"I'm sorry, you want to do what?!" Foxglove tilted his head in disbelief like everyone else.

Valerio stared at the men without a muscle moving in his face. "What kind of a king would I be if I didn't fight for my kingdom and its people. I will fight and that's final."

"Are you sure Sir?" Mallory asked carefully. "The conquest is till the death. You could die."

"Oh, I won't die." He said confidently, a grin gracing his face.

"If he participates, then so will I." Haimon exclaimed.

Two kings participating in a deadly conquest. Amazing, more kings dying was just what the people needed.

"You do realize one king will die then?" Briar questioned. A little late to the party but maybe he finally got some common sense.

"It doesn't matter, I've already got preparations in place for my successor." Haimon stated.

"So you think you're going to die?" I blurted out.

He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again when he realized how his previous words sounded. He scratched his neck and straightened his back. "Of course not." He scoffed and I narrowed my eyes.

Sure, Jan.

"Right." Foxglove said changing the subject. "Then it will be three chosen fighters for the supernatural kingdoms in addition to their kings and it will be four chosen fighters for the human one as we have no king. That's literally, you know, what this conquest is for."

Everyone in the room agreed and gave their word. I looked over to my father to see he had written everything down, to prevent any one of them from breaking their word. Clever man.

"Moving on to our last point of interest since you're all here. Mr. Ashford here has come to the conclusion that the Crosslings have gone back to their respective kingdoms. Therefore he has made the request to fly over to each kingdom for a week to continue his investigation there. Of course, approval from King Orpheus and King Phelan is required for both weeks."

I had no idea my father wanted to go to the other kingdoms for his investigation. I rolled my eyes at him, how was I supposed to be his bodyguard if he didn't share anything of importance, like flying over to whole different kingdoms full of supernatural creatures?

"No problem, we're innocent anyway." Haimon shrugged.

Valerio just nodded. I mean, why waste words and come over as an actual being with emotions when you can act like a stone Greek god-like robot instead.

"Very good, then that's agreed upon as well. He will fly to the first kingdom on Monday." Foxglove said.

Hold up, that was only a couple of days from now.

He continued. "Naturally, his bodyguard will have to accompany him."

Hold up again, I was his bodyguard. I sighed, this was going to be a disaster.

The meeting ended shortly after. The delegations would stay for a couple more days to take care of some arrangements with the generals, meaning my father and I would leave around the same time as them. It was decided that tomorrow would be the day of the announcement to the people. Their brilliant plan consisted out of tackling the issues of the king and queen being murdered, the existence of supernatural creatures and the conquest for the throne together in one speech. I made a mental note to get myself some popcorn during it.

My father grabbed my hand and dragged me to the library, which was really big, old and above all, black. Aside from the color, it reminded me of Beauty and the Beast a little. He motioned to a table and I sat down while he did the same thing. I laid my arms on the table and leaned forward.

"Time for a supernatural lesson." He said with a grin.

"Finally." A big smile beamed from my face. "Saving people, hunting things, the family business."

He laughed, rolling his eyes. "We'll start with the werewolves. Werewolves have different ranks, there are alphas, betas and omegas. Alpha's are the leaders and have red eyes, beta's are their second in command and have yellow eyes, omega's are the outcasts, the lone wolf. They either live without a pack, which is incredibly hard, or they are the lowest ranking wolf in the pack, they can have any normal eye color. The higher the rank of the wolf, the bigger and stronger in both human and wolf forms. If you want to become an alpha as a werewolf, you either have to kill an alpha to move up in rank or you have to be the first born of one. Young werewolves meet their wolf when they turn fifteen.

Werewolves are turned by birth right through procreating, a bite or a very deep scratch. Not everyone survives the turning bite or scratch, and if they do they aren't immortal, but live three times longer and age differently than humans. When turned they get multiple improved abilities. A werewolf has superior strength, hearing, smell and speed, faster reflexes and more stamina. They have healing abilities, making them immune to disease and most regular attacks. They also have night vision. Last but not least they have their wolf form of course, giving them natural weapons consisting of claws and fangs."

"What about mates?" I asked curiously. "Are the Wattpad stories true?

My father laughed. "Yes, they are true, for the most part at least. A werewolf does have a mate, who either has to be marked to complete the bond or has to be rejected. It's incredibly strong and the pull normally can't be resisted, apparently it's a feeling like no other. A werewolf's mate can be of any race and gender, but 99% of the time it's a werewolf. If ones mate is killed before they get to meet, they sometimes get a new one."

"Got it, thanks." I smiled. Luckily for me I wasn't normal so I could block it out. "About the shifting, is that forced during a full moon?"

