Bound (A Beautifully Bound Novel)

Bound- Chapter 21

Bound

Chapter 21

"Are you crazy?" Odol asked Altair. "You have too much on your hands already. You don’t need to add this on to all of that."

"You may think that, but I’m perfectly fine with taking over the throne with everything going on." Altair said. He was tired of his older brother not taking him seriously. It was time he did.

"Why would you without talking to us about it?" He asked. "You didn’t want Lelia to."

"Lelia was as opposed to taking the throne as you. I’m not, Odol. It doesn’t bother me." He said, very calmly. Odol still had an angry look on his face. "I’m not a kid anymore. You can’t tell me what to do."

"But…" Lelia cut him off.

"Odol, he’s right. Besides, I knew he was going to take the throne. It wasn’t much of a surprise. You should have known too. I can’t think of why you would be so upset. That is, unless you don’t like the idea of your little brother being King and being in charge of you." Lelia said. Odol got a hard look in his eyes. That was when Altair realized the problem. Lelia had hit it right on. Odol didn’t want to be under his little brother’s control. He was glad none of the kids were in here.

"That is the problem, isn’t it?" Altair asked. Odol lowered his head, ashamed. "Why do you hate it, if you don’t want to take over?"

"You’re not supposed to be in charge, Altair! You’re younger and weaker! It’s going to lead us into big trouble, and I don’t want anything to do with it!" Odol was mad now. Altair wasn’t so surprised by his brother’s outburst. He could tell Ally didn’t really like it, so he put his hand over hers, trying to show her he was fine. It didn’t seem to work.

"Why do you think that about him?" Ally asked. Odol looked over at her, not really happy. Altair looked over at his parents for help, but they both shook their head.

"You haven’t known him very long, Ally. You don’t know how he really is." Odol growled out. Altair was sure that would bother Ally, but it didn’t. She didn’t even flinch.

"I’m not asking about that, Odol. I’m asking why you even think that." She said. "He’s your brother, your family. You should want to be there for him, for all of your family."

"Your family may be perfect, but ours isn’t." He said. Ally shook her head.

"My family’s not perfect. My sister tried to kill herself, my dad traded me so he wouldn’t be killed, and my niece and nephew call me they’re mom. Do you call that perfect? I certainly don’t. It doesn’t matter to me what they’ve done. I will always love them. I still love my dad, even after everything he’s done." She said. Odol seemed slightly shocked at what she was saying. "No family is ever perfect, but no matter what, you don’t turn your back on them. You’re mad because you think Altair’s weak and shouldn’t take over the throne, when you don’t even want it yourself. You’re saying that you won’t help your family if trouble comes along, but they would do anything for you. You’re coming off like you don’t want to be a part of this family, which you’ve grown up in, when I would have done anything to have a family like this. You can’t see what you’ve got, because you’ve never had to live without it. If you turn your back on them now, then later, even if it’s years later, you will wish you didn’t."

Odol bowed down his head, not looking at anyone in the room. Arielle, who finally snapped out of whatever caused her to stay so still, walked over to him.

"I don’t want to lose my family." He said. "I would never want to lose my family."

"Then why are you acting like you are?" Ally asked. Both Arielle and Odol avoided everyone’s eyes.