Chapter 120

Carol’s POV

I wasn’t expecting Queen Elizabeth to be standing at the doorway. She looked furious as she glared at her daughter. She folded her arms across her chest and her plump red lips thinned.

“What on earth is going on here? This is not how a princess behaves Jenna Rose,” Queen Elizabeth scolded, causing Jenna to blanch.

I had never seen Jenna look so small and frightened before.

“Mother, I was just—”

“I know exactly what you were doing and it’s uncalled for,” Elizabeth said, narrowing her eyes. “Did I tell you that I would be handling things myself and not to worry?”

My heart hammered against my chest. What did she mean by that?

“Yes, Mother,” Jenna said, lowering her gaze. “But—”

“No ‘buts’ young lady,” she said, her brows furrowed together. “Get to your room this instance. We will be speaking about this later.

Jenna stiffened, but she didn’t argue. She gave me one last glowering look before she left the gym, slamming the door shut behind her.

Queen Elizabeth sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose like she was massaging away a headache. I stood frozen, unsure what to say or do. I wasn’t sure what she meant by ‘handling things herself’ and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

I felt that Jenna and her mother were out to get me for reasons I wasn’t sure about.

“I should probably go back to Aiden,” I said pointing at the doorway, glad that my voice didn’t come out stuttering and nervous sounding. “He’s probably wondering what’s taking me so long.”

When Queen Elizabeth didn’t say anything, I retreated towards the door, but her voice stopped me before I could exit.

“You’ll never be the queen you know,” she said, causing me to freeze. “Jenna has worked too hard to get to where she’s at now and we aren’t going to let you ruin her chances.”

Like mother like daughter, I suppose.

I sighed and turned back to face her.

“I don’t want to be a queen,” I told her honestly, saying the same things I said to Jenna only minutes ago. “I’m sorry if that’s hard for you to understand. I just want to be normal and live out my days with my mate. I’m not looking for anything other than peace.”

Elizabeth raised her brows, and it was clear she didn’t believe me.

“We’ll see about that,” she said, keeping her eyes steadily on me.

I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat and turned away from her. I left before I could find out what she meant by that. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

One thing I knew for sure, the sooner we got out of there, the better.

When I got back to the guest room, I was disappointed to see that Aiden wasn’t there.

Where could he have gone?

…..

Aiden’s POV

After Carol left for training with her biological father, I pulled out my phone and called Oliver.

“Did you find anything out?” Oliver asked as soon as he answered the phone.

I updated him after the elevator incident to tell him that I think someone here is out to get us. I told him how sketchy this place was. But besides that, I haven’t really been able to talk to him. I figured now would be a good time to update him on everything I have learned.

“Yeah,” I answered, running my fingers through my hair as I sat on the edge of the bed. “The poison definitely came from here.”

“Yeah, we already knew that,” Oliver said impatiently. “It’s Starlight. The only known source was from the palace. It was supposed to be destroyed years ago but it never was apparently. Or maybe it was recreated.”

“No, it was hidden away in the palace infirmary’s lock box,” I explained. “Nobody was supposed to know about it, even the king. It was kept for emergencies. Just in case it was ever needed.”

“What kind of emergencies would require a potion that powerful?” Oliver asked, sounding way more interested than he had a moment ago. “Starlight is not only illegal in the country, but deadly to all creatures. Just being in its presence is dangerous. It’s a miracle that your father survived this, but his wolf… not so much.”

“How is my father?”

“He had to undergo one more surgery, but he’s stable now. Your mother collected some of the most powerful healers to aid in his recovery. We are hoping he will wake up any day,” Oliver answered. “Though, we might be able to heal him even further and quicker if we spoke to the source. The one who created this poison, I mean. Maybe they have a way to help him.”

I was quiet for a moment; I already knew the answer to this because I had asked her myself.

“There is no cure,” I told him. “I already spoke to the source about it.”

“You know who created this poison?”

