James

I wrote a letter to my uncle. I found Adam.

He bowed. "Prince James."

I almost scoffed at the title. It should be king James. But I'm not firstborn.

"Deliver this letter to my uncle, thank you." I walked away from him.

Something told me breakfast was going to be interesting today. So I made sure to get there on time.

I get to the dining hall and join my parents. Amber is the next to show up. Then Katerina and Alexander appear and join us at the table.

We began eating. It was quiet, so I decided to break the silence. "Anything interesting happened yesterday?"

"Dave showed up here with a letter from Fortis, the vampire king," Henry mentioned.

"He sent his negotiations. Were they fair?"

"No, but they will have to do," Henry answered. "That reminds me. Katerina and Alexander will be in my office all day. So they will be unavailable."

What did they do? Then I remember Dad sending Adam and Cooper to follow them if they left the castle.

"Is that a punishment for them?" I inquired.

"As you know, I sent Adam and Cooper to follow them. They got caught talking with the enemy's kids." Henry explained. "Their reason was, I tell them nothing, and they wanted to know the important stuff that's happening. So they get to stay in the office all day to learn the important stuff."

"If they're in the office all day where you can have your eyes on them. They won't be able to leave the castle." I said.

"Exactly." Henry pointed at me. "They couldn't even leave if they wanted to. They lost their privileges to leave the castle anyways. It's nice to know that some of my children are smart."

He means that Amber and I know better than to break the rules, and he threw shade at Katerina and Alexander.

Things are looking good for me and my plans to steal the throne from Alexander.

Alexander

Henry is behind his desk, and Katerina and I pulled up chairs in front of his desk. My father let Katerina and I read the letter Fortis sent yesterday.

"Was it necessary to call us out at breakfast and tell everyone what we did?" Especially James. I didn't add.

"Yes. If you didn't want everyone knowing, maybe you shouldn't have done it in the first place!" He scolded.

I was about to say something but I heard Katerina's voice in my head.

He's already mad, don't make it worse. Katerina warned.

Fine. I mumbled.

"What are you doing, now?" Katerina asked.

Henry had a pen and paper.

"I'm writing back to Fortis so that I can get my damn guards back here, where they belong." He explained.

"And would you like silence for that task?" I asked Henry being a smart-ass.

Katerina physically smacked me. Shut up!

While Henry glared at me.

"Sorry," I mumbled, looking down.

Henry went back to writing the letter. "I don't need it quiet. But it would be much appreciated."

"You know, you can't save all of your guards. There will be some times when you have to sacrifice them. But in this situation, you are lucky to be able to save them." I spoke.

Henry looked up from his paper. "How do you know that?" He said, referring to the first half of my statement.

"Chess." I simply said.

He nodded and went back to writing the letter. "I know I'm lucky; that's why I'm trying to do all I can to save them. You two almost ended up with the same fate these guards have if your so-called 'friends' had their own guards ready to kidnap you. I know that's not what happened. But that would have been a way worse situation than this."

"I'm pretty sure their parents, just like you guys, told them to stay out of the forest," I said. "If they were to trick us, they would have to mention meeting with us in the forest, therefore going against their parent's wishes. They would probably get in trouble. That wouldn't be a smart move for them."

"What are you saying?" He asked.

"I'm saying it was a calculated risk."

"How do you know that their parents weren't in on it too?" Henry inquired.

I thought for a second. "I just knew."

Henry shook his head. "Don't worry, you won't be making calculated risks anytime soon; you're safe in the castle, and you lost your privilege to leave."

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks for the reminder."

Henry handed me the letter.

I took it, shocked. "You're letting us read this?"

Katerina looked shocked too.

Henry sighed. "That was part of the agreement, yes?"

"It was, sorry. I forgot." I read the letter.

Once I read the letter, alarms went off in my head. But I didn't say anything. I just handed the letter to Katerina and gave her a fair warning.

Say nothing after reading this letter.

"You can't send this letter!" Katerina said, completely ignoring my advice.

I threw my hands up in the air. "You really can't," I said, agreeing with Katerina's statement.

"Yes, I can." He took the letter back from Katerina. "I wrote it; you two are here simply just to read and observe. You're getting the information you want. But you don't determine anything."

Katerina and I glared at Henry.

"You're going to get them in trouble," Katerina growled.

"Why do you care? You got in trouble because of them! Don't you want some payback?!" Henry asked.

Katerina said nothing and looked down at the ground.

"I feel like there's more to this story than your telling me. But that's fine. I can keep things from you too." Henry said as he started to seal the letter. "I'll get Cooper to deliver this."

"What about Adam?" Katerina asked, purposely changing the topic but out of curiosity.

"He's busy delivering a letter for James," Henry explained.

Weird. I said to Katerina.

Right. Who is James writing to? She responded.

"Is this his first letter in a while?" Katerina asked.

"Yeah, he's probably checking up on family," Henry said, unbothered by it.

Of course, he thinks it's nothing. Right now, he trusts James more than he trusts us. Katerina said.

I know. I don't know if we'll ever get his trust back. I told her.

He is going to have to trust us eventually.

We heard a knock on the door. "Come in!" Katerina yelled, and Henry glared at her.

Cooper entered the office.

"My Lord," He bowed. "You said you had a letter for me to deliver." Cooper approached the desk.

"Yes, to Fortis. I would send Adam with you, but he is busy. So you're just going to have to go by yourself." Henry said, handing Cooper the letter.

"Yes, my Lord. Anything else?"

"No, you're dismissed."

Cooper bowed again then left the office.

Cooper

If I had known I would get tasked with this job, I would have volunteered to deliver James' letter instead. Ugh, oh well.

I'll get this done quick and fast, and be right back here in the safety of the kingdom.

I walked out the main castle door and through the town. Then west towards the vampire kingdom.

I found the first vampire I saw and put my hands up to show that I was no threat. "Hey!" I said.

The guard turned his head towards me and growled. "What are you doing here, Wolf?"

"I'm just here to deliver a simple letter to your king. He needs to get this." I said and handed him the letter.

He nodded and took it. "Now get out of here." He growled.

I abided feeling obliged; I didn't want to spend a second longer in this territory.

I headed back east into the forest. Once I entered the town of the wolf kingdom again, I felt safe and relaxed.

~Dominique