75__Retrieving their Queen

Kamilla eyed the guys suspiciously as they shifted nervously from foot to foot and avoided her eyes. "Well?!" she demanded, making Syre flinch.

"My Queen, it's not like that," he said with a sheepish grin. "We're... uhm-"

"Viktor doesn't know we're here," Vlad blurted out.
The others looked at him with wide eyes.

Kamilla frowned as her heart slowly deflated. Oh. He didn't send them for her. She bit the inside of her cheek. What had she expected? She was the fool for hoping. "Oh? Really?" she asked in what she hoped was a nonchalant tone.

"Yes," said Xavier, squaring his shoulders and trying very hard to not look guilty. "It's true! We are here without the permission of our King, we have been disobedient and thus have betrayed the trust he has in us!"

"But it is of the utmost importance...else we wouldn't have..." added Zen hurriedly, his handsome face tinged with shame.

Vlad cleared his throat. "We don't make a habit of disobeying our King," he murmured defensively.

Kamilla raised her brows at them. How adorable. They were this distraught over disobeying Viktor for the first time in their lives? This ashamed over just a measly bit of disobedience?
Kamilla shook her head in mild amusement.
If these men knew how many times she'd gone left when Viktor said right, they'd probably faint from shock.

"Oh, relax, guys," she told them. "It's not a big deal."

They exchanged looks and seemed to feel a little less ashamed of the inexcusable betrayal of their precious King's orders.

"So... if Viktor didn't send you... why are you guys here?" Kamilla asked, the question one she was dying to hear the answer to.

Xavier straightened. "Firstly, we missed you."

Kamilla smiled, feeling genuinely delighted by that. Who wouldn't want to be missed by seven gorgeous men? She blushed. "Aw, you big babies. Haven’t even been gone for long."

"Secondly," Vlad murmured dryly. "Damon says, and I quote: 'I've had it up to here with all this. He's in pain and I have to deal with it when he could just find Kamilla and end it. If I suffer a heart attack and die from stress it's on them two. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bloody... bullshit."

Kamilla blinked at the vast difference in tone and the nature of the words. "Did Damon sound like a corpse too?" she asked, earning herself a narrow-eyed look from Vlad.

Syre shook his head. "Nah. He was hopping mad and screaming every word out. Vlad's tone never goes higher than that so that's the best he could do."

Lowering her gaze, Kamilla sighed. "Is... is the King really in pain?"

Zen pursed his lips. "Damon said all this after Viktor tore apart own his library in a fit of rage one morning." He raised a hand and began counting off on his fingers. "He no longer sits for meetings with his Elders, he barely sleeps in his chambers, most nights we find him haunting Witcher's Cliff or hunting in the forests. It's... bad."

Kamilla's hands were tightly gripping her bag as she listened. Even just imagining Viktor do all of that was piercing her heart. A sigh escaped her and she lowered her head, unable to stop the sadness for returning and clenching her stomach up. "Why is he like that?" she asked in a whisper. "If... if he had to go as far as getting rid of me, he should have at least been happy as a result. But, instead what? He doesn't sleep and hunts all night? That's what he sent me away for? So he could be miserable on his own?”
She bit her lip and turned away, blinking away the moisture in her eyes.
The guys looked at each other in silence.
Kamilla turned back to them and wrapped her arms around herself. “So... Damon asked you guys to come here?”

They nodded.
“Yup,” said Syre. “You know how Damon comes within an inch of death whenever he’s under pressure. He’s not handling Viktor’s mood swings well. And, according to him, you probably aren’t okay either.”

Kamilla lowered her eyes. She wasn’t okay at all. The past ten days had been horrible, but she'd pretended to be in high spirits for her mother's sake. If she wasn’t dreaming of repeatedly falling to her death from Witcher’s cliff, she was dreaming of Viktor’s hands on her body.

It had been torture. She hadn’t known if he was okay, if Charming really had disappeared after the last time she saw him, or if Viktor’s sending her away was really because of their broken bond. Did he feel absolutely nothing for her now?
Was his acting out really because their bond had been broken as Ursula had said being separated from her would do to him? She certainly had lost all the strength and power he’d shared with her, maybe the same had happened with Viktor?

