His Queen From Two Worlds

CHAPTER 5: ASSASSINATION

After he left, Ray turned around to face the informer once again, who was on his knees, mumbling or whispering to himself. Ray frowned and asked, “What do you want to say?”

When he didn’t reply, Ray looked at one of his subordinates who came and asked him the same thing. Unable to hold it himself anymore, he raised his head. Tears formed in his eyes. “Your Highness, I have a family! A wife and a daughter! Please help them! They have nothing to do with my line of work! They have no idea about my job! Please, Sir! Please!”

Ray was taken aback by his request. Now he understood why he cherished his life over loyalty to his gang. His gut feeling told him that he didn’t cherish his family as much as his life. Ray looked at one of his team heads and commanded in a stern tone.

“Run a background check on him. If what he says is true, check on his wife and see if she is clean and can raise their daughter properly. If she is addicted to any inappropriate things, then handle everything and take the girl to one of our orphanages or check for any immediate relatives with whom the child is comfortable. If they want to adopt her, that would be fine as well.”

“But your highness…” The team head named Bruce couldn’t continue when he saw the prince giving him a meaningful look.

“What if it is true? Not a trap but a child looking for help? It is my responsibility to help my people as their king. I’m going to be a ruler, not just a king on a throne with a crown”

“Understood, Your Highness,” Bruce said in a solemn tone.

“I was alone

Lost in a maze,

Feeling alone

Cause I was the only one there

Thought that

No one would

Grab my hand

But then you

Took my hand in yours

And said ‘Let's go’

You were there

At every moment

I needed someone

Now I will tell ya,

The crowd went crazy for this particular love song and why not? The song `cause it was you’ was dedicated to their crown prince by their future queen. The lyrics were the story of how the crown prince and the future queen met for the first time and her confession to their future king that she would always be grateful for his existence in her life.

The queen once said that it was her favorite song. They also released a short clip of the crown prince’s reaction when he first heard the song in the studio.

“Cause it was only you

Who saw the

Broken me

When I needed someone

It was you

When I wanted someone

It was you

Tell me

If it wasn’t for you,

I don’t think,

There will be another you”

The crowd cheered at this short song's rap break, which was the highlight of the song. Unlike the earlier performance where she was dominating the stage in her bright red outfit with her confident performance, in the same outfit she looked like a woman in love. The fans couldn’t help but sigh when they saw her like that. She was always a queen. The only time they could see her acting cute was every time the crown prince was mentioned. Oh! And how could they even forget his Highness’s reaction to this song? His first reaction was to hug his woman. That small clip trended at #1 in their country for a whole week.

“I’m lost

Can I run away?

I know

I can’t be lost.

For too long

But for now

Can I just hide?

In your arms

Breath in your love

Always warm”

Near the end of her earlier performances, the redhead pop star noticed the extra security around the stage. When she went backstage for a costume change, Ralph came to meet her and informed her about the prince’s decision. Zelda decided to end her show sooner than expected because of Ralph’s presence there.

Ralph was the official security head of all the crown prince’s security teams/ personal assistants. If the crown prince sent him to do something, it spoke volumes of the situation. Ralph and another assistant of the crown prince who works for the royal family’s business group officially represent the crown prince when Ray asks them to or when he is unavailable.

The Crimson-haired popstar now wore a black spaghetti-strapped floor-length dress with an open neck showing off her fine clavicle with white faux fur on the neckline of the dress. Her hair was down in beautiful red waves, playing the piano while exhibiting her angelic vocals. She controlled her stage and could tell the listeners what she wanted to say.

“Gambling, alcohol, fights, and the list goes on. What is left on the list? Drugs?” Ray looked at the person in mockery as he moved his electric orbs from the report to the person who was half beaten up.

In shame, the last guy held his head down. He didn’t dare to look in the eyes of the prince. In public, although a bit distant, Ray had a good reputation for being gentle to people he was close to. He was loved by the public, especially by women, because of his love for Zelda. But at this moment there was no hint of gentleness in his eyes. His eyes turned cold.