"Yes and no. On days without a full moon, werewolves can shift back and forth whenever they like. During a full moon however, only the strongest, most powerful werewolves have the control to resist turning during a full moon, the others can't and will shift whether they like it or not. Be careful, most alphas and even some betas have such high control, they can partly shift whenever they want to with only their claws out for example, so stay on guard."

"Speaking of staying on guard, spill those weaknesses." I said with a huge grin, rubbing my hands.

My father laughed, shaking his head. "Their prime weakness is silver, as I already told you. If the attack with silver is not deadly, it will take longer to heal. Another weakness is fire, which applies to everyone, I mean set a person on fire and they most like burn to a crisp. Decapitation will obviously kill them too. They don't really like being ripped apart either, ripping of a limb will not immediately kill them, but they aren't able to regenerate lost limbs so it will be permanent. Same applies to their organs, if you were to rip their heart out for example, they'll be dead in seconds.

If you're looking for something to weaken them, they really don't like high pitched noises, it'll drive them insane, giving you the opportunity to strike. Lastly, you can use Wolfsbane, really high doses will kill them, lower doses will weaken them.

As for information about the kingdom, I'll tell you about it when we're there. Do you have any questions?"

Not going to lie, it was a lot of information to process, but tv-shows, movies and books had prepared me for this.

"No, it's fine, I'm good." I smiled.

"Good, because we're moving on to the vampires." He smiled, mockingly recreating some fangs with his fingers.

I chuckled and jokingly bowed down to the table. "Alright, all-knowing one, bring it on."

He snorted and continued. "Vampires obviously drink blood, they can either drink human blood or animal blood, drinking animal blood will make them slightly weaker. They don't really have ranks like werewolves. Since they're immortal, everything is based on age and bloodlines. The better the bloodline, the better their natural abilities are and the older the vampire, the stronger they are. Orpheus for example, is old and comes from the best bloodline, making him a really powerful vampire. You turn into a vampire either by birth since they can procreate, the children will then age up until they reach the age of eighteen, or you can turn by being bitten, after which you have to be killed and then drink human blood to complete the transition, if you don't you'll die. 

Vampires look like normal humans until they're about to drink or attack, revealing their dark form. It turns their eyes completely black, with black veins popping up from underneath their eyes till below their cheeks and it reveals their pointy fangs.

Are you still following?" He asked curiously.

"Yes, sir." I nodded.

He rolled his eyes. "They have quite a bit of strength in common with the werewolves. For example, the superior strength, hearing, smell and speed, and faster reflexes as well as the healing abilities, they're immortal after all. They're particularly good at smelling blood, and can see in the dark. Their natural weapons are of course, their fangs, enabling them to drink blood, but also rip someone's throat out. Lastly, they have a rather unique ability of being able to compel someone to do whatever they please, afterwards you won't know why you did it. It can be resisted by wearing or drinking vervain, the generals and I do both things every single day."

I remembered the incident with Haimon trying to compel me in one of the gardens. "You didn't happen to secretly make me drink or wear it, did you?" 

"No I haven't, I didn't think it would be necessary. Why, do you think someone compelled you?" He asked worried, a feeling of guilt rushed through him.

My eyes widened. "No, no, no! Don't worry about it! I was just asking as a precaution since I'm your bodyguard, that's all."

My father's guilt washed away, he believed me and continued. "Our final topic on vampires, their weaknesses. Their main weakness is the sun, vampires that aren't given our special rings will burst into flames and die right after catching any sunlight on them. If vampires don't have access to blood, they'll weaken and dry out, staying alive in agonizing pain, not being able to do a thing. Of course there's silver. Like with werewolves, if the attack isn't deadly it takes longer to heal. In order to kill a vampire you either have to stake them in the heart with silver or wood, decapitate them or set them on fire. A werewolf bite will kill them as well, since apparently they can't heal from rabies. 

If you want to weaken them, just hurt them with silver, dry them out or poison them with vervain."

"Good to know, dad." I nodded and smiled.

"Well, I think that about covers everything. Let's have dinner." He stood up, suggesting we leave, and walked over to the door.

But I wasn't done yet, there was one more supernatural thing I wanted to hear about.

"Wait!" I called out after him and he turned around confused. "What about half-bloods?"

"Oh right. I totally forgot." He pretended to slap his forehead and sat down again. "Crossbreeding is only possible between humans and werewolves or humans and vampires. It's not possible to crossbreed between vampires and werewolves. Crossbreeding between the races creates either half-bloods or demons, depending on whether or not the parents are more good or more evil.

