Chapter Twenty-Three
GRACE
Five days went by since the sanctioned attack on the hell planet. With the explosion of the mountain, and Aaron convincing the crown prince that the wizards decided to die instead of surrender, the next step was to persuade Michael, Lori, and Andrea to keep it a secret.
Grace thought Michael would be harder to convince, but once everybody listened to what the wizards had to say, Michael agreed to keep his mouth shut. Uncovering a conspiracy wasn’t in everybody’s plans. They were just trying to protect their world against radicals. It turned out that not everything was black and white.
For the next couple of days, their secret made them closer than ever, and they often gathered in the library to talk.
“I can’t understand why someone would kill the crown prince because he was protecting a few wizards,” Michael said.
Night had fallen, and they were in the library, waiting for Lori to arrive. She had gone to visit her father. He worked for the Sanabria Secret Service, and his main job was to spy on the Celestials. Despite the good relationships between the king and the celestial royal family, many didn’t believe the angels were as benevolent as they appeared.
“The only reason for that was because the prince uncovered a conspiracy inside the royal family. Someone killed him to prevent him from stopping them,” Noah whispered.
“My uncle didn’t seem like a bad person if he was willing to protect the wizards and teach them the old magic,” Grace said in the same low tone of voice.
“The angels have blamed the prince’s followers for killing him,” Michael reminded them of the past events. “The case is closed, and no one is afraid of the bombs anymore. The Celestials returned from their sky cities. That can only mean that they were the ones behind the bombs in the first place. Your other uncle, the new crown prince, must be behind the whole thing. He was the one who sent us there.”
Grace nodded. “He must have planted the explosives and asked for Aaron’s help, so he would have witnesses from another world to confirm his claims.”
“His plan would have worked if you weren’t part of our team. Why did he choose us?” Michael wondered.
“Maybe he believed that Grace would be killed by the wizards once they realized she was an angel,” Noah said.
“Or maybe he was just testing her powers,” Andrea added.
“When are we going to tell the headmaster?” Michael asked.
“Don’t you trust your grandfather?” Andrea questioned.
“I don’t want him to know just yet. He’ll try to find out more and put himself in danger,” Grace explained.
The door squealed open, and they turned around to see Lori coming their way.
“You’re late,” Michael grumbled.
Lori took a seat beside Andrea and whispered, “I was almost caught by my dad while accessing his computer. I’m good at programming, but I couldn’t crack his password.”
“So, you got nothing,” Michael supposed.
“Dad is not a fan of angels. We had a few conversations, and I told him about how I got my first assignment. I didn’t give him the details since it’s also classified, but I mentioned Sorath’s name, and his face became dark and worried.” She paused before asking, “Do we really believe that Sorath killed Prince Lucas to stop him from uncovering a conspiracy? If that’s so, what sort of conspiracy? What could be so important that he would kill his own brother and blame it on the people he was protecting?”
“We have no way of finding out,” Noah said. “In fact, it’s dangerous for us just to be talking about this.”
“There was an attack on Prince Sorath’s life,” Andrea reminded us. “Do you think he faked it?”
“It was a good way to play the victim,” Lori replied. “The bombs were discovered in time. No one got hurt.”
“Other bombs exploded in other kingdoms,” Michael said.
“This created fear, and people looked to the angels to be protected. The Celestial Queen summoned them to hide in their cities, but Sorath stayed behind to hunt down the culprits. People believed he was their savior once he gave them the scapegoat he created,” Grace conjectured.
Lori added, “And he’s the new crown prince. Once the queen decides to step down, he’ll be king.”
“Maybe he killed his brother because he wanted to be the next king. It’s not unheard of,” Michael declared. “Werewolves aren’t that sneaky, though. The princes can fight among themselves to prove they are strong and more worthy of being kings.”
Grace slightly tapped on the table to have their attention. “We are gathered here today because our exams start next week before winter break. This semester is almost over. We need to concentrate and study hard. There’s nothing we can do about what happened. We protected the wizards, and we’ll keep their existence a secret like we promised. Agreed?”