Ray only gave a mocking look before he averted his eyes to read the rest of the report.

“Wife alcoholic addicted and into p**********n. An eight-year-old daughter is being abused regularly by her mother because she was not planned”. Ray snickered at the lackey and let out a mocking laugh. “Stop f*****g around if you don’t want a child. What’s the use of taking your anger at an innocent child?”

That was not what he was taught to talk about. But he couldn’t care about anything. If any noble or royalty were listening to him talk like that, they would raise complaints that one could only imagine. Though the prince couldn’t care, it was also a headache to handle them at the same time.

“Now that I got the report, don’t you think it was about time to spit out everything you know?” Ray glared at the man.

“Thank you” Zelda gave her iconic curtsy in between the human barrier, her bodyguards created around her at a considerable distance, from her fans waiting outside the dome.

The fans screamed, altogether feeling thrilled. Zelda raised again, standing properly. Waving her hand one last time, she got into her luxury van. After closing the door, Ralph entered the front seat beside the driver. There was a car before the van and two cars behind.

Normally, there would be a team bodyguard with her and travel with her in a car. But today there were an extra two cars. Even the public noticed the heavy security that night.

“Yes, on our way to the tower grounds”, Ralph completed, reporting to one of the security heads who was still in the mansion. His Highness was still interrogating the man who leaked the news.

“I left after lunch, and I’m sure you people left around the same time. Has he been in that mansion's basement since then?” Zelda asked as soon as Ralph put his phone down.

“Ummmmmm He is enraged, Lady Barclay” he replied, in one sentence in his Stoic voice.

“I know that” Zelda mumbled under her breath. She was just worried about him. She knew she would react the same way if something like that happened to him, but still, she couldn’t help worrying about him. She raised her head and asked, “What did they find about the man who gave us the information?”

Ralph respectfully looked at her from the rearview mirror and said “New to the serious illegal business. A gambler and an alcoholic addict have a wife who is also addicted and into p**********n and has a daughter who is abused”

The emerald green orbs became sharper as she cursed “Bastard! He deserves the punishment!” She took a deep breath and asked him “I assume Ray took care of the child.”

Ralph nodded his head. “Yes, my lady.”

Zelda released a breath and leaned back into her seat to take a nap. She was glad that they didn’t take her manager and assistant in her van because they would be grumbling about how she completed the show earlier than expected.

___________________________________________________________________

“STAY ALERT!! Don’t lose your calm!”

Zelda heard her fiancé's security head commanding the driver in a stern tone when she woke up.

“What is the situation, Ralph?” She asked seriously, almost as seriously as the crown prince.

“We lost all the signals, my lady. There might be people following us”, Ralph said. “We lost all the contact with the palace and his highness”

In the next moment, a truck came from the side out of nowhere and crashed into the van, sending Zelda to the window to her side. The driver and Ralph were also affected by the crash. Even in danger, Ralph tried to look at Zelda, who lost consciousness by hitting her head on the door. Before he could call her, another truck came from the other side, and he knew they couldn’t miss this one.

The other truck crashed into the van, sending it into the air before it fell onto the road with a loud bang. The van was a luxurious and secured one, so it was barely there on the tires. Ralph was barely able to open his eyes. He saw the truck once again preparing to crash into them. He was able to reach for the steering wheel and turn the van to the side. He didn’t know what happened but all he remembered was a tree in his sight before closing his eyes, thinking of the prince and his broken promise.

Zelda felt like she was watching everything in slow motion. She was sure that it was a properly planned assassination. She was talking to Ralph and, in the next moment, she felt a throbbing pain from her head and felt something wet flowing down from her forehead. The rustic smell entered her nostrils and she was sure that it was blood.

The emerald-eyed was trying to keep herself awake, but she couldn’t. She started feeling her energy being sucked out of her body bit by bit painfully. She saw Ralph hadn’t lost consciousness yet and wanted to call his name out despite her eyes slowly closing. Before she could do that, she was thrown to the other side of the van and her head was hit to the other side. Another throbbing pain burst from her whole body, and she finally felt like she would pass out from the pain.

