Hideout

**Trevor POV**

Princess Lydia was a more courageous princess than I gave her credit for, even if she had selfish tendencies. The girl heard a strange noise coming from the opposite side of the banquet hall. Lydia had agreed to go on ahead, flanked by two random guards whose names I did not care to learn. Ordering me to leave her side was very brave, but I would have to remind her the boss was later tonight in bed.
Loud screams brought me back to the task at hand.
Damn it all!
I spun on my heel and raced back towards my welcoming banquet. Ahead of me, I saw many guards calling for blood. They were chanting about how the Princess and King's blood had been shed. It seemed to rile up any idly standing men into joining them. The words rang out louder with each hall I passed. Heavy footsteps and the clanging of iron on the hardwood flooring proved to make hunting for the assassin a challenge.
Based on the chanting, I could only assume the assassin had left the banquet for a quick escape. Judging by the different directions random guards and men ran in, they had lost sight of him.
In that case, should I turn back? King Ulrich and Aileen were clearly injured. If the assassin had disappeared already, there wasn't much more I could accomplish anyway.
An enormous aura cut through my thoughts. From my current distance, I couldn't make out the shape or color of the aura; however, I could tell the direction it was coming from. As long as the person kept using their elemental power, I could track them!
The closer I got to the aura, the slower I padded down the halls. I didn't want the assassin sensing me nearing him. With God on my side, I might see where he's been hiding or a jackpot of information.
God did love his most stunning creation well. No doubt I would be finding both secret intel and the hideout. Heck, I may stumble upon who hired the man in the first place!
*If only He had been on my Cupca- Natalie's side. Fuck, I really did love that woman didn't I?*
This time, I let that thought run its course through my system. Let Natalie's murdered image fill me up with hatred. Just this one time, I would give in to it. Soon, I would be confronting her killer. The more anger and sorrow I could pull from, the better.
My teeth ground together as I passed the first oil-painted portrait of the late Queen.
The assassin had some seriously giant balls. I was very much contemplating heavily on detaching them off his body.
Carefully, I peeked my head from behind the stone corner. The aura ahead of me was sparking a dull red. The colors surrounding him seemed to drag downwards as if he, too, had a heavy heart. As if the bastard still had one. His would-be all shriveled up. We all have a choice in life. There was no need to give pity to someone who picked money over protecting the weak.
Fire was blazing near his feet, causing smoke to fill the hall. Covering my mouth to hold back a coughing fit, I watched as the black-cloaked man burned a hole in the floor. A hideout! I knew God still loved me! The man lowered himself slowly into the created hole and reached over for the purple rug with a gold trim.
Strange, now that I thought about it, the first time I saw the courtyard, there were no rugs. All that mattered were portraits of the Queen and her daughter and lilacs in well-polished vases. So why when I came here with Natalie, it was here? The King didn't strike me as a man who would care too much about decor. At least, not enough to change it. Or notice something so usual added either.
Closing my eyes, I listened for the assassin's footsteps. I had no idea how deep the hole went, but I could sense water not too far below. Fearing the murderous bastard hearing my footsteps, I got down on my hands and knees. Crawling slowly to the hideout, I reached for my elemental water. I should be able to feel the ripples when his feet splash.
As I approached the rug, I started rolling it back myself. Near the middle, I noticed a thin circular plate. Using my fingertips, I flicked the odd appearing metal. It was light but durable. I saw the symbol for a manufacturing company back home in the right-hand corner.
How the fuck did the assassin manage to get this here?!
*Plop..piddle. Piddle.*
The assassin was all the way down now. My fingers went away from the rug and to the blacked wood. A dark circle, just barely smaller than the metal part of the rug, rested by my knees. Lightly with my knuckles, I tapped on the wood. A jolt of adrenaline spiked in my veins when it made an echo sound. Did he hear me? Or was it light enough for him to believe someone was just walking past? Either way, I waited to see if he would call on an elemental ability.
While I waited for a few minutes, I examined the hole closer. The ground was hastily forced back together after being burned. Upon further inspection, most of the wood surrounding the hole had been thinned. No wonder a metal plate was needed! How could my genius brain have missed this?!
Using the water in the air, I produced a fat hammer-shaped ice cycle. Mindful of the echo, I lightly hit the recently reformed ground. This took longer, but there was nowhere else for the assassin to go.
After ten solid minutes of breaking off tiny pieces of burned wood and two annoying splinters to dig out of my palms, I had a nice Trevor-sized hole.
