Prologue:
The World is Much Colder, With You and I In It
Alexei
The hallway I walked down was bitterly cold, and the dark seemed to continue on forever. Quinn held onto my right arm nervously with her head bent as she hurried to keep my pace. Landon was suction cupped to my leg, and his sword kept clanking against my boot heel. It was, quite frankly, annoying, but I didn’t dare scold him for it. The guards we passed all held grimaces, which made Landon tighten his grip. We finally came to a large oak door, which held a gold name plaque on its face. “Levi Pelletier…?” Quinn asked.
“My father’s last name before he married Morgan,” I replied bitterly, “Looks like he went and changed that back quick.”
“Should I wait out here with Landon?”
“We’ll see. I don’t trust anyone around here, so unless he asks you to leave, stay close.” I raised my fist to the door and knocked three times, my heart thudding with anxiety.
There was a swivel of a desk chair before the heels of men’s loafers clicked across the tile floor. A lock turned, and the door slowly opened. In the years since I last saw him, Levi had barely changed. Though he was now forty-five, the same pale blonde hair we shared prevented him from turning gray. His flat green eyes filled with curiosity at the three of us, and he breathed a soft scoff of annoyance. “You came after all?” He taunted.
“I did; can we speak for a moment?” I confidently asked.
“I suppose so.” He walked back into the room, and I followed, tugging Quinn with me.
She and I sat in the chairs before Levi’s desk, where I pulled Landon into my lap and offered him a notebook to scribble on. He went to work doodling stick figures as Levi propped his legs up and folded his hands on his chest. The room was as dark as the hallway, and reeked of cigarette smoke and leather. “Thank you for meeting with us,” I tried.
“What do I owe thee the pleasure, your highness?” He hissed, which made me swallow.
“I… have a few questions for you, if you have the time?”
“You dragged yourself all the way out here, so let’s hear them.” He paused, glancing over Landon and Quinn curiously, “You’ve gotten married? Glad to know I was sent an invitation.”
My blood boiled in an instant, “Why would I invite you? It took me two years to track you down, and another six months to get you to agree…!”
“All you do is yell; could you lower your voice for five seconds, you spoiled little brat? God, I hope you aren’t teaching this boy the same behaviors. One of you is enough for this world, and I would hate to have to clean up the mess of a second one,” he bitterly snapped.
Landon stopped drawing, and slowly looked up in shock to Levi. Quinn went to take him into the hallway, but he blinked at his grandfather and said, “Why don’t you like daddy?”
I yelped in horror, but Levi simply smiled and stood. He walked around the desk and knelt before Landon, his eyes dead and hollow, “Your father is the reason I am no longer king, and that I lost everything I have ever loved in this world. Your, daddy, is nothing more than a waste of my DNA…” he snarled, which made Quinn gasp.
“Alexei!” She cried as Landon’s mouth slacked in horror.
I ripped him up and stormed to the door, trembling in pure anger. Levi chuckled darkly, which made me hesitate. “Running from me again, Alexei? What’s the matter; you have no power here, so you have to run back to the only place you do? How pathetic…”
“Let’s… go.” Quinn snapped, pulling on my arm.
I slowly set Landon into her embrace, where he was shaking from Levi’s comment. I combed a strand of his hair back, which helped him settle down slightly, “Landon, why don’t you tell mommy about what you’re learning with Oliver? I'm sure she would love to hear about how well you scored on your history test?”
He gasped happily, and turned to his mother with a huge smile, “Can I, Mommy?!”
“Of course you can; we’ll wait right out here for daddy,” she said, frowning to me before walking into the hallway.
I slammed the door shut and turned to my father, who had procured a cigar that he had sandwiched between his lips. “Do you get some kind of sick thrill in talking to a child like that?”
“You call that a child? I call it much worse than a child. How dare you think I would be welcoming to your whore and her little obligation to royal money. You, and your family, mean nothing to me.” He said with so much acidity that I felt the venom on my skin. His words sent goosebumps up my arms, and I had to grip my belt loop to steady myself.
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“You wonder why I'm so cruel; look what raised me…”
“I WAS NOTHING BUT PATIENT WITH YOU!” He screamed, slamming his fist on the desk, “I DID EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO MAKE YOU HAPPY, AND YOU STILL STABBED ME IN THE BACK! I LOST EVERYTHING BECAUSE OF YOU!”
“Lost everything? I find that funny, because you had no problem leaving behind the woman you call your ‘everything’. You act as if you were some noble husband, and a great king everyone looked up to. I may be a waste of your DNA, but all you ever were was a donor to give Morgan what she wanted. She needed a king to be able to rule, and heirs so The Committee would shut up. She probably only fucked you the three times it took for you two to have us…”
“I loved your mother…” he whispered abruptly, clenching his fists as he turned to the windows, “I loved her more than my heart could ever bare. When you were born, I loved you just the same. Morgan and I worshipped the very ground you walked on, and all it lead to was our demise. I was the one who took you to counselor after counselor, helped you swallow pills, and stayed up with you every night that you had your fits. I loved you so much that I ran out of love for Riley, and had nothing to give Dmitri. I lost a beautiful relationship with my children, because I sacrificed my all to make you happy. How am I supposed to forgive you for that?”
