Prince of Thievery | ONC 2024

Chapter 1

"Hey! What the hell are you doing!"

The sudden yell made Kyle jump. He slowly turned around to face the brightness of the torch that was being flashed at him.

As the torch cut through the darkness it failed to illuminate its holder.

"Who are you and why are you here?" The other person demanded again.

"The tooth fairy." Kyle muttered under his breath.

"What?"

He was really hoping the person hadn't heard him.

"I'm just a traveler passing through."

He slowly crept his hands towards his pants and dropped the item he had attained into his back pocket.

"You're intruding on private property at midnight. I doubt you're simply a traveler." The person's voice was laced with suspicion.

"How about you drop that torch and we can talk this out civilly." Kyle offered. The light was starting to sting his eyes. He raised both his hands to show that he was unarmed.

They reluctantly turned it off and put it down on the floor.

The first thing Kyle noticed as the moon shone on the other person's face was that the left side of his face was almost entirely scarred. One of the scars ran through his left eye, which was uncannily white. His other eye was a bright blue and it was...

Well, it looked strangely familiar. A little too familiar.

His tousled, chestnut hair complimented the rest of his features quite well.

The rest of his physique was quite rugged. His face was weather beaten and he was buff and tall.

This was not a guy Kyle would want to fight.

"You have five seconds to start talking before your chances of getting out of here alive become non-existent." The other person threatened.

"Woah, violent." But Kyle conceded nonetheless. "My name's Kyle."

"And Kyle," he said the name with venom, "why are you intruding in my home."

"I was, uh, wanting to collect a souvenir."

He frowned. "This is a house, not some shop."

Kyle slowly pulled out the locket from his trouser pocket.

The guy's eyes widened. "Why do you have that?"

"I was hoping I could take this and pay you its worth in cash," Kyle replied casually. "What's it made of? Silver? White g–"

Before Kyle could finish he was shoved against the wall which he had previously had his back to. The sudden impact made him gasp.

The guy pulled back his hand – the one that was not pressing Kyle's chest to the wall – as if to punch Kyle.

Kyle put his arms up protectively. "Hey, hold on."

The guy didn't move so Kyle took that as a cue to continue talking. "What if I paid double for it?"

That earned him a deathly glare. The guy made a grab for the locket but Kyle was quicker; he moved it out of the other's reach.

"What do you want in exchange for it then?"

"I want that locket back. I don't need your filthy money," he growled.

"C'mon, from the looks of this house you could really use some money."

"That locket is much more valuable than your life. Give it back to me right now or I swear I'll kill you."

"I don't think you can do that." Kyle said matter-of-factly.

Then, before the guy decided to take his statement as a challenge to try and murder him, Kyle added quickly, "I'm the crown prince."