lifted their heads and looked at themselves in confusion. Take who? The prince?

"I said take him away now!" The king could barely stop himself from yelling, while the soldiers approached Raziel slowly and carefully. As much as they didn't want to do it, they didn't want to disobey their king.

Both soldiers moved reluctantly towards Raziel, while some others close by always moved to him.

When the first two got to him, he looked at them as if daring them to touch him. His look alone made them rethink.

"Your highness please." One of them begged him to cooperate.

"Please go with us your highness." The other soldier pleaded.

"And you will remain there until you agree to do as I had said." Mikael said to him.

Raziel stared at his father. "You have been unnecessarily afraid of losing your allies, but have ever wondered what would happen if you lose me?"

The king frowned, wondering what Raziel meant. "You are my son. You'd always remain by my side, unless you want to let go of the throne. You know there are a lot of people who wants it."

"I'd rather give up my crown than invade Kazeera. And you are right, there are people who would willingly take up my position. In fact, they would kill for it." Raziel stated.

"You can't do that."

"I can, and I will if you do not give up on invading Kazeera."

"You dare not." The king replied at once. Raziel knew that his father was shaken by his threats. The man cannot do without him.

"You know you cannot force me father. Kazeera is all that is left of my mother, and I am not going to destroy it, neither will I let you."

One of the soldier finally summoned courage and took Raziel by the arm, but before he could move, he was sent landing to the other side of the field, and lost consciousness. The others looked nervously among themselves, probably wondering how they were going to arrest him.

"Durville is the biggest and most powerful kingdom. We have soldiers ten times the other kingdoms, both in numbers and in skills. We had never been afraid of any war, because we knew we'd always come back victorious. No kingdom even dared to go against us." Raziel stated calmly. "But then you began to gather enemies for yourself when you started invading kingdoms without provocation, killing, oppressing and taking over. What did you expect? That the others would just sit and wait for you to take what belongs to them? That they would never fight back?"

Now the soldiers gave both royals space as the tension between them started to rise.

"If we fight against them now, we would be able to avoid the war." The king angrily said.

"I would have cared more if I wanted to avoid the war." With that, the vampire prince zoomed off, leaving his father with his army.