AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The smile that curved his lips indicated that he’d seen her subtle move. If he attacked, even with the force of his shield, she would try and penetrate his barriers, seeking any weakness. She could attempt to trap him into a false memory or implant the suggestion to leave her unharmed.
“Your harm is not my desire, Princess Shilah.”
“I am sure that you do not expect me to be assured by such words coming from a stranger in my personal room. The emperor did not send you. Who are you?”
“I seek something that you have,” he said with a lazy smile and shrug.
She was filled with undeniable awareness. “You deliberately let me find you here. What is it I possess that you seek?”
“Information.”
“What information? And why would I aid a man who has forced his way into my chambers and intrudes on my privacy?”
The soft hiss of a blade clearing it sheath sounded like a drum in the chamber. Shilah flared out her psychic eye, preparing for an attack even as she trembled.
She gasped in raw shock when he gently clasped her from behind, belying the cold press of steel against her throat. She swallowed. She had not seen him move at all. Not even the slightest indication of movement.
“You will aid me, princess. I do not desire to harm you, but if I must? I most assuredly will.”
“The emperor will have your head if you bring me harm,” she said with false calm. Fear slashed through her. She punched hard against his mind, trying to break past his psychic barriers. She had never encountered the resistance she met. Who was he?
The soft laughter against her ear rasped against her skin like the sweetest caress. She resented it, the feeling was unwelcomed towards someone who threatened her life.
“The dungeons of Mevia, princess. Tell me all you know about them.”
The princess felt sublimely resting against him. When Lachlan had spied her earlier he had faltered in the shadows staring at her. He’d stepped in her shadows, travelling with her for hours, learning and plotting. He’d discovered two things about her. She appealed to him despite being so petite, and the emperor of Mevia was her enemy despite the façade she put on. Even without a demon beast’s essence guiding him, he could see that she feared the emperor, yet resentment and hatred had burned in her eyes. It was that spit of fire amidst the fear that stoked his intrigue. But what captured him the most? She was a Serangite. Her mind was able to store vast amount of information, dissect them and unravel patterns. And she was a telepath.
Would she aid him? That remained to be seen He would try to persuade her to help and would even use his blades if necessary, although he would prefer to use seduction as his tool. Lachlan tensed, analyzing his thoughts. He was attracted to the petite princess, but it was moot as his mission to uncover the famed dungeon of Mevia’s stronghold was his main objective.
She inhaled, unintentionally pressing her softness into his hardened frame. The top of her head met his chest. She barely cleared five feet, and he could not detect her curves. Her loosely flowing sari hid all from his gaze. Her face, however, was shaped like the finest of porcelain. Delicate chin, small nose, gently rounded cheeks, beautiful lips and eyes hardened like diamonds with no white but completely ringed by black. He ignored the flare of arousal that tightened his gut and pressed the blade closer to her beating pulse. Her soft gasp rasped over him, stoking the arousal that seemed to pulse inside of him. He should have ignored her presence, but he raced against time. He would do anything to free Princess Saieke from the emotional pain that beset upon her because of her Queens blades’ imprisonment. Saieke’s blades’ lives now rested in his hands. Lachlan had been in Mevia for three days, and it seemed as if the dungeons were a mystery to everyone in the empire.. Yet
he knew they existed.
The famed torture chamber of Mevia created fear even in Darkans. The Princess Shilah was a weak link in the empire. Ironically a powerful weak link, one that possibly held the key to what he sought. Possibly. He pressed the blade closer to her skin letting its cold caress her skin, and its threat imprint in her mind. She posed no danger to him with her telepathy. It wasn’t that she was not dangerous. Far from it. She might be more fragile than other Amagarians, lacking their speed, strength, and their rapid healing capabilities, but Serangites made up for it with their mental prowess. But his shield, built through agonizing pain and loss, was impenetrable.
He dipped his head and whispered in her ear. “The dungeons of Mevia, Princess. All that you know.”
***
The imperial throne room of the Emperor’s castle
“Our true purpose must always be kept secret, Shenzhen. Are we now truly alone?” The emperor studied his general as he softly hummed, and vibrations ran across the air, sinking into every crevice and shadow.
“No unusual disturbance is felt in the darkness, my sovereign ruler.”
“We must proceed with caution. We do not want the unnamed king to detect our work with his people.”
The unnamed king, the power hungry mongrel that wanted to rule the Darkage. It was beneath him as an imperial emperor to deal with tainted bloodlines, yet he must do so until he has achieved all. Then he would bury his foulness.
“The Nurian king has proven the traitor’s word,” the emperor said, caressing the cold steel of his sword.
“Do we trust a traitor that betrays his king?” General Shenzhen asked.
“Trust? No, but the information he provided was indeed valuable. He provided an insight into the king that we lacked before.”
“Very true, my imperial majesty. Without his insight we would never have learnt that the best way to take the king of Nuria would be inside of his kingdom. We had plotted to take him on his travels outside of his kingdom but the traitor’s information proved to be invaluable.”
The emperor smiled. “Yes, Shenzhen, it seems as if the king would never release the full power of his Phoenyx, risking his people lives. Never would he risk burning his people as his queen had done. We should have been able to successfully capture him with that limitation. Yet a Darkan interfered. This intrigues me. Who is she and why did she risk her life for Nuria?”