There would be nowhere for the assassin to run. *You're trapped now, bastard!*
I dropped down into the frigid water that came up to my shins. It was thick with muck, and God only knows what else. Judging solely on the stench, I would guess this to be some kind of sewage disposal system. For the love of everything holy, I hoped this wasn't where the commodes were emptied.
The literal light at the end of the tunnel proved to be my saving grace. Lit candles were leading the way. No, they were actual light bulbs! And under those glorious shining bulbs was concrete! Dry, wonderfully dry concrete.
Inwardly I thanked God again. This whole trip wasn't going to be an actual shit show. After dragging my feet out of the muck I still refused to look down at, I kept my body pressed firmly to the wall.
Something caused me to stumble and fall against the wet stone. A quick glance down at my leg showed me a thin silver line. Seconds later, a loud alarm blared, screeching worse than a banshee. A tripwire?! Out of all the modern things I've missed, I had to come across a mother fucking tripwire alarm system?! What was this place?!
Tingles from a powerful elemental aura shot into the air. My training surfaced as my feet hit the ground heavily. The aura was getting progressively further away. No point in concealing my power now. Water was in ample supply down here. I quickly formed the water into a blade shape and hardened it to ice. My new weapon twinkled beautifully in the swinging lights.
The tunnel led me to a rather large room. There was a dirty mattress with some kind of plastic wrap underneath it. Papers were stacked high, resting opposite the bed. It had plastic coverings below each leg. Next to the documents was a computer screen. Several wires from the tunnel connected to the back of it.
If only I had my phone on me, I could quickly snap some pictures and move on. Wait, where was the computer plugged in at? Did the assassin just pack a butt load of batteries like Aileen?
Sure enough, below the computer was an outlet. There's an outlet in this dimension! Oh, did I have a sister to bring down here! Rub her damn cocky face in it! My phone could be charged! Ha! So, I wasn't so stupid for bringing the device here.
A loud explosion followed by an intensified aura broke me out of my inner gloating. Quickly, I circled my arms, wrapping myself in a water barrier. Hot magma rammed into my swirling water. The first two hits became steam upon impact. The third blast of scorching magma broke through my vortex. Not wasting a millisecond of my time, I created a wave to crash into the assassin. The waves blew him back several feet. Whatever fire he had been clutching in his right fist went out. Had there not been valuable information around us, I would have made a typhoon with all the…contaminated water at the end of the tunnel.
The ground around me began shaking and breaking open. I was already mid-run when the concrete started splitting. Below me, I heard the distinct sound of a bone snapping. I clenched my jaw as a sharp pain spiked up from my ankle. Having no time to waste, I let some water slip down my leg. Once settled near my ankle, the water turned to ice, soothing the pain.
Before reaching the bastard, he extended an arm behind himself and flung a girl at me. My heels skirted on the hard ground, slowing myself down to catch the crying girl.
Her face was littered with shallow cuts, her clothes were ripped to shreds, and her entire body was soaked.
What made me forget how to breathe was what I noticed between her legs. She was bleeding badly from her most intimate place. There was nasty bruising on her inner thighs as well. Fingerprints.
Another enormous explosion came from the entrance of the tunnel. I covered the girl's shivering body with my own as bits of stone dug into my back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the assassin snatch up a cord and the computer. Then he was gone, leaving the girl and me in the collapsing tunnel.
He got away…AGAIN!
I took off my fur cloak and draped it over the girl's shoulders. "What's your name, sweetheart?"
Her big eyes caught me off guard. They were like a deer's while being hunted. Innocent, curious, and scared. "I…Izzy. My name…is Izzy…My Prince."
"Alright, Izzy, well, what do you say we get the heck out of here. This dashing prince is at your service!"
She pushed away from me, uncaring of the shards of broken concrete sticking up from the ground. "…please don't punish me…keep helping me…a secret…I can't..take another session! It hurt…It hurt so bad!"
What was going on? Another girl terrified of me?
"Hey, I won't hurt you. You have my word."
"… I'd…rather die. Tell..me are you going…to tell them? I'll die. Please… don't." She crawled back towards me. Her hands were shaking worse than an addict. "I…please! Don't touch me… don't use me...but don't tell… don't tell her…the Princess… you talked…to me. Kill me… I'd rather die. Just kill me!"
The fuck!?
Her eyes flicked to my belt. At the sight of the leather band, she bit her cheeks and cried harder. I grabbed her hand and helped us both to our feet.
"That's enough. Come on now, you're clearly injured."
