Lilith gasped. But Kyle did not even make a single noise, much less gave any reaction to it. He only gave a hard glare to his eldest brother. It was as if the strong hit was just a slap to him which was obviously not the case.

  "Are you trying to provoke me? Huh, Kyle? Are you acting like this because I exiled your beloved brother Kai?" Zeke’s voice was emotionless but even the ground was almost trembling at the sheer amount of pressure he was exerting.

  At the mention of Kai, the young vampire stiffened. Zeke grabbed the back of his neck roughly and pulled him closer to him.

  "I guess it was a mistake that I refrained from telling you the truth. I’d understand that you’re in your rebellious age, but this is something I can no longer tolerate. Listen……" he bent to whisper in his ear. "Your brother is not exiled because he loved and married a human. I banished him to this country because he will live and die as a human from now and can no longer live as a vampire……" As Zeke narrated the truth about Kai and the price he had to pay for his choice, the young prince trembled, and clenched his fists so tight his knuckles started to turn pure white, and his blood began to drip on the floor. Kai had been his favourite brother.

  When he was a child, Kai often visited him and had taught him most of his fighting skills. He loved Kai the most within the royal family. In fact, he was the only one he could feel really comfortable with and let down his guard around. He was always tensed up in the presence of his other brothers, especially towards this eldest brother of his. That was why when Kyle heard that Kai was exiled and could never return to the kingdom again, he was devastated. He had asked Ezekiel the reason why when it just happened, and the answer he got at that time was because Kai fell in love with a human.

  "You have to understand our reality Kyle. Your beloved brother is already a huge loss so don’t ever try to repeat the same mistake. Yes, Kai managed to keep her alive by sacrificing himself, but he only managed to make it work for them because he loved her more than anything else in this world. Even more than you, his family, his status, his power, his people, this kingdom and more than his own life! I will never allow anyone – especially you to trade all these things just for a woman again, you hear me? It would do you well to heed my warnings and keep that in mind. I will do whatever it takes this time. I don’t care if you hate me for the rest of your life. Do you understand?"

  Kyle was trembling uncontrollably for a while but as time ticked by, he began to calm down and his shoulders finally relaxed. The blood dripping from his tight fists had stopped and he loosened up as a weak voice finally escaped from his mouth. "Yes, I understand. Please just let me bring her back to the Black Forest, and then I will come back and…… I…… I will never see her again. I promise."

  Zeke stared at him for a few heartbeats before letting him go. "I’ll wait for you in the castle. There are still some things you need to know. The king had told me to wait for you to turn 18 …… but I was right, waiting for you to reach such an age first before getting to know about serious matters is ridiculous. I should’ve told you everything sooner." Zeke said and after throwing a neutral glance at the witch girl, he motioned to Raven and the still healing elite vampires not to stop Kyle. "Don’t make me wait, Kyle." He added and then disappeared.

  Raven sighed and leaned against the wall as he too, waited for his wounds to heal. He knew about most of the royal family’s issues, and he understood why the royal bloodline must be kept pure. Back then, Raven found it strange that Ezekiel seemed a little obsessed about the safety of his younger brothers. No one could question that he would be the next king so wasn’t it fine for him to go a little lenient on his brothers? Logically speaking, his future son would inherit the throne anyway, right? When Raven bravely questioned Ezekiel that one time when he ordered them to carry out the most ridiculous order he ever gave – that his other three brothers especially Kyle would be under 24/7 surveillance – he had received a seemingly reasonable but still barely acceptable answer.

  "You seem to have forgotten that I am not an immortal." Was all Ezekiel said to him. It was a reasonable answer but who could kill the invincible Ezekiel? He could not imagine the crown prince being killed by anyone. If this world shall end, Raven could even see him as the last mortal standing. To him and probably to everyone else – even the great Alexander – Ezekiel’s death was something almost impossible to comprehend.

  Thus, it had been bugging Raven for a while now and he also knew that Ezekiel would never do something out of a whim. There definitely is a very concrete reason why he is doing this, why he had to be acting in this manner. Raven did not know why, but he had a gut feeling that Ezekiel seemed to be preparing for something very serious. He wasn’t certain but he started to feel such a strange thing since that very day Alexander met Abigail. Maybe because it was around that time when Ezekiel suddenly began to tighten the security around his brothers and even took the step of forbidding them to leave the kingdom except for Kai who had been stuck with Alexander. What exactly was going on in the crown prince’s mind? What was the real reason behind all these plans and precautions?

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  P.s. to my patrons, I will release three chapters for Spellbound tonight ^^