Nadine Book 7

7. King Blayze

"King Blayze has been killed."

I jump straight up on the bed between the boys. They sit up and we stare at the brain. It's still dark outside.

"Tre told me they were attacking in the afternoon."

"Who killed him?"

"Prince Corbin Blayze. He has taken control of the castle."

"Show us in the sitting area." I jump off the bed.

The king's office shows up in the red laser form. Corbin and Victor are sitting on the table.

Victor looks at him. "So what do we do now?"

Corbin shrugs his shoulders. "Wait to die? They will come for us. They're probably already here." Corbin stands up. "I'm going to go talk to my mate."

"I'm going to try and take a nap."

Elek looks at Johen. "He has his mate?"

Johen shrugs his shoulders. "Follow Corbin."

Corbin goes to the dungeon. Then he goes in a cell.

A girl jumps out of bed and stands by the opposite wall crying. "Please don't kill me."

"I'm not going to kill you. I never could have. We were always taught that true mates are the most horrible thing to have. I was told that when I got stronger I would kill you. Then I could make my own life the way I wanted." He puts his head in his hands and shakes it. "It was so f****d up. I never fought them about it. I never tried to save you."

Johen sits in a chair. "Play this for all the advisors and kings if it's not already being played."

"Yes sir."

"I'm so sorry. I never even doubted it. I am the most horrible person. We would do anything to get into castles and villages. We would hurt and kill good people. To take their money. We don't deserve to live. We deserve nothing but pain."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"My brother. My older brother. Nikolas. There was a castle marked for us to clear. It was supposed to be simple. Give them some sob story and get in. Rob them blind and leave or take the castle and kill them. It was supposed to be another easy mark. But Nikolas found his mate there. He fought my dad and that w***e for so long. He begged us to leave. He wanted her. He fell in love with her. They kept telling him it was a phase. He would be able to kill her soon. But the way he looked at her. He was never going to hurt her. My dad realized this."

The girl takes his hand.

He smiles at her hand. "My dad went to move. He knew where some gold was. Nikolas never told him where the main vault was. But my dad would take whatever he could get. Victor and I jumped in with Nikolas. He was trying to order my dad out. We broke their necks. My dad and his advisors would have killed them. We did it to save their lives. Of course, that's not what it seems like to them. But we did what we could. Nikolas then ordered the self-destruction of something. He said he was alerting Dipak by doing it. Then we ran out. My dad finally realized it was time to go."

"Where is Nikolas now?"

"He's dead. I tried to stop him. But the second we got back home. His girlfriend was telling him how weak he was for not killing her. He snapped and killed the b***h. Then he said he was going back. I tried to talk him out of it. He lasted a day or something. When he left, he was at peace. He didn't want to live without her. He said nothing else matters. He would try to explain. He would rather die trying to explain than to live for another minute without her. You should have seen the way he looked at her. I had never seen him happy before." He wipes his eyes. "There is not a chance in hell he got near their castle. But he died trying and that's what he wanted. To try for his mate. To try to tell her the truth."

He puts his head down and she rubs his back. "It's ok."

"That's why I'm here. I wanted a chance to tell you the truth too. I know he died before he got the chance. Maybe somehow this would make him happy. But you need to go now."

"But I just found you."

"They are coming. And we will die. You need to leave." He gets a paper out of his pocket. "I put some money in the floor of this address and paid the rent for 6 months. It'll be plenty for you. Go to the village now. Blend in with the villagers. The people who are coming are not cruel and evil like us. They will not hurt the villagers. It's your only chance. If you stay in the castle, you are the rightful queen. They will kill you too. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I was too weak to stand up to them. I'm sorry it took my brother to die. I'm sorry I never fought for you or tried to help you. I don't deserve any amount of forgiveness. I just want you to go and live."

"But."

"Go now." He puts the paper in her pocket. Then he pushes her out of the cell. "Go."

She takes a couple steps. "What's your name?"

"Corbin."

"Corbin. My name is Camilla."

"Camilla. It's beautiful."

A tear falls out of her eye. "They brought another girl in a couple of weeks ago. She's down there. I heard them saying she was someone else's mate."

He runs down the hallway. He gets to a door. "Don't cry." He puts a key in and opens it. He picks up a girl. "Only 1 way to find out I guess." He runs back to the king's office. Camilla follows him the whole way.

He puts the girl on her feet in the office and Victor sits up. Then he jumps up and runs to her. They hug each other. "How did you? Where?"

"They must have found her somehow. I had no idea anyone else was even there."

Victor wipes her face off. "You are so beautiful. What's your name?"

She says in such a small voice, "Opal."