She faltered. "Please! Please, do not… whip me. Hurts so much…and tell…"
"I promise you, I'll keep this a secret between us, okay? I won't tell my sister or anyone else." This was all too familiar to me. She acted very similarly to when Aileen had her nightmares. Ideally, my sister could help her through her trauma. But by the sounds of it, I wasn't the only member of the Lutz family Izzy was scared of.
Izzy stopped shaking long enough to take a few steps toward the tunnel. Assured she was safe for the time being, I dashed over to the random stacks of papers and snatched them up. There must have been something useful there. This entire cat and mouse chase wasn't a complete failure after all. Of course not! I could never wholly fail at anything!
*Except for your true love and then your Cupcake…*
Ignoring my inner voice, I walked back to Izzy. "It's time to leave."
Her legs gave out. Her crying became loud again. "S…sorry! I…my legs are…"
I didn't have any more time to waste being gentle or considerate. We would both be crushed under the rubble if we didn't leave now. With one arm tightly around the papers, I lifted Izzy over the opposite shoulder. To my surprise, she didn't scream but became deathly still as we made our way through the tunnel.
Her tense muscles and my broken ankle made climbing impossible.
Shuddering to myself, I formed the shitty water around my body and lifted us both up to the top of the hole. I stepped off and kicked the rug back over the hole. The sheet metal made a loud clunk noise as it carelessly fell atop the secret tunnel. A good thing no one except the royal family came down here, not including the switch of guarding shifts.
With heavy stacks in one arm, a person on the other, and I didn't want to know what was on my clothes, I found my way back to the antechamber of the royal physician. Outside his door was Sir Ellice. At his feet were two massive jugs of ale.
"I believe our arrangement was for you to protect Princess Lydia in my absence? Why are you outside the physician's chamber?"
Sir Ellice bowed slightly. "I'm sorry. It is an order from the King. I did assure the Princess made it to her chambers safely. Now one of Krennan's knights is watching over her."
I set my papers down to make passing Izzy off easier on her fragile body. I knocked on the door while she was cradled in the good knight's arms princess style. Some assistant answered with a scowl until he realized who I was. Immediately he too bowed deeply.
"Care for this girl now. When her treatment is done, I wish for her to be brought up to Princess Aileen's wing. I will discuss her new living arrangements with my sister in the meantime." I thought about what had been done to the poor girl. "Also, I would like a woman to be in the room at all times. If these conditions are not met, our next meeting shall not be so pleasant. Do you understand?"
"Ye…yes, Your Highness." he stuttered.
Sir Ellice went to join the assistant. I nudged his side, "go find a trustworthy woman after setting her down. I will explain to King Ulrich."
A nod, and he was off.
I bent over, ignoring my aching ankle, and went through some papers. Several letters Aileen had written while in my dimension were mixed with the documents. There was no mistaking her handwriting or the tears that stained several pages. In between two different letters, I found a picture that had been painted a month after Shion's birth.
Sir Ellice left the physician's chamber. A shocked but relieved look spread across his features when he saw me.
"I was so distracted by that poor girl's state I forgot about the drinks." He picked up a jug of ale and handed it to me.
"Are you coming onto me now, Sir Ellice? You've got grand taste, my good man." I forced a laugh.
For the first time, I saw him genuinely relax and chuckle. "My apologies, Your Highness, Princess Lydia said you've been rather stressed today. She ordered a maid to fetch us both one. I was to find you once dismissed from my current spot."
With my free hand, I began chugging. I was sure I had a foam mustache as I was not elegantly drinking. There was nothing more I could do tonight anyway, and getting drunk sounded exceptionally good to me.
The pain in my ankle disappeared along with the strong contents of my beer. Princess Lydia clearly knew what I needed. I would reward her well when I got to her chamber. First, I had to show these documents to my sister.
I could feel my body swaying. Odd, I'm generally not this lightweight. Was I drugged? I glanced behind me and saw that Ellice wasn't in any better shape. The knight was tripping over his own feet. What was I thinking about?
Ha! I can't remember the last time my feet felt woozy. The staircase became hazy, like fluffy clouds were blocking my path ahead of me. I punched and pushed past the pretty light pink and white clouds until I came to my sister's door.
Not caring to knock, I pushed open the door and belched mightily.
Was this a divine punishment?
Neither my sister nor her children were in the chamber.
No, sitting atop the bed was a gorgeous ghost. Desire flared in me at the very materialized looking illusion. She was a very sexy specter indeed and had my dick swelling painfully in my pants.
Suddenly, she stood up, her hips swaying sexily in her silky blue nightgown. "Trevor?"
I had to get her under me, now.