IMPRESS.

Chapter Seventy-Two: Legend Of Andrea Driarco.

WARNING: THE LONGEST CHAPTER YET SO ENJOY!!

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QUICK RECAP:

The IMPRESS stages have yet to be completed. Ella, Rose and Cassandra still await their fate. But in the meanwhile, whilst everyone in the castle believes the Prince is still out looking for Natalya, the Queen, Alexander and Cathryn told The King that they believe the Ascelyns are the children of Isabella Valentine and are the great-grandchildren of Andrea Driarco.

All the way in Icilia, Natalya slapped Prince Zachary and now he wants her to be arrested, punished and/or executed for breaking the law. This means Natalya Ascelyn is WANTED.

Prior to slapping Zac, Natalya had an outburst where she put everyone in their place, including her brother before escaping Lady Irene's inn with Harrison and Preston. She had a bad run-in with her childhood bullies Tyler, Charlotte and Drew, in which Preston got angry and handled the situation, we are yet to know what he did to the three. Ava, Kat, Blake and Kai are on their way to meet Preston and help him guard the house that Natalya has gone into, to speak with her greatest-grandfather Daya El Rigo. Harrison went with Natalya in order to support her, and they are about to get some of the answers that we've been waiting for.

End Of Recap.

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Natalya's POV~

I had waited for this moment to come for a long time myself, so when I found out that my great-grandfather Daya El Rigo had been waiting too, it hit hard at home. I thought I'd lost the majority of my family until now where I'd learnt that, in fact, I had more than just Alaric and Todd for a family.

That is if I exclude the terrible three Aunt Roslin, Ella and Marcus.

Knowing that I had a grandfather who'd been waiting for me for who knows how long made me feel wanted, loved and cared for. Even standing in the same room as him put me in deep awe and staring at him for as long as I did, enabled me to take in his Zeus-like appearance. I think I had seen this envisioned this moment in a dream or something because he looked exactly how I imagined.

I'd pictured a handsome older man with greying dark hair and a Viking-long beard, his eyes a piercing hazel brown and skin, a Mediterranean, golden olive. Daya El Rigo matched the description. He was a man of power, and his formal posture announced that.

When our eyes met, he smiled endearingly and I couldn't help but smile back.

I was staring right into Daya El Rigo's eyes, the man that had been mentioned by many, the man I believe was my greatest-grandfather, and the man I could hardly comprehend that I was stood right in front of.

So since I believe Daya El Rigo is my great-grandfather, this means he was the one my greatest-grandmother Andrea eventually chose in the end... But then, who was the girl? And, why was she standing so close to Harrison? It was making me slightly uncomfortable, actually, highly uncomfortable.

I folded my arms over my chest waiting for the lady to finish examining my Harrison, eyeing her judgmentally at how invasive she was being. Poor Harrison was taken back, and I could tell he was wondering what the girl was doing too. My grandfather, however, didn't even seem fazed when the girl inched a little closer to Harrison's face and caressed his cheek with the back of her hand.

Okay, she's crossed the line. That's enough!

"Excuse me, do you mind not doing that?" I said frowning at how Harrison wasn't even trying to push her away. Not that he should have to do that, but I would like if he did.

The girl abruptly stopped when she heard my voice, and her hands clutched onto Harrison's jacket as she smirked and slid off him. Was she intentionally trying to hit a nerve in me, because congrats to her, it may have worked?

"Sure," the girl said in a humoured way. Why the hell did she look so pleased by my annoyed reaction to her invasion of Harrison's personal space? I'm confused.

The girl was pretty, I guess.

In fact, who am I kidding? The woman was drop-dead gorgeous, a whole package deal. One glance at her face and I felt like the ugliest girl in the world. She had an enchanting aura that surrounded her, kind of like Preston's mother, there were a few similarities between them actually.

However, this woman was something else. Her porcelain white skin seemed to create light in this room of darkness, and her hair only made her stand out more, with curly locks that were the darkest shade of black and lips painted red, it was easy to say she was the prettiest girl I had ever seen.

