Chapter 159: Chapter 159

159 Chapter 159 : Crystal clear

Aiden retracted his wings and rushed towards Gareth who had swayed to the side. He put the prince’s arm over his shoulders and helped him steady his stance.

“Not yet used to power now are we?” Aiden spoke to the tired looking man, “how are you going to win over princess Melissa when you can’t even stand up straight.”

Gareth glared at the man beside him and frowned. Who was this man and how the hell did he know about Melissa? Alarm bells started going off in his head, there’s was something eerie about this man, and that woman he had come with also had a strange aura to her, an aura that seemed oddly familiar.

Zander and Finwe rushed to Gareth and took him from the stranger. “Your grace are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Gareth spoke as he settled down on a nearby rock. “Just a bit drained but I’ll be fine.” He looked up at the red headed man and studied him, “the person we should be most interested in is this man standing right here.”

“Aiden..” Dvalin mumbled. The dwarve king’s eyes were bulged and his hands were trembling. His face was completely white like had seen a ghost, “Aiden is that you? You’re alive?! What happened?! We all thought you were dead!”

Everyone looked at the nosferatu prince expectantly waiting for an explanation.

Finwe who had been squatting by Gareth’s side stood up and inched closer to the man with red hair. Aiden? No it couldn’t be, could it? Did king Dvalin just call this man Aiden, the same Aiden his mother had told him so much about, the one who...

“You’re the nosferatu prince who wanted to marry my sister aren’t you,” Finwe spoke in a low jittery voice, “Estel.. you were supposed to marry her, that’s you right?”

.....

The mention of Estel’s name drew a small quick reaction from Aiden but he managed to restore his brooding emotionless look in a fraction of a second. The reacting didn’t escape Gareth’s watchful eyes though, he knew at that point that the topic of Estel, his supposed lost sister, was one that would usually draw an immense reaction from the man. But wait!

Gareth rose to his feet so fast that it made his vision blur a little, Finwe grabbed him by the shoulder to stop him from tumbling backwards and helped him stand up straight. “Careful you haven’t fully recovered yet,” Finwe advised his brother whose Aztec tattoos were yet to fade.

Gareth nodded and turned back to Aiden, “did he just say you’re the nosferatu prince?”

Aiden sighed and threw his head back, “questions.. questions..” he cocked his head back up and gave Gareth an attempted smile, “is that how you thank someone who practically saved your lives? Haven’t I proved that I’m an ally?”

“If you’re an ally then you’ll have nothing to hide,” Gareth stated, “and you should have no problem answering any of my questions.”

“Touché prince Gareth,” Aiden responded with a slow clap, “nothing gets past you.” He moved towards a stone and pointed at it, “may I? It’s been a bit of a rough day and I’m covered in monster blood, you could at least offer me a seat.”

Gareth scoffed before nodding at the man and sitting across from him. He hadn’t noticed before but now upon further inspection, he could see the resemblance between this man and his beloved Melissa. They had the same sapphire blue eyes, the same red hair, and even their lips where a bit similar in shape. This man was basically the slightly older male version of Melissa.

“The resemblance is uncanny isn’t it?” Aiden uttered when he noticed Gareth’s speculating glare.

“You read minds?” The elven prince questioned Aiden.

“Of course not,” Aiden replied casually, “i could see it in your eyes.”

“Who are you? I’m now aware that your name is Aiden, but who are you exactly?” Gareth questioned the man.

“Just like your brother mentioned,” Aiden began explaining, “I am a nosferatu prince. First son and child of Kaiser Stefan and queen Marceline of Wintershold.”

“So you are Melissa’s brother?”

“Yes I am,” Aiden responded, “I can’t say I’ve been the best big brother though, I’ve barely been there for my baby sister.”

“And my sister, Estel,” Gareth added on, he was adamant on finding out as much as he could on the mysterious man, he had to determine whether he was friend or foe. “What was your relationship with her?”

