Chapter 47: Kissing danger in the mouth!

The Queen seated herself in the podium above the royal training grounds which gave her as well as the other dignitaries who had turned spectators for the event, a complete view of what was happening down there.

She leaned forward nervously as she saw her daughter and Andrew entered the grounds, looking lost. Neither of them had any idea of what exactly was going to happen and the Queen’s eyes softened at her daughter as she realized that Selena was nervous.
The crowd which had surrounded itself around the ground went bonkers, welcoming their respective champions. The queen heaved a sigh of relief when she realized that the crowd as a whole was collectively cheering for their first princess, instead of the prince. Selena was obviously the crowd favorite and it was obvious from the banners that they were holding which had the first princess’s face pasted on it that they were rooting for her.

Natasha who was seated right beside the Queen, frowned and wrapped her hands into a tight fist indignantly as the crowd started chanting her enemy’s daughter’s name out loud in rhythm. The Queen smiled smugly at the concubine, confident that at least, Selena held the citizen’s unwavering support.
The royal concubine frowned in displeasure at the Queen, irked out by the crowd’s loud cheers for the first princess.
The Queen narrowed her eyes from the podium as she realized that several masked vampires had entered the ground and surrounded themselves around Andrew. Clearly, the council had picked him first to have the test while Selena was watching everything intently from the sidelines, desperately trying to make sense of what was going on. The Queen’s heart ached in displeasure as they were so close yet so distant that she wouldn’t be able to warn her of the council’s true intentions.

The Queen sucked in a sharp breath as she realized that the masked vampires weren’t the real threat there. They were actually the royal guards who were placed around the potential candidates to ensure their safety in case something goes terribly wrong. Which obviously meant one thing, there was something more dangerous to come which required such heavy protection.

The head of the council, an ancient red headed vampire separated himself from the crowd and put a goblet made out of pure gold which was studded with diamonds and emeralds and rubies on his right hand and motioned at Andrew to draw a lot from the goblet which were to predict his fate.
Selena watched her half brother warily as he strode forward confidently and picked up a small piece of parchment from the goblet. Selena found herself wondering whether he was truly confident and unbothered by all this or was he just merely putting on a brave face?

The council elder took the parchment from him and smiled at him as he said, “You are one lucky lad, Andrew. You have picked quite an easy and doable task out of many dangerous ones. The fate seems to be manganous to you”
Selena scowled bitterly at her brother as the elder said that fate was kind to Andrew. She instantly recollected the last conversation she had shared with the Falak dragon and accepted grudgingly that fate was indeed kind to him.

The elder then raised his voice, addressing the crowd as a whole as well as the dignitaries seated in the podium above, as a whole as he read out loud the contents of the parchment clearly, “ The task picked up by young Andrew here is none other than defeating werewolves in a fight.”

The Queen cursed internally as she realized that Andrew had been let off easily. For a vampire who had superior strength to battle with werewolves wasn’t that big of a deal. Yes, the werewolves were strong too but vampires were both strong as well as agile. This was clearly a task designed to please the crowd. After all, what more could a crowd of vampires enjoy than their prince thrashing up some of their natural enemies, the werewolves?

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Natasha too relax visibly at the council elder’s declaration that Andrew would be challenging the werewolves.
The elder then stepped out of the makeshift ring they had built in the middle of the royal training grounds and left Andrew alone. The Queen narrowed her eyes as she realized the werewolves that had come to challenge the prince of Valyria was none other than the Blood moon pack, which had been giving them trouble all these years.

Andrew, already being in the ring, straightened out of his shoulders determinedly as he watched his enemies approach warily. The alpha sneered discourteously at the pale prince in front of him while his sidekicks snickered at him.
Even Selena pursed her lips tightly and enclosed her fists at their disrespect to royal vampires.
But Andrew looked nonplussed and was merely bidding his time till they actually stepped inside the ring. Just by looking at his calm and composed as well as regal manner, Selena found herself furrowing her eyebrows as she realized that maybe Andrew would make a better king than she had expected him to be. If it had been her in his place, she would have been agitated by their snide and blatant remarks and would have lost her calm but here he was looking so nonchalant.
Not being able to handle her curiosity anymore, Selena stepped into the ground and whispered into her half brother’ ears, “Don’t their behavior piss you off?”
Andrew looked taken aback and surprised that Selena had took the first initiative to talk to him when they hadn’t even talked to each other when they were kept in solidarity, just the two of them, hours before this event. Andrew had known from the very first moment he had laid eyes on her, when she had showed up in a wheelchair at the time of her own funeral, that this wasn’t the sister he was used to.
He had instantly figured out that whoever she was, she wasn’t Mia Langdon so he had concluded that she might be a long lost twin which the Queen had conveniently found to replace her position. Though Andrew was rather close with Mia, he had no idea how to deal with her twin. Their brief encounters were nothing short of awkward. He had accessed her every move from a distance and had found out that these twins were poles apart from each other. Though he was curious about his other sister, he neither had the courage nor the sentiment to start a conversation with her as for now, she was his rival so he was quite taken aback, himself when she took the initiative to approach him.
He looked at his half sister warily, as if trying to read something in her eyes, then giving up, he shook his head at her and replied firmly, “They are street dogs who are barking maniacally. If you bark back at them by stooping on to their level, then what’s the difference between us and them?”