"I'm so sorry Opal. I had no idea you were here." He kisses her head. "You have to leave now. We're running out of time."

"BUT. You're my mate."

Victor smiles and kisses her head. "We're evil monsters Opal. People are coming to kill us. You need to leave. It's the only chance you have to live."

"I don't want to live without you."

"And I refuse to let you die for the things I've done. Please go and live Opal. That will make me happy. Find someone to love. Find someone that loves you. Make babies and have a life. A good life that I will never be able to give you."

"Camilla, there's enough money for both of you there. Stick together and help each other. Remember that we are monsters. You deserve better. Please go find it."

"But I want to stay with you."

Victor shakes his head. "You can't leave the village yet either. They have us surrounded. Go to the village and blend in. It will be safe for you to leave soon."

"Camilla, I pronounce you Queen of the Blayze Kingdom. Now be a queen and save the only other person worth saving in this castle. And never tell anyone you were ever queen of this place. You will be hunted forever, by so many kingdoms we destroyed."

Camilla grabs Opal.

"NO." Opal tries to throw her arms around Victor.

Camilla drags her out.

The boys sit on the conference table. "At least I got to find her."

Corbin smirks. "Still never got that kiss though."

Victor laughs. Then he goes to the desk and gets a bottle of something out. He pours them each a cup. "You know what's messed up?"

"What?"

"The only 2 people we were ever told we had to kill are the only 2 people we ever saved."

Corbin takes a drink. "I think Nikolas had it right. Maybe love is all that matters."

Victor takes a drink. "You should have seen him the night he found that crown. He was so damn happy. He couldn't even sit still. I asked him what the f**k his problem was... He said he kissed her. Never seen anyone get so damn happy over a kiss. The crown didn't matter."

Corbin chuckles. "Yea, we were along for the ride. I couldn't believe dad wouldn't leave though. Hell, Nikolas was crowned king. What the hell else did he want? He could have left him alone, and we would have been fine."

"Dad hated the thought of him being happy. Any of us really. All that mattered was that he ended up rich and powerful. That's all he cared about."

"And invincible." They touch glasses and take another drink.

"You think we could summon them, and they would show up faster? I'm getting tired of waiting to die."

Then Dipak, Marcus, Tre, Tye, Kane, Dracul, Daddy, Gunner, and Frode walk into the office. Frode, Gunner, Daddy, Tre, and Kane walk out into the hallway and off the red lines.

I sit up. "Who the hell's in command?"

Elroy shrugs his shoulders. "Thora I guess."

Tye hops up on the king's desk and sits down. "Well, you made our job easy."

Corbin nods. "Did my brother get to talk to her?"

Tre laughs. "No way in hell."

"Yea, I didn't figure."

Marcus crosses his arms. "We're clearing the vault now."

The boys nod and take another drink.

Victor looks at Dipak. "What are you waiting for?"

Dipak smirks. "Something. So tell me, how many kingdoms did you destroy?"

Corbin shakes his head. "At least 50. Probably more like 100. Some were easy. Walk in and take everything. The people were so trusting. Some were more difficult. We would have to do like we did with yours. Put some villagers in that little village and give them a sob story to get in. That castle was also 1 we took. We killed everyone there. They didn't have much gold. My dad was pissed and ordered everyone dead. It gave us an empty castle."

"We didn't kill everyone. Mostly we went after gold. But sometimes the castles didn't have much. Then we would kill them. My dad would get so pissed about wasting time and getting nothing. He would kill the guards or advisors who put bad marks on castles too. He didn't care."

Tye nods. "After you said you wanted to move in. You never let on you were lying to us. Even when we weren't around you."

"We knew you were watching us. We had no idea how good you were at it. So we went into character 100% of the time. I do not know if Nikolas killed Anccel because he was in character, or if he was pissed. Couldn't ask him."

"How many advisors did your dad have?"

"They would die a lot. But he tried to keep it around 10 to 15."

Tye crosses his arms. "Who broke my neck?"

Victor stares at the floor. "Me."

Tye punches him in the face. Blood goes flying out of his nose. "That hurt jackass. Did you break Tre's too?" He nods again. Tye punches him in the face with dragon strength. I can actually hear the bones and teeth breaking.

Victor drops to his knees. He doesn't fight back.

Corbin tries to help him up.

Dipak shakes his head. "No, get on your knees too."

Tre walks in. "Vaults are cleared." He goes straight to Corbin and punches him in the face with dragon strength. "There now you match. And f*****g get down." Tre shoves Corbin beside Victor.

"NOOO! PLEASE NO!" I can hear girls screaming.

Victor and Corbin try to jump up. Tre and Tye beat them until they stay down.

