Adrienne reached up, feeling the rope around her neck. She was about to be hanged. "No," she whispered, tears running down her face. "No, this is a mistake!"

She heard a familiar voice from beside her. "Adrienne!" the voice yelled.

She snapped her head to the side, eyes wide and panicked. It was Rosalie, looking terrified. That wasn't right. Rosie wasn't supposed to hang. It was supposed to be Adrienne and Adrien. Why were they hanging Rosie?

"Adrienne!" Rosalie yelled again, her eyes as round as dinner plates. Then the floor disappeared from beneath her. She called for her sister one last time, her voice echoing around the square.

Adrienne sobbed, watching her baby sister's lifeless body swing. This was her fault. If she hadn't been stupid enough to stop Adrien from being whipped, this wouldn't have happened.

But Adrien would be executed no matter what. And he was caught because of her. Well, it didn't matter anyways. She would be dead in a few moments.

The sound of Rosalie's last words still echoed, bouncing around Adrienne's head. The floor fell from beneath her. She screamed, feeling her body fall and the rope snap taut.

And she still heard Rosie.

"Adrienne!" Rosalie said, shaking her sister. "Wake up!"

Adrienne sprung up, chest heaving as her body racked with sobs. She pulled Rosalie close, stroking her hair, despite shaking hands.

Rosalie climbed into her sister's lap, hugging her. "It's okay, Adri. You just had a nightmare," she said softly. It was true. As the day of their execution creeped closer, Adrienne had worse and worse nightmares.

Adrien looked up from the corner of the cell. He had a layer of dust on him, and a small shovel in hand. He had gotten it a week ago. A guard gave it to him. Adrienne couldn't remember her name, but she was a sweet woman. She also wanted the king gone.

"Finally awake?" Adrien asked. "Come on, we're leaving." He ran a hand through his hair, getting the dust out. It was normally a dark blond, but the dirt made it grey.

Rosalie grabbed her sister by the hand and went over to the corner. "Is it ready?" she asked.

Adrien nodded. "It's ready. Let's go," he responded. He lowered himself into the hole he'd been digging for the past week. It was disappointingly easy to dig from the cell to the outside. But what else would you expect from a cheap old miser of a king?

Adrienne watched her sister jump down into the dark hole, vanishing from sight. Then she carefully climbed down, her heart pounding. She was actually committing a crime. She was breaking out of prison.

Adrien walked ahead of the girls, his footsteps louder than Adrienne would have wanted. He stopped suddenly, then turned down into the sewer. "This'll take us out of the kingdom," was all he said.

Rosalie held onto her older sister's dress, shaking. "Adrien, are you sure about this? You know what's outside the kingdom," she mumbled.

The blond scoffed. In the dark, Adrienne couldn't see him, but she knew he rolled his eyes. "You really believe those stories? About the dragons that lurk and eat kids? Really, Rosie, I would expect more from you."

"I just-" Rosalie began, getting cut off by Adrien.

"And besides, I'm Robin Hood," he continued. "If I can rob the king, I think I can protect you both from dragons."

Adrienne picked up Rosalie, sighing. There wers rumours that dragons plagued the unclaimed land outside the kingdoms. Some even said that there was a 'Dragon Defense Society' in the nearby kingdom of Heamor.

If these rumours were true, and Adrien was still acting as cocky as he was, it was a recipe for disaster.

"It'll be okay, Rosie," Adrienne whispered. Truly, she doubted it ever would be.

꧁___꧂

Gilbert turned another page, reading each word carefully. He was in the library, reading an old book of Greek mythology. The specific story he was reading?

The story of how Zeus killed his father.

According to the book, Zeus poisoned Cronos's wine and sliced him into hundreds of pieces with his own scythe and threw him into Tartarus.

Gilbert had to admit, the chopping up and throwing into Tartarus was a bit overboard, but the poison wine? Easy.

Now all Gilbert had to do was disguise himself as a servant. Or not, actually. It would be easier to just be him and take his father some wine.

Creeping down into the kitchens, he grabbed his father's wine on a tray. "I'll take this to my dear old dad," he said to the woman who tried to stop him. She shrugged, and let him take it on.

He took the tray to his room, pouring half a vial of a sickly green coloured poison from the dungeons. It was used for quick painless executions. So it wasn't used often.

He then made his way up to his father's chamber. But what was he doing? Was he really about to kill his father?

This is for Adrienne and her siblings, he told himself. It calmed him as he continued on his way.

He finally reached his father's chamber, knocking on the door. "Papa!" he called out. "I brought you your wine!"

Slightly disheveled, the king opened his door. "Gilbert. Thank you," he said lowly, beckoning his son in.

Gilbert went in, a bit confused. "Is something the matter papa?" he asked.

The king sat on his bed, glancing around. "Gilbert, I believe the servants are trying to assinate me. You're the only one I trust to tell," he breathed.

Oops.

"It's alright papa," Gilbert said calmingly. "No one is going to kill you." Except me, he added mentally. "Come on now, drink up and lie down. That should soothe your nerves."

By making his father's death look as if it had been natural causes, he could not only get away with it, but also keep the servants from getting in trouble.

The king nodded, downing his goblet of wine. He gave the tray back to Gilbert, then lay down. Gilbert got up and left the room.

As he went out the door, he said, just barely a whisper, "Sleep tight old man."