“Yes,” I answered, sighing deeply. “Her name is Candace; she created it with her older sister, Francheska many years ago.”

“Why would she create something like this?” Oliver asked, genuinely confused.

“It has to do with Carol.”

I hadn’t told Carol about this yet; she has so much on her plate already that I didn’t want to add another thing to it. But while Carol slept in the clinic, healing from her injuries, I spoke to Candace about this poison and she confessed that it was her who created it; however, she did it for her older sister, Francesca.

Both girls were strong healers from the Amyrran Clan. A couple of years before Carol was born, there was a prophecy about her becoming the high priestess and the most powerful witch in the world with wolf’s blood running through her system. She’s meant to lead the Goddess’s children towards light and love and protect all that resides on the earth. This was a prophecy that Carol and I already knew about, but what we didn’t know was that there was another prophecy.

Carol, like everyone, has the choice between light and dark. She could either be the High Priestess of Light and follow the Moon Goddess on her chosen journey, or she could be the High Priestess of Dark and turn away from the Moon Goddess. Regardless, she would be the most powerful being on earth and she could use her powers for evil, rather than good.

It’s a choice that Carol would have to make on her own; I already know what Carol would choose. I know Carol inside and out and she would never use her powers for evil. She has the purest heart I know, and I trust her fully.

She got lucky and was raised by genuinely good people. I wondered what choice she would make if she grew up in the palace. Would she be a spoiled brat like Jenna, or would she still be the Carol I know and love?

Candance had told me that their coven leader asked her and her sister to go to the estate and work as the palace’s private healers. She wanted them to keep an eye on things and keep the evil away from the future princess. If evil comes, they must purify her and protect her. Candance and Francesca were the only ones the coven leader, and the coven’s priestess, trusted for the job because they were the strongest and most capable. Not to mention they had the purest souls in the region. If anyone could purify another soul, it would be them.

They weren’t sure when this child would be born, but they decided to move to the palace anyway.

The problem was that Francesca was very pregnant.

She was about to pop at any moment by the time they arrived at the estates. The father of this child had been kept secret for months and Candance was sworn to secrecy, so she didn’t elaborate more on that.

But Francesca kept having nightmares about this pending evil and she feared what they were getting themselves into. She feared they weren’t strong enough and that this evil would somehow get to her unborn child.

She came up with a poison that could kill anything, even this pending evil, just in case they couldn’t purify her. Candace was against it at first, but seeing how frightened her sister was, she agreed to use Starlight and Wolfsbane to create the ultimate poison. She ushered her sister out of the room to save her from any type of exposure because she was pregnant, and the fumes could be dangerous. Then, she created the poison herself.

However, even after having this poison, it didn’t make the nightmares go away. Francesca feared that the poison might not be enough to kill the evil that could take over this child. She decided to take matters into her own hands; if there was no queen to give birth, then there would be no evil high priestess.

She attempted to poison the queen’s coffee; however, a servant drank the coffee instead and died immediately. Knowing that the coffee was originally meant for the queen, a hunt was underway for the one who attempted murder.

Another servant saw Francheska snooping around the kitchen and the king caught her before she was able to flee. She was sentenced to death. However, because she was pregnant, they wanted to give her unborn child a fighting chance, so they performed a C-section and gave her child away to another family outside of the estates.

Franchesca died giving birth.

The King and the werewolf council ordered that the poison be destroyed, but Candance couldn’t bring herself to do it, so she hid it away in case of emergencies. However, she’s never touched it.

“So, if hasn’t touched it since then, how did it end up here?” Oliver asked after I finished relaying the story Candance had told me.

“Someone stole it,” I told him.

“Someone other than her has access to it?”

“That’s what we need to figure out. Someone here stole the poison and replaced it with something else. Then they shipped it to someone at the Capital,” I explained.

“It was a team effort?” He asked.

“Yes. So, you need to figure out who received a delivery recently and I need to figure out who stole that poison. Then, we will know for certain who poisoned my father and why they want him dead.”