Great. Just what we need.
Belle is determined that we take care of her and that we try to get her back home, and it seems we’ve all come to a collective agreement.
The girl Alice stays with us. At least until we can return her home.
We all have dinner at a small table inside our luxury cabin. It’s no king-sized meal but it will do. Cooked wraith tastes like shit, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Belle is all too happy to chomp on the flesh of one of the creatures who preyed upon her, and I smile when I see her looking so cocky and sure of herself.
Madoc says she stood up to a bunch of wraiths earlier, and I’ve never been so proud of my sunshine.
Our other human guest, Alice, sleeps in the spare room. It was meant to be Belle’s, but it appears Belle will need a new place to sleep now.
She’s welcome to take my bed.
Enzo sits at the head of the table as usual. Even though we fell from grace and were banished to live at the fringes of our former kingdom, he still eats with all the regality of a king. Although he’s a little rougher around the edges these days, he’s stillking inmyeyes.
Fuck our uncle. He was after our thrones for years, and once our father died and handed down the kingdom to us, his four sons, he was pissed thathewasn’t the one next in line. Yet the moment we all returned to the Abyss, he exploited our weaknesses, seizing his chance, and I swear, we will get him back.
I don’t even know what the hell happened to him after the enchantress banished us. If I had to wager a guess; he was up to no good.
He was always a twisted one, that uncle of ours.
Belle sits kitty-corner to Enzo. Madoc is on her right while I sit opposite the psycho. Nero takes the other end of the table.
The same seating arrangements we had back at the castle in the human world. How some things never change.
I keep stealing glances at Belle. I can tell she’s itching to speak up and I wish she would just say what was on her mind.
“What is it, sunshine?” I ask.
Everyone turns to Belle and she sighs, dropping her fork. “I was thinking... if it would be okay if we could speak to the king. Tell him about everything that’s going on with the humans. After all, it was the main reason I came to the Abyss. To seek your help. Things are getting drastically worse.”
Each of us shuffles uncomfortably. It’s not that we have anything against our uncle. Well, we do. We hate his guts, but he banished us. He threatened he would kill us if we so much as stepped a toe inside the castle again.
Belle has left us in a predicament indeed. But I know she’s right. We can’t just sit around in our luxury cabin for the rest of our lives playing happy
families. We need to take action.
People are suffering. Hell,monstersare suffering. My uncle has knocked everything out of balance since he came into power. He does not have our peoples’ best interests at heart, but he has too many sycophants now.
Many were swayed his way because they lost trust in us. We couldn’t even find it in ourselves to give shelter to an elderly lady, and in the end, she banished us to the human realm.
Our uncle had been amassing a following in the human world for years, and as a result, our own people hate us now.
They think of us as weak.
Enzo sighs, placing his own fork down. “It would be too dangerous, Belle. If he saw us...”
Belle scoffs. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of him. What’s he going to do? If he gets pissy, then challenge him to his throne.”
I guffaw, giving up on my own fork and knife as I eat my charred wraith by hand. “That’s the spirit, sunshine. But it would be suicide.
Enzo is right.”
Belle balls her fists and her fair skin flushes bright red. “So, that’s it? You’re all just going to hide away out here for the rest of your lives and ignore all the suffering? My father is back in the human world waiting for me. I refuse to just sit around and do nothing. We have to act!”
Her shout echoes through the cabin, and it pains me to say that she’s right. She’s absolutely right. But we’ve lost so much of ourselves. We lost our confidence the day our uncle took the throne.