Hellbound Heart

"Simple. To eliminate the threat to his throne, Sunshine." Elijah answered without any hint of doubt in his tone. As if what he had just said was a proven fact.

Elle slightly shook her head in disbelief. "I don't... understand. If that is true, why did he not just give out the order for those hunters to... harm the boy? Wouldn't that be easier and get the job done faster?"

"Eliminating doesn't only mean killing, Princess Elle. If the boy had gone mad, then he would be automatically unfit for the throne. Also, the Crown Prince can not just kill the boy. He had taken a vow to never take the life of any of his brothers. That's why he'd resorted to that tactic. Unfortunately for him... the boy was smarter than he'd ever thought."

She could not help but crease her brows deeper. "Is the Crown Prince so powerless that he had to go so far as to go after a young boy like that?"

It was Elijah's turn to shake his head. "He's the complete opposite of powerless, Sunshine. He is so powerful that he had ruled for hundreds of years even though he was never formally addressed as 'king'. He'd even had his father, the king in name, as his puppet until his death."

"Then why? If he's that powerful, why would he even... bother to..." she trailed off when Elijah pushed himself off the wall and approached her again.

"Let me tell you a small secret of that young boy, Princess Elle." He stopped right before her, reaching out and braced his hand against the bar. Then he bent over a little and continued. "The Crown Prince had apparently found out from the vision of the prophetess that... the boy is going to be crowned King someday."

Elle's eyes stretched wide, never expecting what he had just said. She had already heard of what the vampires were speaking of about 'the prophetess'. She would hear whispers and low-voiced comments about this mysterious person, but never had she heard any clear and straightforward information on her. She had also read it in one of the books that this oldest vampiress could apparently see and foretell some future events.

Pulling away, Elijah straightened. His eyes now bright with something eerie. "The Crown Prince had found out about that vision since the day the boy was born. And that's why the Crown Prince had done all those things... threatened the boy's mother and forced her to hide her pregnancy, drove her insane, and then tried to drive the boy insane too."

"That Crown Prince ... is Prince Ezekiel, right?" Elle finally asked the obvious. She wanted to confirm it by hearing Elijah saying it himself, but one look in his eyes at that moment had given her the obvious answer. Yes. She was right. It was Prince Ezekiel that he had been talking about.

She did not know much about Ezekiel. She had not even met him or knew where he even was right now. But she had heard of nothing but good things when Abi had talked about him before. She could not explain why, but she had instantly believed in Abi's words about Ezekiel without even a tinge of doubt.

And now, even after what she had heard from Elijah, his account of this Prince Ezekiel from his point of view, she still could not believe the Ezekiel that Elijah was talking about was the one and the same Ezekiel Abi had been telling her about back in the Black Forest. She still remembered how Abi had described Ezekiel. Yes, he had been cold and aloof. But never was he cruel and unjust. He had always carried himself with the manner of a powerful ruler of the vampires that was befitting his stature as a Reign royal. And Abi also had whispered to her how after Ezekiel had fallen in love with Alicia, he had taken such good care of her that it could not reflect the vicious and unsympathetic personality that Elijah had painted of him.

Elle then wondered if Elijah somehow had formed some kind of misunderstanding on the matter as she was quite sure that Abi would not be mistaken in identifying how Ezekiel was since both she and Alex had been friends with him for such a long time already. However, she had doubts if Elijah had even bothered communicating with Ezekiel properly or at a personal level at all.

"I... I am actually having a hard time believing that... Prince Ezekiel did all those things." She replied, speaking slowly as she was hesitant in sharing her thoughts freely. "Have you... ever talked to him about all those things? I mean, regarding the matters that you had just told me about. What if... what if there's been a misunderstanding? What if..." she broke off when Elijah scoffed as his face twisted into a sneer.

"Sunshine..." he drawled out tauntingly. "You think this matter could be solved with just talking? You don't know how cunning Ezekiel is. He's the most cunning man you'd ever heard about. What if I tell you he had already talked to me about this a few times before? Do you know what he told me? He said that he did not do anything to my mother. He told me it was my mother who was the cunning one. That she was the cunning villainess who had planned everything since the very beginning. It was her plan to get me to hate my brothers to death and fight them to the death for the throne. And despite the fact that I had watched with my own eyes on how my mother changed and fell into madness, I was sold on that reasoning because of Ezekiel's cunning mouth. I believed in him, hook line and sinker. That it was all my mother's fault. But that was the greatest sin and mistake I've ever done in my entire long life... believing Ezekiel's words without any evidence and despising my mother for everything I thought she had done."

His breathing changed a little as he braced his arms against the bars again. Towering over Elle as he continued with utter hatred burning in his grey eyes. "I should've believed her without a doubt... the woman who had brought me into this world. More than anyone else, I should have trusted her instead of believing in the stone-hearted and demonic man who called himself 'my brother'. But I failed her and it was already too late when I realized my foolishness. Because my mother had to ultimately kill herself for me to come to my senses."