The Gemini Reign
: Chapter 16

Frustrated, I inhaled deeply and said, “If she dies, I will be king. Right now, I am still the direct heir to the throne. You have to listen to me. I know better than anyone the risk of this plan. Look, she was with Avery before her condition got severe. Just ask her. I bet she sent a message through her words to Avery.” I turned to a stunned Avery.

“Um…I guess she said some weird stuff.” She said, flustered at the attention.

“C’mon, think. Did she talk about the throne? Responsibility? Threats? Anything like that?” I asked.

Avery’s eyes widened. “Yeah, Selene told me she would be queen so she couldn’t have a normal childhood and that she wanted me to take advantage of my freedom. She told me that many royals die young that there was a situation that makes it for her to die young. She said if she died, you would take the throne and that she couldn’t trust anyone, not even her own family.” She said slowly, recalling the information.

I grinned. I knew I was right! I knew she couldn’t trust anyone, but I wasn’t mad that she said she couldn’t trust family because she wasn’t talking about me, Aiden, Avery, or even Aunt Dahlia. She was talking about the Russians. They were her “family” because our mother was half Russian, and our father was entirely Russian. She couldn’t trust them because they didn’t want her on the throne. That was the “situation” she was talking about. Except I needed a way to explain that to my family without giving away the real plan.

I knew they meant well, but it was interfering with my plan. If I needed to use my status to save Selene’s life and honor her wishes, I would.

“I was right, and you know it. We have to do this. Selene wanted us to.” “Do what?” Avery asked abruptly. I turned to look at her and smiled. “We have to go to Zabaria,” I said.

Uncle Amel stood up and said, “Even if you are the next heir and a royal, we are as well, and so are your mother’s cousins. You are not the only one with a claim to the throne. You are in danger. Going to Zabaria increases the risk of you dying, all of you.”

“Stay put, we’ll take Selene to a dragon healer, an expert, and you all will go to a safe house. You are only kids. It’s not your job to handle these things. Amel is…right, it’s not safe in Zabaria, what with the clans fighting and the regent dying, unrest is all there is in our world. The Russians are declaring war by poisoning Selene, and the regent needs our help.” Aunt Dahlia added.

“Wait, we are the children of the queen and king, we should be first in the line of succession, and I thought mom’s mom had no brothers and sisters? How come she has cousins? Also, why are you worrying about the clans when Russia and Italy are so far away from each other?” Avery asked.

“Well, royal stuff is complicated, but…yeah, we are the first in the line of succession, but mom’s mom had cousins, and those cousins had babies who are moms cousins. Also, Dragons can fly, so proximity isn’t a problem, and we aren’t Russian or Italian. We just use those terms in the human world. The real terms for us are blue clan and red clan. The official clans’ names are Caeruleam and Coccineus in Latin, but we just use English in informal situations. It’s complicated.” I explained.

Aiden suddenly started speaking, his voice angry and bitter, “The Russians do not care about who will take the throne. They want to have their kingdom again, the sole kingdom is in Italy, and if they need help, they don’t get it because they aren’t welcome in red territory, simply because the blue clan is more aggressive. Not all of them are horrible.” We all turned toward him in surprise. Why was he defending his captors? Suspicion and paranoia crept into my head. I didn’t mention it. I didn’t have to…

“How do you know?” Aunt Dahlia questioned, her voice merely curious. I cut in, not wanting to get off-topic.

“That’s not important right now. Besides, we have bigger problems. I know you have to take Selene to a good doctor but do you want to leave us alone? What if we get taken like Avery? Would you even care?” I didn’t want to provoke them or play the damsel in distress card, but…I had no choice. I had no choice but to follow through on Selene’s plan, her real plan. We weren’t going to Zabaria just for fun. We were going on a mission. To replace out the truth, as Aiden said. To gain the trust of our family. To save our Kingdom.

Avery

I didn’t know whether to be surprised, shocked, or nauseous. Probably nauseous because I didn’t think I had any more shock or surprise left in me anymore after these past few days. Justin touching on me being kidnapped reminded me about Rebecca. What happened to her after we were rescued. I felt horrible thinking about what they could have done to her. Did they “lock away” her memories as they did mine? What about the police? They must have been contacted about her missing.

“Of course we care, which is why you’ll stay here but in a safe house.” Uncle Amel said, interrupting my thoughts.

“This was supposed to be a safe house. We’ve always lived in a safe house. How come they were able to take Aiden and Avery, Mom…and dad.” What? This was the first I had heard of my father in a long time. I remembered very little of him, which was weird since he had been there until I was captured five mo—two years ago. I wonder if that was a coincidence or not. Did they take my memories of him too? I was pulled back into the conversation (more like the argument) between Aunt Dahlia and Justin.

“Justin, we are not insolent. We know what you are trying to do, but all you are managing is to bring up uncomfortable memories for the twins.” Aunt dahlia replied, being harsher on him.

For a second, I thought I saw anger flash in his eyes before his shoulders slumped in defeat. He was either planning something or imagined the spark of anger because he sat down on the couch looking defeated.

“Fine, you got me. Just remember, if anything happens…it’s your fault.” He said it so that one might think he was threatening them, but his face remained emotionless.

Oh yeah…he was planning something.