When her eyes met mine, I froze, I hadn't had the chance to see her up close until now and I could have sworn that I was looking into a mirror when I did properly get a look of her. Her eyes looked very much like mine? Like an exact reflection of mine. A coffee-bean brown that could brighten to a hazel yet at times, still be mistaken for black.

And on top of that, they gleamed.

"Excuse my actions, I was just trying to prove a point to a certain someone," the girl spoke again gesturing over to my grandfather. When I heard her speak this time, I was able to detect the maturity in her voice. A maturity that had me questioning whether she was a witch or a vampire that had lived many years but remained young and youthful.

"What point were you trying to prove?" It was now my turn to invade her privacy.

She didn't hesitate nor did she falter in any way. The girl smiled in a way that gave rise to my suspicions and responded, "nothing of your concern, Natalya-Andrea."

All I could do in reply was gulp and questioningly look over at Harrison.

"Call me Davina, Davina Utupris," I hear the girl's voice first before I turn back around to see her hand hovering in the air for me to shake. "I've been a friend of your family for generations Andrea, and I'm so glad I am finally getting to meet you... The girl who will bring peace to the five kingdoms. Wow, it's unreal."

Davina Utupris? Her name does ring a bell but from where do I know it from?

I shook Davina's hand cautiously, looking over her shoulder and to my grandfather for a little help in understanding who she actually was. To me, it looked like she was just my great-grandfather's rebound after he lost my great-grandmother, Andrea. But, that can't be the only case if she's calling me by my middle name so naturally like she was.

"I'm sorry for the loss of your parents, it must've really left a scar on you," she continued with a faint heartfelt smile that looked sad, to the point, that it seemed she'd been affected by the news just as much as I had, "don't be a stranger dear, I've been your guardian angel for a while now."

My guardian angel?

I furrowed my eyebrows, "in what way?"

Before Davina could answer me, she was distracted by my necklace, my great-grandmother Andrea's necklace. She took the pendant into her hand, and I was surprised to see it didn't burn her. She was definitely a vampire, I could tell, so why didn't the Nixon in my necklace affect her.

"This was hers," Davina muttered to herself more than to me, she stroked the pendant and looked at it sadly, " Your cousin Todd gave you this as a late birthday gift from your parents, didn't he?"

How did she know that? I stared at her with wide eyes and swallowed worriedly. "Yes, he did."

Davina temporarily shut her eyes as she nodded and smiled, "his a good boy that one."

My great-grandfather interrupted us before I could ask how Davina knew what she knew. "Natalya, correct me if I am wrong but I hear you came here to get some answers. Is that right?"

With my mouth ajar, I slowly turned my head and moved away from Davina to formally answer my grandfather. "Yes, you're right. I have a long list of questions, and somehow, all of them have led me to you."

He strongly nodded, his power and authority electrifying the air from the one gesture. "Ok. Allow me to answer those questions for you then, as well as get to know you two a little better," he smiled but again, the smile screamed POWER. "We should probably take this discussion elsewhere, to a more private area in the house..."

"-He means the basement." Davina clarified for our understanding, brushing past me and Harrison and back to my grandfather's side. "This way we can speak openly and be rest assured that whatever the four of us discuss down there won't pass beyond these walls."

Davina made me shudder at the way she sharply narrowed her eyes at the door as if she was mentally murdering the person that lurked behind it aka. my fiance, Preston. I pretended not to notice her directed glare and slowly nodded.

Going elsewhere to talk privately was fine by me but I had to check with Harrison first, to see if he was okay going down into a basement with people that were essentially strangers to him. To my relief, when I did look to see if he was fine with it, he sent me a reassuring nod to confirm that he wasn't bothered.

Well then...

"Lead the way."

Earlier...

Alexander's POV~

There was only so much a bastard son like me could do in a scenario like this. It didn't make a big difference whether I was the bastard son of the King or not, because, at the end of the day, I was just the son of his late mistress... I wasn't seen as anything more or less than a mistake that happened in the eyes of the Astenians.

