The Dragon's Second Chance: The Past

Chapter 22: THE SEARCH

The Princess had been missing for almost the entire day now, but no one knew her whereabouts. She seemed to have mysteriously vanished, and everyone was extremely worried about her. But above all King Fin was profoundly displeased with the situation.

He kept wondering whether someone else had thought along the same lines as him and had abducted her to use her as leverage. Only he had not abducted her, his plan was more well-rounded with the final result being the Draconis clan members eventually accepting Phoenix clan rule, His rule. Now he wished he had.

The King and Queen of the Draconis clan had arranged for a team of their best strategists and trackers to determine the Princess's location, and report back. But only to the King and Queen, not to anyone else, not even King Fin or Roark.

The King and Queen continuously asked Roark if he could feel their daughter's presence, but he could not.

In secret, Roark tried using magic to find Princess Nuri's location, but even with magic, he was not succeeding. How could that be possible?

*Princess Nuri's 12th Birthday*

*A glimpse into the past*

On Princess Nuri's 12th birthday, the moment Roark had seen the Princess he knew that he was not her true mate. So as discussed with King Fin, he cast two spells. One spell would make the Princess feel all the signs of the mate bond, and the other would suppress her dragon's voice since her dragon would not be tricked by the spell and would immediately realise that he was not her mate.

Because of the spell, the Princess could always find Roark like a true mate could, not that she needed to since he was with her throughout since then. The only time they were apart was at night. But since he was not her true mate, he could never tell where she was. 

***

However, Roark had never expected nor calculated for a deviation in the plan. Spending all this time with the Princess and interacting with her had made him fall in love with her. Though he would never let King Fin find out.

The search through the day had only proven one thing, the Princess was not in the clan territory, and Roark was the last person to see her other than the chamber maiden.

But there was a development unknown to the anyone other than the Kid and Queen, the team arranged by them had reported back that the Princess was in the mortal territory and did not seem to be in any immediate peril, and was busy shopping.

Queen Athena's POV:

"She would never just vanish, Devlin. You know that very well. She is our daughter. Something must have happened for her to react like that. And she is currently shopping, all because of the currencies you kept giving her from your visits; even though you knew how she always wanted to go on an adventure to the mortal cities. But I know her, she would never just leave, she would have informed us. So we need to find out what is going on..." I was going to continue but my husband interrupted.

"She is shopping my dear, that is something new for her to experience. And I am sure she is enjoying it just as much as you do, my Queen. As for what happened, I have told the team to look into that as well. So please calm down. I trackers are keeping an eye on Nuri, and will discretely make sure that nothing happens to her. I have told them to stay hidden. I have also instructed them that if any Mystic, other than the team members designated by us is found tracking Nuri, is to be detained immediately before they can report back to their higher-up, and is to be sent to us for questioning. But my dear, if they do not answer my questions..."

"If they do not give us answers, I will eliminate them myself."

I was already relieved knowing that our trackers had found Nuri, and knowing they were making sure she was safe made me feel better. But I would find out what had happened and who was responsible for her to suddenly take-off in such a manner, and that too on her birthday.

Devlin was initially contemplating on informing King Fin about Nuri, but I immediately put a stop to it, "I did not like how he reacted. There is something very wrong with him. Do not say anything to him yet. Let us ourselves get some more information first. But for now, I believe we need to keep up pretences that the search is still on, or he will get an inkling of what is happening. You know he is extremely shrewd."

Devlin took heed to my words and decided not to divulge any information with King Fin yet and we maintained pretences that the search had yet not given any answers.

After a while, the team reported that Nuri had returned to a hotel and was currently residing there. However, within 2 hours we were informed that she had left the hotel and was on the move, and shortly after that, she was with a mortal male.

"What is going on? Honey, I need to go and check on her myself. If King Fin asks, tell him I am too distressed and wanted seclusion. Do not let him, Roark or any of his clan members learn what I am doing or where I am going." Devlin gave me a nod and a quick kiss on my forehead.

"Be careful, my dear. I will see you soon."

I quickly connected with the tracker's team leader and informed them that I would be joining them and asked them to share their current location. Since it would take time to go via transport, and me going in my dragon form would be too noticeable, I decided to teleport to the location. 

However, on reaching there I had just missed my daughter who had gotten into a car with the mortal and was going in the direction opposite to that of our clan territory.

The team had acquired position of a car, and we tailed them at a distance.

This mortal was taking my daughter to a secluded location. And when they finally came to a stop, they did not move out of the car. They continued to talk, and we continued to observe.

"What are you doing Nuri? Why are you here with a mortal?" I kept thinking to myself. I wanted answers soon but would have to wait for the right moment.