The Tiger Prince's Witch
Chapter 33 - The Evil Brother

"Who is Santi?" Anna asked, glancing at Kamryn, who was looking at Melita in confusion.

"He's the puppet master pulling all the strings. He's the rightful king, and Randal is a cheap knockoff. One day he will be king and then hand over the throne to me so I can be queen. Kamryn could have been by my side, but he chose the witch instead. So now everyone must die." Melita's eyes were too heavy to stay awake any longer, and she went into a deep, peaceful sleep. Anna shut the cell door, ensuring it was locked, and then she and Kamryn started heading back to the others.

"Do you know who Santi is?" She asked Kamryn.

"I remember hearing the name a long time ago, but I don't know why. Let's ask my parents." He put his arms around Anna feeling a sudden chill down his spine. Something was telling him this may be worse than they feared. When they got back to the garden, the others were questioning Lucas. He was still standing frozen in place, glaring at Stanely and Caprice.

"I don't have to answer your questions." He said to Stanley.

"Yes, you do. Why do you not like those from Spirit Energy?" Randal asked loudly. He was done with this defiant guard. When they were done with him, he would go to the dungeons.

"Melita said they were coming here to take over the kingdom. She said they have a special magic to make our tigers leave us. Melita's tiger left her because this stupid little witch placed a spell on her." Lucas said, looking at Anna with disdain. "I didn't put a spell on her. Her tiger left because Melita was planning evil deeds. If your bad but you're tiger is good, they will leave you. Ask your tiger. I'm sure he'll tell you the same." Anna looked at him through narrowed eyes. Daring him to challenge her.

"It doesn't matter. You have no right to be here." Lucas said, ignoring both Anna and his tiger.

"Where were you and Melita going when you broke her free?" Lynn asked.

"She said there was someone that would help us get rid of the witches once we got outside of the palace." Lucas was tired of fighting. He wanted to forget all this and go back to being normal again.

"Did she tell you who this person was?" Randal asked, motioning for the other guards to come. He was ready for Lucas to be taken away.

"No, but she said he was powerful. Can you let me go now so I can get back to work?" He asked, looking at the king.

"I'm letting you go, but not back to work. You're being sentenced to serve time in the dungeons. I haven't decided how long yet." Lucas' face fell.

"You can't send me there. I didn't do anything that harsh." He tried arguing as two guards grabbed his arms.

"You freed Melita and attempted to help her escape. Something else came to mind as well. You were assigned to search the dungeons when Anna was missing, yet you said no one was there. Obviously, you were covering for Melita and assisted in the torture of your future queen. That deserves time in the dungeon, if not death." Lucas was speechless. He didn't think they would find out about him not searching the dungeons.

"I didn't know what she was doing." He said in a weak defense.

"That's not important. You were insubordanent. Take him away now. I'll let you know your punishment later. Right now, I have more pressing matters." Randal turned away from him as the guards dragged him away.

"Anna, my dear, you can be quite scary when someone makes you mad," Randal said, and she smiled at him sweetly.

"Only when I have to be," She said with a slight blush.

"Did you kids get anything from Melita?" Lynn asked.

"She said the person behind this is Santi. Why does that name sound familiar?" Kamryn asked, looking between his parents, who looked like they'd seen a ghost.

"Let's go to our office and talk," Randal said quietly.

Kamryn, Anna, Micah, Jaz, Stanley, Caprice, Maura, and Bryson followed the royal couple. Once they were in the conference room, Randal looked around at them with regret in his eyes.

"Santi is my brother." Everyone gasped, looking at each other in surprise.

"I didn't know you had a brother," Kamryn said quietly.

"I know. He left the palace when you were about three years old. Let me tell you what happened. Santi and I are twins. He was born about five minutes before I was. Our parents had initially planned on handing the throne over to him as, technically, he was the oldest child. However, as we got older, they discovered that Santi wasn't fit to be king. He enjoyed torturing others. He thought even the slightest misdeed was worthy of torture and death. My dad took the title of the crowned prince from him and gave it to me." Randal took a deep breath.

"As you know, shifters can live for hundreds of years. Yet my parents came down with an illness that ended in their deaths when I was just eighteen. I thought it was a rare disease that killed them, but a few years later, I discovered that Santi was practicing black magic. Yes, he's a weretiger, but somehow he was given the gift of magic. I asked him to stop, and he told me he had never used it for anything, so he agreed. I suspect he killed our parents in retaliation for taking the throne from him."

"When Micah was a year old and Kamryn was three, I received a plea for help from a family of tigers living outside the palace. When I went to investigate, they said someone stating they were the king had taken their eighteen-year-old daughter away. They said the man looked somewhat like me but was ugly. I knew it was Santi; he was ugly inside and out." He glanced around the table, and everyone was hanging on his every word.

"I used every resource I had at my disposal to find where Santi had gone. When we found him a few days later, he was in an area that wasn't far from a human town. He was in a large house with dozens of people. Santi had used black magic on the women to do whatever he wanted. The things I saw there disgusted me. He had shifters and humans performing sex acts on each other, some in their animal forms. I had a witch I'd taken with me undo the black magic that Santi had put on everyone, and she made them forget what happened. She also placed a spell on Santi, binding him from using black magic. He could only get out of the spell if he had a witch, a human, a werewolf, a werebear, and a werecat as willing sacrifices. The key is they have to be willing, not forced. I then banned him from the country and sent him away. I haven't heard from him since."

"Where did you send him?" Micah asked.

"I sent him to a deserted island. However, he could leave, but he wasn't allowed to come back into this country. He tried once, but I found out and sent him back to the island again. I had thought he had learned his lesson. He was one of the reasons I wanted to have an arranged mating between Kamryn and Spirit Energy. I never thought you and Anna would be fated mates. I also didn't think the current issues were related to him because he'd been quiet for so long." Randal was internally kicking himself for not putting two and two together.

"So what does this mean exactly? What does he think he'll gain by attacking us?" Kamryn asked, looking at his dad with concern.

"Most likely, he thinks he can kill us all and become king. Santi believes he is the rightful king as the older brother. I can't imagine he has found others to willingly sacrifice themselves for him to get his magic back. We shouldn't take any chances in the event he has, though. If he has sacrifices, his magic will be lethal." Randal said in warning.

"I don't understand why he would want Melita? Why risk getting someone that was so close to our family and could turn him in at any time?" Micah asked and saw his parents exchange a look.

"Melita is his daughter."