Then Kane comes in dragging the girls. He pushes them to their knees beside the boys.

"No fun when someone f***s with your mate, is it?" Tye punches Victor again.

I stand up. "TO FAR BOYS." I connect the feathers.

Dipak and Marcus show each other their arms and chuckle. "We're about to get yelled at."

Tye checks his feather. "Shit." Then he punches Corbin again. I put my hands on my hips.

Johen pulls me down on the couch.

"They need to let the girls go. They were in a cell."

"These people are good at manipulation, Nadine. Let them sort it out. We're not there. We can't see their eyes or their body language." Elek pushes me back in the seat.

"Fine."

Daddy comes in with a box. "I got them." He sits it on the king's desk and opens it. The 2 village crowns are in it.

Marcus grabs 1 and Dipak grabs the other.

Marcus puts it on her head. "Queen Camilla Blayze."

Dipak does the same thing to Corbin. "King Corbin Blayze. Submit now."

"We submit."

"Good stand up. Now you can die with your crowns on."

"NOOOO PLEASE."

Tre and Tye pull the boys off the ground. Then let them go.

Dipak crosses his arms. "I own this place. Do you understand me? We rule over you. If I even hear a rumor of you attacking another village, we will come back and kill you."

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now get this place cleaned up. You left bodies all over the place. We will be back. And I am not pulling the brains out. I will have eyes here constantly. Let's do a walk through and we had better get the woman some jewelry. We already pissed her off."

I sit up straight. "BLACK DIAMONDS."

The boys around me crack up laughing.

Then Tre laughs in the red lasers. "I swear I heard her say black diamonds even without being connected."

"She did. Her divination is getting stronger."

"She still can't read minds. Only give us thoughts."

Marcus laughs. "That must have been why I wanted cheese pizza yesterday."

Tre rubs his eyes. "She was talking about that when we ate dinner."

I watch the Blayze boys and their mates. They are hugging them. Victor keeps kissing Opal on the head. It is sweet. Makes me wonder about Nikolas. Maybe he was trying to be honest and now he's gone. I'll never know and I never even read the letter.

"Show Dipak's office please."

It switches, and we see Coral trying to rip Samson's head off. She's on his back pulling his hair. "WHY WON'T YOU SAY HE IS?"

"CORAL CALM DOWN." He goes in a circle trying to get her off.

Tye's dad, Darick, sits in Dipak's spot at the conference table. "I always wanted to sit here at another castle."

"THAT'S MY SEAT. ME AND PRINCESS QUEEN SIT THERE WHEN EVERYONE'S GONE."

"CORAL GET DOWN. YOU ARE THE ONLY 1 WHO THINKS THAT. PULLING MY HAIR IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE MY MIND."

"MOVE." Thora starts trying to push Darick out of Dipak's seat. "MY SEAT."

"I'M ONLY TESTING IT."

"THORA COME GET HER OFF ME. CORAL DO NOT BITE."

The 4 of us lose it.

"I WILL GET UP WHEN YOU PULL CORAL OFF."

"FINE."

"STOP BITING."

Darick gets up. "There you go."

Samson runs over and sits in it. "I always wanted to try this too."

The 4 of us are about to die laughing this time.

Then the boys get back to Dipak's office. Samson moves over quickly.

Thora and Coral sit in my seat.

Dipak sits in his seat and the others file in and sit anywhere. Then he stands up. "Let's go take a nap. Thank you, King and Queen Borin and King Yanin and Advisor Thora. All of us wanted to go over there. No one wanted to stay. It was a mess."

Thora looks at them. "So are they dead?"

"Corbin and Victor are alive. Corbin is the king. They have their mates now. I guess they were being held in the dungeon. We got the money and they did submit. So now, we will watch them and see. Other than that, let's be done. Let's get the others home tomorrow. Try to recover and heal. Try to learn from it. Let's let it be for a while."

Everyone nods.

Dipak stands up. "Meet back for the afternoon meeting. Everyone go get some sleep."

I stand up and stretch.

Johen looks at the brain. "Turn off."

"Yes sir."

I smile. "My favorite part was when Dipak showed up and Samson slowly moved over a seat."

Johen picks me up. "We're both going to lay with you. I need to sleep not keep trying to put you back to sleep."

"I didn't think I was doing that badly."

"You were doing good. It's just easier."

I run and jump in the center of the bed. They come in and lay down on a side without their shirts on. I wiggle on them.

"Woman, sleep, not wiggle."

"But I'm not tired."

Elek rubs his eyes. "Yes you are." Then he rubs my arms.

Johen rubs my legs over his stomach.