Page 28 of Her Royal Blood

“We will,” I said, taking her by the hands and bringing her in close.

I gave her a soft peck on the lips and Hawk huffed behind me, “we don’t have time for any of this nonsense,” he complained. “And since it’s been years since I’ve been with a woman, kiss her and leave it at that or I’ll beat the crap out of you for making me watch.” Hawk’s face curled into a menacing scowl and Aria’s hand squeezed mine.

“He’s right, there’ll be time for us.” She offered me one more small kiss then turned to Hawk. “Have you been on the island long? Do you know the landscape and the places that are most heavily guarded?” Aria was a queen again, focusing on the task and the greater good.

“I know this island like the back of my hand. I must let you know, Your Majesty, my wolf is going through some shit,” he laughed. “Ever since you came here, I’ve been struggling to keep him under control. .

By the way Hawk was looking at Aria, his eyes glazed but hyper- focused on her, I thought for a moment he was going to profess his attraction. Then I’d have to end his life, but an even more surprising thing happened.

“Are you a threat to us?” Aria asked with more curiosity than panic.

“No, Your Majesty, my wolf won’t leave your side. He’ll risk our lives to protect you.. I’m a member of the Midnight Moon Pack and something in my wolf has snapped into place. We’re bound to you, Your Majesty and will guard and serve you until the end of our days. .” Hawk looked almost pained to say it, as if his life depended on making sure that Aria knew he would act as her guardian. “I will protect you or die.”

“Welcome to my life, brother.” I slapped Hawk’s back hoping to jar him out of his reverie.

“I’m sure the honor of loving and protecting this woman is a deafening call. So because of this, I’ll do my best to navigate us through the island to where your boat is anchored.” Hawk stood up straighter having professed his loyalty and devotion. “We won’t be safe traveling by day. We’ll have to wait until nightfall. How long will your ship wait and do you think it has been detected?”

“Our ship will wait a reasonable amount of time for us. Lex is a prince of Navarrah City and I the queen of Onyx Rah, they have orders to return us both to our respective lands. They’ll not leave until their mission is accomplished. The challenge for us will be finding the boat. They’ll send up smoke signals as soon as it gets dark, but need to sail the circumference of the island to avoid being caught. We’ll have to gage the journey to the boat and its position from our vantage point, before moving out. It’s also a pretty grueling swim. Is that going to be a problem for you?”

“I have no problems with any of this plan,” Hawk said, gathering up thick sticks and sharp rocks from the ground around him. “We are going to need to find food, and spend our day getting ready for tonight’s escape. There’s a small lagoon just above the north shore. It’s a few miles from here. If we stay under the cover of trees and keep low we’ll be able to make it. The lagoon has fish. We’ll have to watch for the underbrush and snakes.” Hawk started fitting the rocks into the sticks and pounding them into the ground so that the rocks embedded in them. “These aren’t the greatest weapons but they’ll stun a fish, snake, or a soldier if wacked hard enough in the head,” he laughed as he handed me the first of the three weapons he was crafting. “Behind the lagoon are the foothills. We can climb those tonight.”

“Sounds promising.” I held the weapon in my hand and visualized killing a fish with it, as I was starving.

I helped Hawk make the other two weapons and we were on our way. Like Hawk had suggested we kept low and under the cover of the thick leaves and branches of the dense jungle. Since Hawk mentioned snakes, I was on the lookout and had already seen two, one slithered up a tree and the other crossed our path. There was no way I could be bitten again. I wouldn’t survive.

“Lex can tell you. Let one of those monsters get their fangs in you and this mission is over. Lex can’t take another bite so watch your step, they’re everywhere,” Hawk explained as we made our slow journey to the lagoon a few miles farther away from the men’s camp where Aria’d been taken last night.

As we made our way, we passed a ridge with three armed guards stationed.

“Get down,” Hawk ordered as he and I both covered Aria, using their bodies as shields.

We had not been spotted. But getting around the burned out pitaya fields with the guards watching would be a challenge. We’d have to stay low and hidden. As we continued our journey, I regarded the vast fields that spanned the east side of the island and noted the entire crop had been destroyed. The prisoners were sent to Vitoria to harvest the pitaya that now no longer grew. What were they keeping them on the island for? Perhaps Polonius would get around to training super warriors or use them as bait or shields since they were incarcerated for crimes, perhaps Polonius would consider their lives expendable if they didn’t join the Crypt Claw. Aria looked at the land with deep sadness.

“Polonius must have had all of that crimson pitaya razed,” she said as her expression turned to anger. Seeing the extent of ruin made my heart hurt, so it must have really affected her. No wonder there had been such a shortage of the magical fruit. “Polonius must have purposefully created a shortage so that he could control all of the Crimson Pitaya. Navarrah City hadjurisdiction over the crops coming from Vitoria Island and so Polonius found a way to circumvent Navarrah City by leveling the crops and forcing Onyx Rah to produce it for Brahman’s Peak. No wonder he wanted it from us so badly.” I hated the look of guilt on Aria’s face.

It wasn’t her fault and yet with Polonius marrying her and eventually other mages and controlling the Crimson Pitaya, Polonius would be the most powerful man in all of Voltaire. Being such would subject our world to incredible cruelty and domination. Hawk noticed her gaping stare and interjected quietly.

“Only Onyx Rah can produce Crimson Pitaya now?” While I didn’t believe he said it to accuse Aria, she was technically married to Polonius, so despite her not wanting to be connected to him and his misdeeds, she was. “He’s already almost won.”

“I guarantee you I’ll stop Polonius,” Aria vowed, “even if I have to kill him in his sleep with my own two hands.”

I would not let this man live and neither would Aria. I didn’t care what had made him, he had the whole of a kingdom to rule and still he needed more. His tiny, disturbed soul couldn’t be happy unless others suffered.

“We all gave him this power,” I said, standing up for Aria. We kept our voices low. “We let him sign peace accords and make treaties knowing what he was capable of and still being gullible enough not to investigate what he was doing behind our backs,” I fumed. “He’s made himself invincible.”

“He may have tried, but we will succeed in the end and his death and downfall will bring hope, unity, and joy to all of the kingdoms of Voltaire. We will do this Lex, we can’t fail and we won’t,” Aria encouraged as I succumbed to the realization that standing up to Polonius and winning seemed nearly impossible. I’d never been truly daunted and yet this seemed like an impossible task since Polonius already had such a strategicheadstart. “We can do this,” Aria continued. “I need the old Lex back, the one that believed in impossible things.”

“You’re right, we have to believe in the impossible,” I said without the spark and fire. “Polonius has left us no choice.”

“Enough talk, the troops are moving to the other side of the field, let's make our way to the lagoon.” Hawk helped us focus our attention back toward getting on that ship, from there we could plan how to take Polonius down.

We stayed low to the ground crouching as we continued our journey. Traversing the mountains we looked for snakes crawling through underbrush and around trees all while making silent and stealthy progress. Cliffs and the highest point of the shoreline appeared in the distance. There we’d find the lagoon Hawk spoke of and our way off of the island. Moving faster now that our destination was within sight we pushed forward with speed and determination.

Just as we turned a corner, one blinded by several large boulders to the east, a loud whooping sound broke the silence. Within moments we were surrounded by prisoners who cascaded out from behind the rocks.

“Got um,” one disheveled looking prisoner screamed among them and without further command, they rushed us. “Kill Prince Lex.”

“Stand back,” Hawk instructed Aria and I. “Don’t shift.”

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