Chapter 6

“Sander,” James called, and the Captain Commander of the King’s Guard was at his side at the next second. He was tall with caramel-colored skin, dark freckles, green eyes, and reddish-brown hair that he kept short. “Take whomever you can, and go after them.”

“You’ll stay here, Sander,” Aiden called before stopping at the base of the grand staircase. “They’re long gone, and there’s no need for them to waste their energy trying to track them down right now.”

“Aiden.” James started to cross the room, but the guards for the Celestial Council cut him off. “Aiden, please. There’s a reasonable explanation for all of this.”

“Good.” Aiden faced James, “If that’s the case, then you can make it plain for myself and the rest of the Celestial Council in three days.”

“In three days?” James repeated, and then his eyes widened.

“We’ll be hosting a Grand Assembly to discuss these egregious transgressions against the Celestial Realm and the clear violation of the Claret Codes,” Aiden announced. “Until then, the Hybrids are to remain in our custody.”

“Wait!” Cassandra pleaded. “Aiden, please!”

Cassandra’s plea fell on deaf ears as the Celestial Council’s guards moved on Shaun and Alexandra and disregarded any titles previously in place.

Alexandra’s arm was wrenched behind her back, and the painful scream that escaped her lips was ignored. Shaun was forced to the ground with excessive force, and Alexandra was sure she’d heard a bone crack. Drake and Erik attempted to move to help them, but more members of the Celestial Guard cut them off.

“You’re actually going to let them plead a case?” Osiris bellowed. “The Claret Codes are clear. All Hybrids are to be executed upon discovery.”

“You must admit that the situation is rather interesting, though.” Adrian seemed to materialize from nowhere and nearly startled several Celestial Councilmembers. “The circumstances of her creation are certainly in question, and it’d be a shame to let an opportunity like this go to waste. The real Hybrid, on the other hand, well… I can’t say much about her.”

“I hate to agree, but Councilman Ghastly makes a valid point,” one of the Councilmen chimed.

Osiris gritted his teeth, “Head Councilman Aiden, I urge you to reconsider. Otherwise, I’d hate to question whether or not your bias is showing regarding this situation.”

“Yes, I’m sure you’d hate to bring that up,” Aiden chastized. “My decision is final, Councilman Pierce, and I ask that you hold onto your argument until the Grand Assembly. As Councilman Ghastly mentioned, these circumstances are unique.”

With that, Aiden headed the rest of the way up the stairs with the rest of the Celestial Council trailing behind him. Osiris reluctantly followed his colleagues, and once they’d left the ballroom, it felt like the air had rushed back into the room, and everyone could breathe again.

Grand Assemblies were only ever called in the direst of circumstances, and nothing could’ve been direr than the sudden exposure of two Hybrids being kept alive. Additionally, two kings had conspired against the Claret Codes – and essentially the Celestial Council – to defy the laws older than the Eleven Nations.

Hybrids had been taboo in the Celestial Realm for nearly as long as it was around. It was evident in the Claret Codes that any Hybrids discovered were to be executed immediately, no matter their age. It was why they maintained their borders and damned any interspecies relationships after nearly three thousand years.

Hybrids had been responsible for pushing the Celestial Realm near extinction one hundred years after its manifestation. It nearly forced non-Humans back into the Human Realm, where they’d be subjected to Hunters and persecution. But in the Human Realm, they’d been free to participate in interspecies relationships and raise their children to adulthood, but something about the Celestial Realm made that impossible now.

As taught in every history class any of them had ever taken in the early years of their education, on the first Centinniel Celestial Celebration that year, the Hybrids went Beserk. All Hybrids lost their sense of self and attacked anyone and everyone. It’d been dubbed Blood Wars because it was Pure Bloods versus Mixed Bloods. Fortunately, the Pure Bloods won after an agonizing twenty-four hours that wiped out nearly fifty percent of the population.