Her head was hurting so badly that she couldn’t feel anything happening. Another heavy truck sent the luxurious van into the air, but she couldn’t feel it anymore. The feeling of being in the air without any support. When the car fell to the ground again, all she could remember was the full moon in her sight from the cracked window.

“Ray……….” Was the thought in her brain as the car suddenly moved and crashed into a tree.

She closed her eyes as she felt something being slowly but painfully sucked out of her body. Surely it was more than her energy. The pain was unbearable, but that pain was the only thing she could feel at the moment, and then it was all blank. All black.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Zel, wake up! Please wake up”

“Zelda, wake up. I beg you please”

“Wake up”

The redhead could hear a very familiar voice calling her. Begging her to wake up. It sounded like the person who was talking to her was also crying. She wanted to open her eyes and console him and say that she was fine, but she couldn’t open her eyes no matter how hard she tried. Her body wasn’t in her control. More like she couldn’t command her body.

“I need you, Zelda. Please wake up”

Zelda slowly twitched her eyes, opening her eyes. Emerald's orbs felt heavy when she opened her eyes, adjusting to the brightness in the room. The first thing that came into her sight was the gauzy snow-white curtains covering all three sides of the bed. Because of the curtain, she understood that the outside must be brighter than she thought. But wait! She should be in the hospital wing of the palace. What was she doing in her room? It didn’t even look like her room in the palace.

The emerald-eyed eye tried moving to her side but felt a bit of stiffness in her body, perhaps from having slept for too long. She slowly moved and sat up in her bed. Except for the subtle pain in her head, there was no other pain in any part of her body. She sat up and checked her arms, looking for any wounds or scars left on her body from the accident. No. Not an accident, but an assassination.

Then she realized that she was wearing rather a long violet sleepwear gown. She didn’t remember owning a violet gown, much less a long one. Did this one belongs to her doctor cousin? Another realization came in. If her body didn’t have any wounds or scars from the assassination, then how long did she sleep? Did she go into a coma for a long time like they show in movies?

The Barclay heiress hurriedly stood up from the soft comfort of the bed which didn’t feel like her own bed. Sure, it was comfortable, but it was a foreign feeling to her. She almost fell on the bed again for standing up too fast, but controlled her balance. She pushed the curtains aside and gasped at the unfamiliar room. ‘Did they rebuild or what? When did I have a big room like this?’ she thought as she stepped out of the curtains.

Her eyes went examining the large room. The light from the outside was reflected by the brass plates in the room. She couldn’t understand what was going on any longer and reached for the grand mirror in the corner of the room.

Slowly she stepped in front of the large grand mirror. What she saw in her reflection made her gasp. Emerald's green eyes stared at her reflection, but her hair turned bright blonde, and her looks became different. It was still her but different at the same time. Her body felt natural but foreign to herself as she continued looking at herself in the mirror even more. She couldn’t understand what happened to her. Her body structure and her facial features looked different but the same. Then, a horrifying thought went into her brain. Is this even her body!!!!

Soon after the thought, a sudden jolt of pain struck her head and she fell on the carpeted floor, losing consciousness.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“MOVE ASIDE!!!” The crown prince yelled as the servants moved aside from the fuming future ruler. The big stretcher was carrying the unconscious future queen covered in blood. They couldn’t help but shudder.

“Your highness, you have to stop here”. A lady in her late thirties stopped the prince from entering the ward. He was familiar with the lady. He was quite close to her, but he couldn’t think of anything or anyone except for Zelda right now.

The hand he was holding onto was gone as the medical team pulled the stretcher into the operation theatre. The scene fell in slow motion as the medical team closed the doors. Stepping backwards, he reached and felt his back touching the wall. He closed his eyes to control himself. His black shirt was crumpled and was a bit drenched with Zelda’s blood when he held her at the accident site. His ash-blonde hair was tousled, totally messed up.