Yes, father did treat me equally to Zachary and Cathryn, but, even I knew that my word didn't matter when it came to big decision-making. Nor did my sister Cathryns matter or even Queen Melisandres. My father, King Creon and brother Prince Zachary had the power of determining how to impact a situation since their claims were much more superior than ours.

The King and the King to be's words are the only ones that were truly respected.

Zac was next in line for the crown, so his word had worth, whatever he spoke was taken seriously by father, the council and the people. But, too bad he wasn't here to prevent what was happening right now...

"What the heck is going on? We heard about Alaric and Natalya, is it really true?!" Douglas all very suddenly appeared by my side, blowing out a gust of air like he'd just run from one side of the castle to the other. Before I could respond, Terrence followed after him, appearing on the other side of me. "This is by far the most hectic morning the castle has experienced in a long time, what's this news I hear about the Ric and Natalya?"

"When did you guys get back?! Where are the others, did Zac come back with you, were you able to find Natalya?" I widened my eyes, surprised that they'd made it back already.

As Terrance straightened his back and removed his hands from his knees, Douglas cleared his throat and answered my many questions, "we got back late last night, we came looking for you but the guards informed us that you were busy. Zac didn't come back with us. He, Alaric, Derek, Chris and Xavier are still out there looking for Natalya. Dario is with his dad, and Aaron is down in the dungeons."

"Oh thank god!"

I put a fist in the air, having been relieved at what Douglas had said. Don't get me wrong, I wanted Zac to find Natalya, however, if she valued her quality of life, she would need to stay as far away from this castle as possible, especially after my encounter with father last night. He didn't exactly take the news about the true heritage of the Ascelyns very well, by that I mean, early this morning he sent out over at least a hundred trained soldiers and guards to every region in search of Alaric and Natalya.

My father the King didn't normally send out the most trained soldiers out on a job if the issue wasn't majorly important, so this must've been a sore as hell subject for him because he didn't take a single heartbeat to decide what he wanted to do. Father won't say what he will do once he gets his hands on the Ascelyns but my gut is telling me that he won't let them off easily.

When the King senses a threat, he tends to eliminate it. Especially now that his biggest regret is having kept Oberyn alive for as long as he did, he really wishes he never delayed his execution date.

"Wait, is it a good thing that they are not back yet?" Terrence slowly questioned, confused by my response to Douglas.

"Yes, it's very good. As you can see, right now, both Alaric and Natalya's bedchambers are being searched top to bottom for any sign of threat," I direct Douglas and Terrence's gaze over to Natalya's bedchamber which is wide-open and filled with countless servants, "my father made sure to tell the servants going through their things that they didn't need to worry about making a mess, he just wants to gather as much evidence as he can to confirm that the Ascelyns are really related to the legend Andrea."

The servants were definitely searching through Alaric and Natalya's rooms thoroughly and the reason I believe this is because the level of noise that was coming from the rooms made it sound like a lot of chaos was happening.

I continued catching Douglas and Terrence up on what they needed to know, "When the soldiers that were sent out do eventually get their hands on Alaric and Natalya, I have no clue what my father plans on doing with or to them. I'd prefer if they just stay as far from here as possible."

All I know for sure is that the King certainly doesn't want the future King Zac anywhere near Natalya, and for the right reasons, I guess. I think he knew Zac showed a strong liking in her which is why he'd gone to look for her, but thing is, father had been betrayed, abandoned and left broken by Alaric and Natalya's mother Isabella in the past, so I understood if he still felt heartbreak and held a grudge. He simply didn't want history to repeat itself.

To my dismay though, this meant father took matters into his own hands as soon as he heard the news. He took it upon himself to write a formal letter addressing the Ascelyn's secret so he could fly it out by sunrise, in hopes that it would get to wherever Zac was by sunset.

If the letter did get to my brother in time, there was no telling what he would do upon hearing the news. I believe my brother truly means good but sometimes, just sometimes, he can be a tiny bit unpredictable. Like father, when my brother feels threatened he tends to react impulsively out of fear that he will lose his pride, power and authority in a click of a finger.

