Death Thread

Chapter 26

"What the hell happened here while we were gone?" Eleanor looked furious as she stomped towards James, she grew up, was all James thought before he got hit in his head, the duke was shocked at what he was looking. James got hit twice from both of them.

"Tell me, what happened?" Eleanor said as they had gotten inside and sat down at the office.

"A wild boar got inside, and he ate all the flower roots, I tried to stop it, but I accidentally killed it. Then I made food, and ate." James said as he sighed.

"Well then, okay, did you find anything weird at the flower roots?" Eleanor asked, she was waiting to get home and get the box outside and look what it was.

"Hm? Weird?" James was thinking but shook his head.

"No, I didn't see anything weird at all." Eleanor gritted her teeth and stormed outside. The duke sighed and James looked confused.

"What's happening?" The duke looked at the pile of work in his desk.

"I thought you would continue my job for a bit." Said the duke before he looked at James.

"Oh well, no, I only trained, ate, and slept. But what's going on with Lea?" The duke just sighed.

"Layla had left a box in the ground and buried it, so Lea is trying to find a clue of what that is for, she is thinking that her mother knew that no one else knew." James was shocked, and nodded.

"And I'm sure she did." James said as he got up and went out to help Eleanor. The duke started doing his job, as he had lots of work to be done. As the day passed, and the night came, Eleanor was soaking wet from sweat from digging, so was James, the others were inside, only some knights were outside to make light for them.

As Eleanor was about to give up the digging, she dropped on her knees, and the sound was very much different, she looked shocked and started to dig with her hands, there was a box, she started to dig more around it, she took the box out and looked at it, James sighed loudly and sat on the ground, as Eleanor was breathing heavily, she tried to open it but it wouldn't open without a key.

Eleanor's POV:

A key, that's right, I need a key, in Ryan's office, there was a key that he didn't know what it was about and I hid it. As I started to run to the office and brought the box with me, my head started to ring, but I didn't stop, as I opened the door harshly, his eyes jumped on mine, he never flinched, not even if I was in danger. I looked around, I found the book that I sticked it inside the key, as I let the box in the floor and got on my knees as I started to looked through the sheets, finally the key hit the floor, as I took the key and opened the box, my tears came down my cheeks, as my head was hurting badly. There were notes with my name in it, it all wrote 'To my dear Eleanor.'. I felt the duke behind me, he was standing behind me and I felt his hands on my shoulder, I tensed up, a sharp pain hit me in the head, I curled from the pain and it went all black.

When I woke up, I saw myself laying in my bed, in the middle of the night, I sat and saw that the duke was sleeping in the chair, I sighed. I got up and covered him up. He is very stubborn when he sleeps in the chair like that. He was holding the paperwork, I got them out of his hand and let them in the table, but I didn't mean to wake him up.

"Lea..." He said as he sat straight. I went close to him.

"Father, let's get you in bed right now." I said as I held his hand.

"You lay down, I will go after I see you fall asleep." A thought came to my mind.

"What if we sleep together like when I was young?" I could hear his smile, he was so happy, I couldn't understand why he loved me so much, I thought I was a nuisance to him, and he would just sell me again for getting in his way.

"Shall we do that?" He said as he took me in a hug.

"Why didn't you turn evil after your family was killed?" I just asked, I was curious, he could have killed half of the empire without even trying, and maybe I would be a part of it.

"I wanted to, but sanity held me back, half of the humanity had lost their loved ones in the war, and if I went in a rampage, I didn't want to bring a bad name to myself after I just had saved the empire, but in the other hand I swore that I would get revenge for what he did, by killing his family." Ryan said, but this time he wasn't telling the truth. I knew that, yet I want to believe him.

"What was the real reason, father." I said as I sat on the bed.

"She would hate it if I started a new war after I just put the family to peace, she hated the thought of the war, so I forcefully stopped myself. It hurt the fact that they were gone, I screamed every night, I broke everything, I was turning into an animal, and then, John had suggested taking a child here, I didn't like the thought of that, I left it at that thought for almost six years, and then I heard about you." He said as he sat in the chair again, as I was laying in the bed, he was smiling he was proud of what he did, and didn't do. I felt happy for him.

"I found my family again." He said, but soon after he fell asleep, he was more tired than I am. I drifted to sleep soon after.

When I woke up, I didn't see Ryan on the room anymore, I got up and wore my clothes and got out of the room.

As I never got to look more to the box, I went to the duke's office and got the box. He was looking through the sheets that were on his table.

"I'll look more closely to the box; it won't take long." I said and went to my room, I opened the box again and saw the note that my mother had left me, notes. I opened the first one:

"Dear Eleanor,

You turned three years old today, it has been the most beautiful day on my life when I had you, I'm glad that I have you here by my side, you keep me company, a good one, so today I will talk about the man I loved, your father. He is not the man I am with right now; he was the best in this world, he unfortunately had died by the hands of the man that I call 'husband' now, if I could turn back time, I wouldn't have left him all alone that day, if only I didn't go to that mission. Your father was a polite man, he was the shyest man in the campus, but that didn't change his bravery, he and Ryan were on the same page of power, they had each other's back's, we were staying at the Ryan's estate once, and we had a hiding spot, we would go every night by that spot, we would talk about lots of things about life, wars, prisons, about children, almost everything. When I was in the academy, the first year, everyone looked at me weirdly, because I was the only female in the academy at that time, so I didn't care about anything, when our teacher had put us three in a group together, they were afraid first, because they didn't know my abilities. They thought they would lose, but when my turn was against three people, they were shocked, I did laugh that day, their faces were just so funny, then I started to open up to them, and we became friends, we started to talk more, train more, until I surpassed everyone, even the teachers themselves. Then suddenly I became a duchess, I don't really know how, but right after I became one, Ryan became once too, and so did Carlos, Carlos is your father, he was brown haired with golden eyes, he had cute freckles everywhere. When he asked me out on a date I froze on spot, he had blushed all his ears were red, that's when I had the real laugh with him, he took me next to a waterfall I had never seen before, he had made the breakfast and everything we needed. And after that I had fallen in love with Carlos, so when he proposed I immediately said yes, but no one knows the future, Ceasar, he is a spy for the emperor, so the emperor send him to kill my Carlos, and the emperor he holds something that he shouldn't have in his possession, but you shouldn't worry about that, Ryan has it under control. This letter that you found in, holds a lot of secrets, so I'm letting you a lot of hints, for when you grow up, because only you will be able to save everyone, because you have the blood of Cliodhna's. You will do fine, my lovely baby, you have the power to do anything you want.

-- Your mother, Layla."