BLUE
“Do you suppose she knows about it?” I turned to Fred, who was trying to whisk something for breakfast, while Scarlett’s mistress watched from the distance with a puzzled look on her face, probably wondering if we were the same kings she had heard so much about. We’d been here for longer than we have done since we left this place. Our Bunny didn’t want to return, and we couldn’t force her to do that. She was just so stubborn, and we knew we had to tread carefully with her.
“Knows what?” He turned to look at me, a frown on his face at getting disturbed. Expertly turning the eggs, he tried to keep his focus on me, and half on the eggs. Our Bunny loves her fried eggs with pepper, onions, salt and spice, so we try to make it as good as she likes. Okay, not we, Fred. He was the one who cooked while I stood next to him, keeping him company.
I’m such a wonderful brother, right?
“Our plans.” I glared at him, wondering where his head was at. I figured he would know what I was talking about without having me spell it out.
“Plans? What do you -”
“Pardon me for interrupting, my kings, but someone is at the door,” a guard said as he walked in, bowing from his chest down.
“Who?”
Ever since we returned, we have had no visitors. Well, not everyone knew of our return. The only people who saw us were those who lived in the forest we went to save, and our guards.
“Da Ankora.”
“Fuck, I should have known.” Groaning, I rubbed the back of my neck, already aware of his reasons for coming over. That man undeniably had such strange timings, almost like he was spying on us, to know our every move so he could rush in and rub everything on our faces.
“Let him in,” Fred said before I could ask the guard to send him out.
“Yes, my king, I will -”
“What the hell, man?” I glared, folding my arms. “You know why he’s here, don’t you? To rub it in our faces that he was right all along, and we were wrong?”
His words made me wonder if he realized what he was doing. Da Ankora only came for one thing, and I knew what it was. Yes, the man wanted to rub it in our faces that he was right all along. We were, after all, back in the kingdom we vowed we wouldn’t return to.
Lifting his shoulders in a lazy shrug, he switched the gas cooker after removing the eggs from the frying pan. “Do you think you can keep him at bay for how long? Two weeks? Months? Years? That man is like a pest. He will still find ways to seek us out. I doubt we could do anything about it. Let’s just let him in and hear what he has to say.”
“Not at all. I don’t want to see him today.”
The guard who came to relay the news looked from me to Fred, and back at me, trying to figure out what we wanted from him.
“But I do, and I think our Bunny also wants that, don’t you think?” He lifted a perfect brow, infuriating me further with that taunting expression on his face. “I say we let him in, to know what he has to say. It won’t cost us anything, you know?”
“But -”
“Let him in,” he said to the guards, who looked more than ready to bolt for the door.
“Okay, my king, I will -”
“Tell him we are not around. He can check for us tomorrow,” I interrupted before the guard could flee for the door. “We don’t want to receive any visitors today.”
“I will do so, my king. I -”
“Let him in,” Fred’s voice came out harder as he narrowed his eyes at the guards. “Are you hard on your ears or what? Why can’t you do as I asked? Let Da Ankora in.”
“Okay -”
“No, don’t do that. Tell him we are out. I don’t want to see him today.”
“Yes, my -”
“Ignore Blue and let him in, he needs -”
“What the hell is going on here?”
We both froze at the sound of her voice, gulping as sweat beaded on our foreheads. It was funny how much we feared hearing her voice now when we never cared about it before.
I took a deep breath, my gaze going over to Fred, who was pretending to be engrossed with the fried eggs on the plates. Of course, my brother wouldn’t help because he knew I caused the argument. Had I not refused to let Da Ankora in, our Bunny wouldn’t have walked in on us arguing like kids. “Bunny!” I turned to her with a smile, acting like I didn’t hear her. “When did you wake up? We were about to come over to the room to check on you.” I chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of my neck, and praying she didn’t pry further into it.
She strode over to me with her eyebrows raised, flanked by Chris, who was always with her, attached to her hip like a sword. Okay, not on her hips, but come on.
“Who’s at the door?”
“No one.” I closed the distance between us and leaned down to place a kiss on her right cheek. “What of Chrysolite? Is she still sleeping?” I asked about our adopted daughter – don’t tell her I called Chrysolite that, else she would start going on about how we haven’t done the deeds with her – to keep her from asking questions.
“Yeah, she’s still sleeping.” Nodding, our Bunny turned to the guard, who was still standing there like a statue, awaiting orders. “Who is at the door?” Her tone left little to be disobeyed. She sounded just like the queen she was born to be.
Most times she makes us wonder where the timid woman we met months ago went. This wasn’t how she was when she signed the contract with us, else she wouldn’t have done that. Now, she looked so much like a powerful monarch.