Once the Celestial Celebration had concluded, the Hybrids were hunted and executed. Then the Eleven Nations came together and came to an agreement that sacrificing one freedom was a price they were willing to pay as opposed to all of their privileges and returning to the Human Realm. The territories and borders were drawn, and the Celestial Council was founded to maintain order over all the kingdoms for the sake of the Celestial Realm. In contrast, individual monarchs maintained order over their own kind.

And, growing up as the daughter of a king, Alexandra had watched her father order more than a handful of executions. Despite the Claret Codes, some people still attempted to have interspecies relationships, but they were always found and killed. She remembered listening to the disparaging cries of the men and woman as they were forced to watch the proof of their love be destroyed, but after a while, she’d become numb to it.

The Claret Codes were older than most, and the consequences behind disobeying those rules were clear. Anyone who thought it was possible to oppose them was considered a fool and didn’t deserve sympathy. At least, that’s what Alexandra had convinced herself to believe after watching a young girl her age at the time be executed for merely existing.

Now, the executioner was going to be the one executed.

Once the Celestial Council had vacated the palace, Alexandra and Shaun were practically held on display as the rest of the guests followed their example and left. Though Alexandra had grown up hearing a variety of insults whispered about her from the High Council, the things she listened to that evening wouldn’t even compare.

“Such filth.”

“Truly a disgrace to the Celestial Realm.”

“Execution is the only solution.”

“How disgusting.”

She couldn’t even bring herself to cry. Her body ached, and she was exhausted. She’d been dreading this night for a year, but she hadn’t thought anything like this would be possible.

Once the guests were cleared, the Captain Commander of the Celestial Guard marched in and clapped his hands together. Alexandra saw his mouth move, but her head throbbed too violently, and her heart pounded too loudly to hear what he’d said.

All she knew was that they had started moving. She was shoved by the two guards tasked with her, and her feet carried her forward. In her peripheral, she saw her mother and father try to approach, but a line of guards blocked them from approaching as she and Shaun paraded through the palace and out the front doors.

Waiting out front was a motorcade consisting of nearly two dozen cars, and two vans were sitting in the center. Each of the vans was pitch black with no distinguishable markings and armed guards standing beside each one.

“Wait!” Drake hurried out after them, “It’s my responsibility to ensure Princess Alexandra is safe. I’m coming with you.”

The Captain Commander of the Celestial Guard sucked his teeth, “There is no princess here anymore, Mr. Raman. Just Hybrids. You can see her again at the Grand Assembly. Until then, we’ll do our best to ensure she’s taken care of.”

Alexandra caught Drake’s eyes before he could argue more. She mustered the best smile possible before being pushed toward the back of the van. She stumbled and scraped her palms against the pavement, and she couldn’t help but hear several guards snicker.

“Don’t.” Sander caught Drake before he could even attempt to make the guard who pushed Alexandra pay. “As much as I hate to admit this, they’re the Celestial Guard. Their skill set far surpasses our own, and you won’t win. For Alexandra’s sake, you need to stay put.”

Drake clenched his jaw, “They can’t do this.”

“They can and they will,” Sander warned. “Reel it in.”

As for Alexandra, she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying something she’d regret. She got back onto her feet without their help and climbed into the back of the van. Another guard was already sitting inside, and once the other two joined, she was left with five in total. Three in the back of the van with her and two up front.

She silently prayed that Shaun would be safe. She was sure the guards would show some restraint because she was – or had been – a princess, but Shaun didn’t have the protection of a title covering her.

“Best get some rest while you can,” the driver called. “Orders are to drive the whole way. We’ll switch off every two hours.”

The other guards groaned in frustration, but there was no arguing. One by one, the cars in the motorcade rumbled to life, and then they were moving.

They were headed straight from Bliss Palace to the Capitol of the Celestial Realm, Requiem. It was an arduous drive that took nearly twelve hours, and with it already nearing one in the morning, they’d arrive in the early afternoon. That was enough time for the news to circulate and make its way into every paper and blog. By morning, there wouldn’t be a soul in the Celestial Realm that didn’t know of the two Hybrids exposed that evening.