Aiden paused for a bit before answering Gareth’s third question. His blue eyes swayed and landed on Finwe who was standing besides the dark haired elven prince. Finwe looked more like Estel than Gareth did. They had the same hair color, the same face shape and nose. The only thing that was different was their eyes, Estel’s eyes were a very beautiful combination of brown with a drizzle of purple. Gareth had those eyes.

“Estel is going to be my wife,” Aiden responded in a controlled tone of voice, “she is the mother to my child.”

“I see,” Gareth responded. From what he heard, Estel had been kidnapped by humans from right under Aiden’s nose. The nosferatu prince blamed himself for not being able to protect her and had never stopped looking for her since, the poor man, was Estel even still alive? It would be such a shame to find out that she had passed after looking for her for so long. Was he here in the woods to look for her?

“Why did you help us?” Gareth asked, “you could have easily left us to deal with the monster ourselves, it wasn’t any of your business, you could have have just ignored us and carried on with your day, maybe even sending help later on at your convenience. So why? What do you stand to gain from aiding us?”

Ah Gareth was smart Aiden had to admit. He should have expected as much, his lie about helping from the goodness of his heart was not going to work with this one, but luckily he had another card up his sleeve.

“You’re right prince Gareth that monster was truly non of my business,” Aiden admitted, “I could have just simply left you all to die here and continued my life of exile. So you got me, I did have a motive behind helping you, there is something I stand to gain.”

“Humor me,” Gareth responded, “what is it you want?”

“I want to meet my sis-”

“Not a chance!” Gareth growled. He got to his feet and glared at the red head before turning to leave.

“Now hold on a minute lover boy.” Aiden vanished from his sitting place and materialized in front of Gareth making everyone gasp.

“Is that black magic?” Gareth questioned Aiden. If he said yes, that would just be more reason to keep him away from Melissa.

“I may have gained a few new abilities after my umm.. transformation,” Aiden explained, “but it’s certainly not dark magic.”

“Regardless, I’m not letting you anywhere near Mel,” Gareth declared as he pushed Aiden aside, “why the sudden interest in her?”

“If you had been living in exil for over a century wouldn’t you jump at the idea of meeting your family?!”

Gareth halted in his tracks and turned back to face Aiden.

Gotcha, Aiden thought to himself as he inched towards the dark haired prince, “I have been completely and utterly alone for a very long time Gareth, exiled because I lost my temper and made a few bad decisions. Look at me, I look like a monster but deep down you know I’m a nosferatu through and through. When my sister was born and sent off to the humans, i didn’t even get the chance to meet her. And because I didn’t know what exactly she looked like, I couldn’t find her and protect her.”

Aiden inched closer to Gareth and looked at him with sincere sorrowful eyes, “I just want a chance to be with my family, and you’re the only one who can help me. Please.”

Gareth averted his gaze from the blue eyed man. Damn those eyes, they were just like Melissa’s, so incredibly difficult to say no to. But Gareth knew little to nothing about this man, sure his story about wanting to meet his sister was touching, but could he really trust him? Was Aiden capable of hurting Melissa? And in the event that he did, was Gareth capable of hurting him, his beloved’s blood brother?

Gareth sighed and turned to Aiden, “fine, I will allow you to travel with us. But if I sense anything is off about you.. make one mistake, one slip up... let me realize at any point your story doesn’t add up... I will forget that you are Melissa’s brother. Is that clear?”

Aiden was impressed, he almost felt intimidated by Gareth. Not only was this prince smart but he had a keen sense of judgement as well, the typical traits of someone born and molded to lead. He had to work extra hard to make sure to stay In Gareth’s good books because he was sure that the last part of Gareth’s statement ‘I will forget that you are Melissa’s brother,’ was not a bluff.

“I said is it clear?” Prince Gareth repeated himself.

“Crystal,” Aiden responded with a small smile.