***Â Lucious POV ***
When the girl left me alone on the terrace I finally remembered who she was, Arabella
And she said her family was supporting me
The Lions were the most influential noble family
Perhaps I could turn my life around
We were the first to leave the banquet and I made sure to hide the bottle well
The Queen and Lysander went in one carriage, meanwhile, I went in another
I lived in the palace with them but in a separate wing, with little to no servants
The Queen was a vicious woman but even she knew her limit when she tortured me
Lysander would mistreat me as well since we both had to take the same classes
The Queen couldn't wait to get rid of me, she threw a fit when I was to take classes with her son, she exclaimed why a bastard needed to learn anything since her son was going to be king
That same night supposedly after her talk with the King, she hurried to her room with her face bruised
Even the King has his limits or needs to let his anger out somehow
I felt comfortable to finally be home as I saw the palace come into sight
The carriage came to a stop and I made sure to wait until the Queen and Lysander were almost inside the palace before I got out and started to make my way inside
I hurried inside to see my mother and wondered if the bottle I had truly was Holy Water
But I had to trust Arabella, she did not seem evil
My mother was lying down on the bed as always barely moving if she could
"Mother, I'm home," I said as I entered her room going to sit next to her
"Lucious, how did it go?" She asked trying to sit up
"It went good," I said as I took out the bottle
" Mother, you have to drink this it's holy water," I said as I took the cap off and brought it up to her mouth
"Lucious where did you get Holy Water, it's expensive," She asked before she drank the whole bottle
"I'll tell you when you wake up," I said as I could see her eyes already start to close and she started to glow which was a reaction to the Holy Water
I decided to stay by her side and make sure she was alright
Now I had to think, I wouldn't suddenly be announced heir for the throne especially not at my age
The king will choose his heir when I and Lysander turn 16, which was still 4 years away
If I truly wanted to become King I needed to find a way to get my mother out of the palace first
Then I could focus on a plan
For that, I needed to contact the Lion's
***THIRD POV***
Two months after the party, things in Evelyn's household still remained busy
The children were constantly attending tea parties or hosting their own and quickly becoming the center of society
Evelyn as well, she was invited by many noble ladies who wanted to gain her favor
Today they were all going to be attending a banquet for another noble boy who was going to be introduced into society
They arrived at the Manor and made their way inside
It was very nicely decorated in colors of fall as the holidays were only a couple of months away
Evelyn and the children made their way to greet everyone and shortly after the Queen with the 2 princes arrived
" Your majesty, we greet you and his highness Lysander along with prince Lucious" Evelyn and the children said in unison as they bowed to show their respects
" Evelyn, it is always a pleasure to see you and your children" The Queen responded as she allowed them to rise
"Lysander, why don't you go mingle with Evelyn's children," The Queen said as she and Evelyn began to have their own conversation
Elijah, Theo, and Jude followed Lysander meanwhile Arabella and Nesrin dispersed to mingle with the girl's
Lucious parted from the Queen to go out to the balcony as always
Thankfully each balcony was covered by a curtain so no one could really tell who was in there or with whom
And he soon turned to find Arabella walking into the balcony along with her younger sister Nesrin
After their encounter, Lucious decided to investigate their family
" We meet again," Lucious said
" Hello your highness, I wanted to know if the Holy Water helped your mother," Arabella asked as she walked up to the railing, meanwhile Nesrin stood by the curtains as a lookout
" It did, thank you," Lucious said
" Your welcome, I hope with that we gained a little bit of your trust because my older brother Elijah wants to meet with you" Arabella replied as she started to fidget with her jewelry
" I want to meet with him as well, but I am unsure about how I could schedule a meeting without the Queen finding out," Lucious said frowning about his own situation
" Please leave that to us, we will handle the meeting" Arabella replied as she started to move towards where Nesrin was
" I look forward to it," Lucious said as he went back to staring out the balcony
Arabella and Nesrin seemingly joined back into the party
Evelyn and the children were one's of the first families to leave and they were all exhausted from the party
Evelyn went straight to her bed and the children each went to their rooms
When the household was quiet the boys moved to the girl's bedroom to discuss things
" Arabella, how did it go?," Elijah asked as he sat on a nearby chair
" He accepted to meet with you" Arabella replied as she went to sit on her bed
" But how are you going to do that," Nesrin asked as she finished brushing her hair and thinking back to the cold looks the Queen gave to Lucious
" Yeah sneaking in is going to be a problem" Theo replied thinking about the top security the palace has
" Well what if we sneak him out," Jude said thinking out loud
" I need some time to think about how we can schedule the meeting because if our plans align with him we will need to meet with him more often" Elijah replied as he started to get up from the chair
" Let's all go to sleep since it was a long day, and let's begin to start brainstorming tomorrow about how this meeting will happen" Theo replied as he started walking toward the door
The children all said their goodbyes
Over the next couple of days, Elijah kept thinking about ways to sneak the prince out, using a mage wouldn't work as the palace had its own protection spells
And they didn't really want to ask many people for help for fear of the Queen finding out
They contacted Jasper who was at their grandparent's estate asked for their assistance, as Jasper was someone who always knew everyone
While Elijah couldn't tell him who it was or why, Jasper instantly understood the situation and began to see what was leaving the Palace
It was going to be difficult at any time during the day but it seemed at night was going to be easier
At night all the dirty clothes were collected from the palace and left outside to be sorted by the maids the next day
It was during this stage that Lucious would be able to sneak out
Now that they had a plan, they needed to find a way to send the message to Lucious and that was going to be by using a cat
Birds could easily be killed especially because it would seem strange for a bird to fly straight to the Lucious since no one contacted them for fear of the Queen
But no one would question a cat
Hiring a messenger cat was expensive but luckily Elijah had been gifted one for his birthday
These cats were trained with magic and became intelligent beings
This is where their plan would start with a cat, dirty clothes, and a surprise.