Her head continued to throb violently, the aching spreading from one spot and spreading against the back of her skull. It was agonizing as she felt every pump of her blood vessels beneath her skin, and the stench of others’ blood that remained soaked in her dress caused her stomach to churn.

“She looks a little green.”

“I’m not cleaning up her vomit.”

Alexandra prayed that if she did vomit, she’d at least vomit on one of them. It’d give her some satisfaction. She settled on tucking her head between her knees and focusing on not throwing up.

Alexandra didn’t sleep that night.

She couldn’t even if she wanted to.

And any tiredness that had plagued her body immediately left the minute Requiem came into view. It was well known as the crown jewel of the Celestial Realm as it embodied the Celestial Realm as a whole.

It was an evergrowing city, and traces of its beginning were embedded into the city it blossomed into. It’d been a joint effort between all the Major Clans and Minor Clans coming together and agreeing that there needed to be a neutral place. In defining their borders, they named “the place where we converge” neutral territory. Requiem was established with the idea that any person of any creed and species would have a home, whether they were a part of the Major Clans or Minor Clans.

It was the perfect balance of old and new as the newer structures seemed to take heed of those before and build around them. It was littered with buildings stretched far into the sky while others didn’t pass two stories. Some buildings were covered in greenery that snaked up the walls and framed the windows, while others seemed to be supported by scaffolding left behind during construction.

Its roads were long and straight, while the alleyways weaved through portions of the city closed off from the main roads. In the few times Alexandra visited Requiem, she remembered hearing voices pour out from what she thought was within the city. Laughter and music carried on the wind, and she’d seen the occasional soul duck into the dark alleys and disappear from sight, but she hadn’t had the opportunity to chase after them.

The city seemed to breathe with life; at least, it had seemed that way on a normal today. Today wasn’t normal. While the streets were typically filled with people from every nation and species, they were empty today.

Storefronts were shuttered shut, and curtains were drawn. Cars and bikes were parked neatly along the street, and where the usual traffic would leave their motorcade easing through congested streets, the roads were clear.

Alexandra half-suspected the city to be moving a little slower at discovering two Hybrids, but she didn’t put it past the Celestial Council to completely shut down the city. She could only imagine what the latest news cycle was saying about her family, her, and Shaun.

She didn’t dwell on that thought long, however, as their motorcade stopped in front of Astral Stone. With the establishment of Requiem, they’d also agreed that there needed to be a governing body that focused on the Celestial Realm to avoid feuding between clans and keep the powers balanced between nations. With that thought in mind, the Celestial Council was founded, and they governed the Celestial Realm from Astral Stone.

Astral Stone primarily served as a temple dedicated to the many deities that the people of the Celestial Realm worshiped. Aside from that, it served as the Celestial Council’s headquarters, and any significant disputes between nations were settled on sacred soil. At least, that’s what Alexandra had been told.

As far as temples go, it wasn’t traditional. It blended in well with the rest of the city, being a mixture of old and new, with Astral Stone clearly becoming more prominent as the population of the Celestial Realm and Requiem increased.

Astral Stone had been built into the Sciscark, a sacred tree that loomed over the central part of Requiem. The stories went that Sciscark had been the first thing the people who’d escaped into the Celestial Realm saw, and they established their homes there. So, it was only fitting that they built their most sacred temple around their most sacred tree.

The central portion of the temple was nestled in the base of Sciscark. Steps lead up to the entryways, and along those steps were pillars that held the clan markings of every clan in the Celestial Realm. From there, the temple spread out like branches, and several other portions were higher along the truck. Some were embedded into the side of Sciscark, and its vines spread across those portions of the building. It almost looked like Sciscark had attempted to envelop these foreign parts of itself but ultimately accepted them.

The temple was made of stones and minerals in the Celestial Realm. A myriad of colors seemed to blend together and settle into the dark wood of Sciscark. While most of the temple was made from Ramloidite – a smokey white mineral most abundant in the Celestial Realm – various gemstones and crystals served as accents.