“I’ll have you know that I found a medication that works,” I started, making him turn to me in awe, “It took a few years, and a lot of money, but a doctor in America finally identified a drug that seems to be working. I haven’t had an episode in over six months.”
“Congratulations; it must be a relief to finally feel better.” He said genuinely.
I shrugged lamely, “Oh, it truly is. I'm not afraid to father my own child, for starters, and I can think clearly for the first time in my life.”
“Are you pulling out of the war?” He hesitantly tried.
I laughed a soft, breathy sound, which made him shudder slightly, “Oh, no, nothing in that department has changed, especially after the success rate I’ve had recently. With my clearer thinking, I am able to pinpoint the main issue in my army, and plan out more thorough attacks. Joshua has incredible plans for the future.”
“So it isn’t the schizophrenia; you truly are just a monster?” He choked.
“The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, Levi, remember that. Let’s not forget how many times I walked in on you and Morgan close to fist fighting one another. Someone had to teach me how to be a good big brother to Dmitri.”
He tilted his head up and slowly turned to me, trembling in absolute anger, “What, did you do, to my son?” He hissed in utter horror.
I held my hands up, “Me? I did nothing, it was Joshua who raised him to be such a good boy. Had you stuck around long enough you would know, but the list varies. Whips, belts, brands… locking him in the dark… you know, anything and everything that would mentally scar a child. Unfortunately for us, though, he is the spitting image of his mother, and took it like a champ. He currently is a Cavalry for The North Kingdom and has been quite the nuisance for some time. Granted, he and Joshua had a wonderful family reunion recently, and I do think we put him out of commission for some time.”
“You, you lied to me, all of these years? You told me they were dead, to stop coming back for them because they were…? Dear God… What have I done…?” Levi crumpled, and hand to grip the edge of his desk from fully hitting the floor.
I snorted and kicked his leg to make him look at me again, “Don’t act like father of the year now, because it won’t score you any points. Do you really think the boys would forgive you for what you’ve done? Dmitri came running to me the day you left because you utterly stomped his heart to pieces, which gave me the perfect excuse to earn his trust. By the time I disposed of Morgan, he was so desperate for love and attention that he actually believed I would be the one to give it to him. In all honesty, I'm very surprised he’s able to function at all. If you lived your entire life isolated and abused, it surely would make it impossible for you to trust others.”
“You just love this, don’t you? You came all this way to try and intimidate me, but it’s not working. I have made my mistakes, and prayed for many years for forgiveness. You pouring salt into open wounds is not going to shake me.”
“You say that, yet I can see you trembling. This world you trying to escape to is nothing but a façade. At the end of the day, you are still Levi Mortimer. You are the failed king of a war torn country, and a failure as a husband and father. You abandoned your wife when she needed you most, and left two young children with England’s most notorious psychopathic murderer, as the papers kindly refer to me as.” I sat back in the chair and balanced one leg over the other, moving my eyes up to the ceiling to keep my composure, “You thought you could run to Ireland and expect no one to bring up your faults ever again. News flash, Levi; I still exist, and so do Dmitri, Riley, and Morgan. All of us have given up hope that you will ever man up and return to finish what you started, but that doesn’t mean I won’t make sure you hear my voice in your nightmares.”
“Spoken like a true villain,” he mumbled under his breath.
My confidence was breaking, and I know if I didn’t get on with it, I would end up snapping. “The world is much colder, with you and I in it. No matter how brightly Dmitri’s little halo shines, I will always be the darkness that shrouds over it. You’re golden child may win the battle, but I sure as hell will win the war. With that being said, let’s get to the real purpose of why I came here.” I pulled an envelope from my pocket and held it out to him, my eyes like glass in the mirror Levi stood beside.
He hesitantly reached forward and plucked it from my fingertips, then peeled it open nervously. “What is this…?”
“An invitation; the other three clowns shall receive one as well. I do believe it is high time that the five of us share one last hurrah, before the cannons fire. It has been years since we all sat at one table, and I would like the opportunity to do so one last time.”
Levi scoffed and clutched the letter, doing everything in his power to keep from crumbling it, “You’re joking, right? You want to have tea and crumpets in the middle of war!? What the fuck makes you think Morgan or the boys would agree to this!?”
“Oh, don’t worry, they’ll be there. I do hope you will be as well. It’s time the rulers of The West Kingdom finally had a family discussion, don’t you think?” I winked and stuffed my hands in my pockets, turning for the door. Levi continued to stare at the invitation as I turned the knob, then looked over my shoulder, “Dress nice, would you? Your years of solitude certainly has made you into quite the unkempt hermit.” I chuckled before closing the door behind me.