Since crossbreeding has been forbidden since the end of the war and humans have forgotten about supernatural creatures, they're pretty much extinct.

Demons were evil creatures, who only wanted to kill and had lost their minds. They got killed almost immediately after finding out and being tested, which was quite simple since they didn't have the ability to think.

Half-bloods were hybrids in a sense. The crossbreeding created different kind of half-bloods depending on the parents. There was a fifty/fifty chance for what race it would become. The human hybrids were a bit stronger than regular humans, since they had a supernatural parent. Whereas the supernatural half-bloods were way weaker than regular supernatural beings, since they had a human parent. 

Human half-bloods usually didn't even find out they were half-bloods, because their parents had to live in separated kingdoms, so they only knew one of them. They could've been the best athletes for example, without ever finding out a thing.

Supernatural ones however, were cast out of their kingdom or murdered immediately since they were weak and 'impure' in the eyes of their race. They took refuge in the human kingdom, where they hid until they adapted to be just like humans."

I knew for a fact I wasn't a demon, because I could think. But there was one question that gnawed on my mind.

"Dad, am I a half-blood?" I asked hesitantly.

"No kiddo, I can promise you you're not. You were tested." He gave me a reassuring smile, but if faded soon after. "Truth be told, I have no idea what you are and I think you don't know either."

"Whaaaat?" I puffed. "I have no idea what you're talking about, I just asked because of the color of my eyes."

"Uh-huh."

Why bother lying if my father doesn't know it either? I stood up and motioned to the door. "Let's forget the last part of this conversation and have dinner shall we? There's Ben & Jerry's waiting for me."

"Fine with me." My father shrugged as he stood up and playfully punched my arm, making us both laugh.

We were finishing up our desserts, when my father was invited to a 'social gathering' in the great hall next to the dining hall. The generals had invited him for drink to celebrate today's agreement. The Kings however, weren't very fond of being left out of celebrations, so they demanded they were invited as well. I wasn't invited, but you could only imagine how awkward this celebration was going to become. Not to mention, the heightened anger because of the alcohol.

Yeah, there was no way I was missing this, I was in desperate need of some entertainment in this Hellhole. In an attempt to get me to go to the meetings and eat with everyone, Foxglove had ordered Mr. Anders to cut off the tv in my room and take all the books out of the bookshelf during the last meeting, meaning I was now bored as fuck. 

When everyone who was invited was there, I casually slipped into the kitchen which was connected to the bar of the great hall. I nodded to a couple of chefs who looked at me strangely, before sneaking through the door leading to the bar. I crouched down and hid behind the bar. To my surprise, Mr. Anders was the mixologist, he smiled and shook his head, allowing me to stay there. I peeked over the edge of the bar, my eyes roaming around the room which was decorated in the same black style as the rest of the castle. On every side of the room, a fire place could be found. Above each one, hung a black and white painting of a man. There were four in total, one man was posing with his hounds, another was sitting on his horse, one was holding his sword and one was sitting on a fancy chair. I had no idea who they were, truthfully I didn't care.

My eyes moved back to the reason I was here in the first place. Most of the men were facing me with their backs, sitting at the fireplace across from the bar. Even though, they were sitting around the same one, they were still divided into their groups. They were talking about their swords, bragging about theirs being the biggest and I just hoped they were talking about literal swords.

My dirty mind was distracted when I felt a soft tap on my shoulder. I lowered myself on my butt and turned around to see Mr. Anders subtly holding a pen and a note for me. 

'What drink do you want? 
- Anders'

My eyes lit up and for a second I thought about marrying him, before I remembered he was in his seventies. Now what did I want to drink? Alcohol barely affected me, I needed something strong.

I spun the pen through my fingers and wrote something down.

'Can I get a Four Horseman please?
Make it a double.
- Iola'

I gave the note back to him and he held up his thumb under the bar. I folded my hands into a heart and showed it to him, making him chuckle. Not long after he mixed it, he handed me a huge glass filled almost to the edge. I expected a double shot, but this was way better. I completely downed the whole thing, the sooner I drank it, the sooner it would hopefully do its thing.

A little while passed by and most of the men were starting to get drunk. Well, most of the human men. They started to talk shit about everything they could, banging loudly on tables and stamping their feet, much to the annoyance of the vampires and werewolves, who constantly rolled their eyes. They obviously had a way higher alcohol tolerance. My father had seen enough and went to bed.

"What about women?" Slurred speech came out of Hemlock's mouth. "We should call for some of the maids, we can get anyone we want!"

Mr. Anders and I locked eyes and we frowned in disgust. 

"You know who we should get over here?" Briar grinned drunkenly.

"Iola."