He knows

"So you didn't know he was the cursed prince?" Elena asked with her brows raised in confusion.

Lily nodded, "He never told me."

"Are you scared of him?" Elena asked and Lily nodded again. Seeing this, Elena chuckled lowly.

"From the rumors, there is every reason to be scared of him, but I assure you there is more to him than the rumors being spread around."

"Like what exactly?" Lily scoffed. Thankfully, Elena wasn't paying her actions much attention.

"Hmm... He doesn't show it, but he's quite caring." Almost as if bells rang through her ears, Lily's eyes widened at the fallacy she believed Elena was saying.

"I know he's your brother but there is no smoke without fire. There must be an atom of truth in those rumors and being caring isn't one of them." Lily paused in her steps and looked worriedly at Elena. Elena paused in her steps as well.

"Unlike the others in this palace, you are a very good person and I wish you the best. This may be the last time we get to interact with each other, I hope you stay safe." Lily said sincerely.

"What are you saying?" Elena stared at Lily in confusion.

"Nothing," Lily said with a sad smile.

"My lady!" A young guard came and bowed on one knee before Elena. It was Simon. With his side eye, he silently questioned why she was here.

Lily then secretly gestured for him to take her away from there and Simon quickly got the hint.

"One of the princes has asked for the presence of Miss Lily, my lady," Simon said still on one knee and with his head bent.

"Which of the princes?" Elena asked wondering what business any of her brothers have with Lily. To her knowledge, Aziel left with Adrian for the preparation of Adrian's wedding.

Simon's eyes wavered before he answered, "I'm a new recruit and I'm yet to familiarize myself with the faces of the princes. Forgive me, my lady?" Simon bowed deeper.

"Um... I'll just go to avoid any problems," Lily said.

"What about the cot-" Elena was about to say before she remembered the guard's presence. It was unheard of to talk about monthly blood flow in the presence of a man. "Just ask the maids, alright?"

"Thank you," Lily said with a bow before she left with Simon who was already leading the way.

They got to a private corner where servants rarely passed.

"Why are you here? Is it important?" Simon whispered while looking around to check if they were alone.

"We need to leave, now!" Lily said with urgency.

"What do you mean? We just got here and our plan hasn't even been set in motion, yet you want out?" Simon whispered.

"I would explain later, right now we need to leave. What about the secret gateway?" Simon could hear the urgency in Lily's voice and even if he wanted to refute her orders, he has no choice but to adhere.

"Wait here," said Simon before he left to go get some important things.

Lily waited for what seemed to be an hour but was only ten minutes or less. Standing there alone made her fidgety and scared that Aziel could return at any minute.

Simon returned and he gave Lily one last look to confirm if they were about to dump all their whole plans but when he saw that Lily was bent on leaving, he held her hand and led the way.

The secret gateway was a tunnel in the pantry in the kitchen on the ground floor. If all went as planned, they will out of the castle in an hour or so.

They made these arrangements in case they needed to go out of the place without the knowledge of anyone.

Simon and Lily decided it was only right for Simon to move first while Lily follow closely to avoid suspicion.

Thankfully, the pantry was empty when Simon got there whereas Lily took even more time to get there.

Lily was stopped by the head chef on her way to the pantry and his suspicious glare made Lily wary.

"What business do you have here, miss?" The head chef asked with disgust. He knew of her as he encountered the banter between the princes because of her. Worse she was a human so he felt superior.

"Prince Aziel asked me to get him some blood wine," Lily said confidently meanwhile her heart was rubbing a marathon.

"What? Prince Aziel is asking for me? Why didn't you say so sooner?!" The chef hissed and ran off. He will deal with Lily later but for now, he had to save his head.

Lily breathed a sigh of relief and quickly made her way to the pantry. There she met Simon who was anxiously waiting for her as she wasted time.

"Are you ready?" Simon asked to which Lily nodded.

Simon then brought out tools from a skin bag and began breaking the wall. Once the wall was broken, the opening of a tunnel was revealed.

"Go first," Simon gestured to the dark entrance. Lily took a breath before she lifted her dress and got into the tunnel. It was a one-way cylindrical tunnel so all they had to do was crawl till they got to the end of the tunnel.

At last, light seeped in notifying them that they had gotten closer. Noises from the market became clearer.

Once they were out, Lily smoothened her rumpled dress and wiped the head of sweat that wet her forehead. Simon did the same. The tunnel led to the back of a vegetable stall so they were hidden from the eyes of the market people.

"What next?" Simon asked now that they successfully escaped the palace. He had a very ugly feeling about all of this.

"What next? We go back to the village and devise another plan," Lily pursed her lips. She was in deep thought. Maybe she didn't think this through? She was having second thoughts but there was no going back.

"He knows that you escaped..."

Lily raised her head to look at Simon, "Who?"

"Aziel, he knows."