Kamilla looked up at them. “Is it because the bond was broken? Did Damon say that?”
They looked puzzled.
“What?” asked Syre. “Your bond was broken? Is that why you left?”

Kamilla nodded slowly and with hesitation. “Yes... I mean... that is what happened. Did Damon not tell you?”

Vlad scratched his chin. “No. We did not even imagine it because... the King is very affected. A broken bond would mean no fucks given whatsoever.”

“Exactly,” said Xavier.

Zen narrowed his eyes. “Kamilla, how did you read into that guy?” He pointed at the Shifter laying still on the ground beside them. “That isn’t an ability that the average half-Vamp would have.”
Kamilla blinked and opened her mouth to explain. When zero explanations came to mind, she tilted her head and puckered her lips. “Yeah... I have no clue. How did I do that?”

Vlad impatiently rolled his eyes. “The bond clearly isn’t broken! What gave you that impression? Did Rena or Viktor tell you that the bond was broken or did you *assume*?”

Kamilla’s heart practically slammed against her sternum at Vlad’s words. What? A chance their bond wasn’t broken? “Well... what?” she asked, puzzled. “No, the bond was definitely broken! I won’t revive my hope about that. It was *certain*, even Rena said so! I even heard Ursula say so!”

“Then why is Viktor still bound?” Vlad in a strangely argumentatively toned murmured. “You’re half-human, so it would make sense for you to fall in love with a Vampire King, but it isn’t just anyone who can keep the heart of a man like Viktor bound to them.”

Kamilla huffed out a breath and looked at him. “I... I don’t know! What do you want me to say? Huh? I have no idea why any of this is happening, I’m not even sure why Viktor sent me away, I just assumed that it was either because our bond was broken and he felt nothing anymore or because he believed all the crap Rogan said and is trying to protect me from himself!”

“Well, the bond certainly can’t be broken,” said Xavier, crossing his arms.

Zen tilted his head. “Then that only leaves one other option.”

Kamilla looked at them and released a breath, her mind spinning with so much confusion, you could swear she was trying to solve rocket science and mathematics.
Was that it then? Was their bond not broken? Is that why she’d been living half in her dreams and half in reality for the past ten days, feeling as though Viktor had not really left her at all? Kamilla bit her lip as she felt a sparkle of hope light up in her heart. Like a wet towel, she drowned the little spark, extinguishing it on the spot! She would *not* have hope until she was sure!

“You know what?” said Syre with a grin and a glint in his eye. “I’ve got an idea.”
His brothers groaned.
“Weren’t you and Zen banned from getting ideas?” asked Vlad.

Syre sighed. “No, guys, hear me out!” He turned to Kamilla as she stared up at him. “How about... you come with us?”

Kamilla held her breath, considering it. Her head was shaking even before she’d finished considering it. “No. What if Viktor gets angry?” Her brows drew together in genuine worry as she shook her head. “I don’t know what I’d do if he kicked me out a second time.”

“No, Kamilla,” Syre said gently. “Listen, if Viktor were to see you right now, the last thing he’d get is angry.”

“True,” Zen murmured.

Syre nodded. “You need to figure out exactly where you and Viktor stand and for that, you need to speak with Ursula, right? So, technically, you’ll be going back for Ursula, not for Viktor, which is the *last* thing I'd want him to think anyway. After him making you leave like that, you should bring him to his knees.”

Vlad raised his brow half a millimeter up. “How can a human bring a Vampire King to his knees?”

Syre smiled devilishly, his red eyes giving a sudden glow. “Oh, come on! Kamilla already has him in the palm of her hand.” He looked at Kamilla. “If your bond with Viktor was truly broken and yet being away from you still affects him this much...”

“It would mean you two are fated,” said Xavier in awe. “You’re his soulmate even without the oath sworn by your fathers, Darrius and Klayton.

Syre nodded. “Exactly. That makes it impossible for Viktor to peacefully live without you and you without him. Sadly, he seems to think if he toughs it out, it’ll be okay. We,” He winked at her. “Are going to prove him wrong.”