There was a long period of time where father had finally reached a good level of serenity, but as soon as he got the slightest taste of what peace and order is, he instantly lost the plot again. All thanks to that conniving witch, Melisandre.

"I saw your father coming up from the dungeons this morning looking all kinds of pissed off so, I don't think his handling the news very well," Douglas admitted.

"If the witches find out that the crown and everyone who serves it, is distracted by this news, they will find a time and place to attack us without warning. They will thrive before we've even run over our plan of action with the demons and werewolves. Just what we need before a war isn't it," I sarcastically rolled my eyes, and hit the wall of the corridor frustrated.

Terrence rubbed my back, "Xander, we'll be fine. We still need to resume IMPRESS, so we can use that and its next stages to distract our enemies from suspecting that anything's wrong."

I like the way he thinks. I clicked my fingers repeatedly, impressed by his suggestion. "Wait, that's a really good idea. Hey, find my sister and tell her to notify the council and IMPRESS girls to prepare for the next stage. I'm going to go find my father and make sure he doesn't make any more hasty decisions."

"Don't worry, we got you," Douglas tapped my shoulder before he and Terrence gave each other a nod and flashed out of my sight.

Later...

***

Derek's POV~

"The reason she's decided to lash out at us, especially me, is because that psychopathic demon king has hypnotised her!" Prince Zac growled, taking out his anger on an abandoned market stand and kicking it down to planks.

I agreed. That Demon King was trouble, the way he stood there smirking in the back whilst watching her make a fool of her own brother. Something was off about him. It baffled my mind that Natalya had supposedly fallen for him in such a short space of time. I didn't get it.

"That was seriously out of character, even for her. King Preston is definitely playing some sick kind of game with her," Chris said, also baffled by Natalya's recent outburst.

"You can't just assume that his brainwashing her, I think Natalya has been treated so well by him that she has just now realised how bad she was actually treated by everyone else before," Cassandra revealed, earning an everlasting glare from the Prince.

She immediately backed up and walked by Xavier, using him as the barrier between her and Zac since he was the only one out of us all that hadn't said a word since the incident.

I think he was a little annoyed by the incident too. But, I don't know whether he was more annoyed Natalya or at Zac for asking us to arrest Natalya after she slapped him? I guess he'd tell us in his own time, but I personally think everyone just needed a moment to calm down after what happened.

"I just don't understand what went wrong? I thought I was doing alright," Alaric frustratedly said as we fell behind the others and failed to maintain their pace. To be honest, it was a bit difficult to keep up with Prince Zac, he was incredibly angry at everybody and everything since what happened. "Don't you think?"

Honestly, Alaric had been a pretty shitty brother these days. I know he cared for his sister with all his heart but he acted like a wuss when it came to the prince. Maybe it was because Alaric saw him as a close brother that he failed to acknowledge the fact that his never actually disagreed with Zac on anything.

For example, the time that the prince almost killed Alaric's sister, he didn't try as hard as he should've done to prevent that from happening. I know that the Prince prefers Alaric over me which is why I had put my faith in him to persuade Zac not to kill his own sister. But, somehow, he failed.

I know one thing is for sure. If Natalya was my sister I would have done everything in her favour to prevent that event from occurring.

"I'm saying this because you're like a brother to me Ric, but you seriously let Prince Zac get away with too much. He treats your sister like shit yet you haven't once told him to stop, in fact, instead of doing her a favour and keeping him away from her, you are helping him get closer to her. For what? She clearly wants nothing to do with him."

Alaric blankly blinked at me, shocked that I'd said what I had, he'd expected me to side with him. But, that wasn't me, unlike him, I can accept the fact that I have been a shit guard. I mean- I had no idea Natalya was engaged to that demon of a man until recently. "I'm just telling you the truth mate, he doesn't deserve Natalya and you know it."

"But the way my sister looks at him tells me otherwise, and the way he constantly talks about her too. I didn't notice it in the beginning but Derek, Zac's