When his second team suddenly lost connection with Ralph’s team, they immediately found the latest location of Zelda’s van and the security team. To find them, they had to use the helicopter and that was how they were able to find them. Ray almost lost his temper when he saw the familiar van crash into the tree and three smashed security cars. If the second team leader wasn’t there, he would have jumped out of the chopper before they landed and would have exposed the royal secret.

His team reached before him through ropes and started checking on the situation. They were the future king’s security. Hence, they were trained for all types of situations. They started helping everyone who had been in that accident. By the time Ray reached the van, his team opened the doors. Though they didn’t show it on their faces and showed the ice-cold expression, they were horrified by the condition of their future queen, their head, and the chauffeur.

Chills went down Ray’s back when he saw the frightening scene. His most trusted aid and the love of his life in that condition. He froze when he saw the scene. Until the other team heads called out for the instructions, he couldn’t move.

“Inform the palace head doctor Elosie Barclay about the accident! Mobilize the emergency choppers and send everyone for treatment to the Royal hospital! Hurry!”

That was the only instruction or the only sentence he said till now. Zelda’s head was bleeding when he saw her. She was sprawled on the back seat, the seat collecting a puddle of her blood. When he slowly brought her out, handling her body like a newborn baby, her head on his chest. It was then he realized her body was cold. Too cold. He shuddered at the thought of her no more in this world. No, he couldn’t. He didn’t know how to face the world without her.

‘I can’t live without you, Zelda. I need you. 'You need to be alive’ he thought as he swallowed the painful gulp in his throat.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

‘ugh! What happened’ she thought, opening her eyes more comfortably this time. There was no pain or heaviness she felt.

She sat up, with no dizzy spells or anything. Emerald-green eyes looked around, and a gasp left her throat as she looked around. Never in her life did she see a garden as beautiful as that one. If heaven had a garden, she was sure that the heaven garden would be this one.

But wait a moment! Wasn’t she supposed to be in a hospital bed or something like that? What was she doing here?

Then she remembered how she dreamed of how her soul was in another body. She stood up at once and looked around. Was that a dream? Or another reality? She looked down and realized that she was wearing a plain white knee-length frock. She looked around once again and saw a small pond. She rushed to it and sat on her knees to see her reflection.

Crimson hair, and emerald eyes, her body looked the same as before. She heaved a sigh as she realized that what she saw was one of dreams just like the one she was having right now.

She stood up once again and realized that the beautiful garden she was in right now seemed to be a garden built beside a huge building. For a few seconds, she was searching for an exit when she felt another presence. Felt? How could she feel?

She turned quickly to see the person who was in her dream. A young lady, probably around the same age as her or younger than her, was standing opposite her. But the shocking thing was, she looked just like Zelda with golden blonde hair and a bit of a different body structure, wearing the same plain white knee-length gown as her. If she was really real, then what did she think of a dream that happened? Her mind was a mess right now.

The golden blonde girl looked at her and turned around, sprinting away. Zelda panicked and called out to the girl in a loud voice, “Hey! Wait!”

The redhead ran after the girl. No matter how fast she ran, the girl ran even faster. She didn’t know when but she was out of the garden and now was chasing the girl in what looked like the streets of an ancient Roman and Greek village. There were big but ancient buildings that she felt familiar with. The village was not only filled with stone buildings but also cottages, huts, and ancient homes. However, there was no one in the village.

Her view turned to the girl who was making her chase. She slowly started slowing down and Zelda slowed down her pace as she reached her, a few steps away. But she didn’t expect her to stop all of a sudden. Zelda couldn’t control her speed and crashed into her body. Nonetheless, instead of falling onto the ground along with the girl, she stood rooted to the ground. Her scrunched emerald eyes opened and saw the figure fading away. She looked transparent as her body was fading into the air with small golden dust-like orbs glowing around their bodies. Zelda gasped as she stepped back. The small golden particles moved along with her.

‘One again’ was the last sentence she heard before she lost consciousness once again.