AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nodding, Asher’s gaze fell to the armor on my right arm, and he nodded towards it. “Who gave you thesky rider’sshield?”
“Oh, um… the princess.”
“I thought she had found you on her way here.”
Shit. What was I supposed to say to that? “She did, but she had it with her.”
I supposed a half truth, half lie was the best I could. I still didn’t understand why Evie hadn’t told them I came from the human world, unless they were forbidden to bring humans here, which would totally make sense. Except, my parents had been from this world so that didn’t really make me a human, did it? A new thought left me disturbed. Then what exactly was I?
“Hmm, strange,” he considered, then reached for the buckle on my bicep. “Well, I will take this in the meantime. You’ll get it back when you reach thesky riderlevel. I mean, if you choose to become one.”
Part of me wanted to tell him to stop, that the armor stayed because Evie gave it to me, and that, technically, I already had a Dragon—Vyper was mine—but I kept my mouth shut, lifting my arm for him to remove it.
“How is Ev—the princess, doing?” I asked, stopping myself from using the nickname. Based on how they had reacted when they saw me holding her, I didn’t even want to think how they would behave if they heard me calling her Evie.
“She is doing better, resting in her bed, thanks to you. We are truly grateful you stopped her from becoming the Warlock King’s prisoner. I don’t know how you did it without training or even having ridden a Dragon before, but we owe you a great debt. If there is ever a favor you need, let me know. But you only get one, so choose wisely.”
With a playful wink, he turned around, walking out of the room.
“Hey.”
I looked back to see a group of four guys and three girls resting against the dividing walls of their sleeping nooks. The men wore only leather pants, while the girls had pants and a corset similar to Evie’s, but much simpler.
“Hey, I’m Braxton.” Glancing at the clothes I'd been given, I placed them on the bed and swiftly threw on the linen shirt—since I no longer wore the bulky armor. It had been one thing to hide my old injury from Asher, but with all of them here it wouldn’t be that easy.
“Quinn,” the girl closest to me pointed to herself, then glanced at the two girls near her. “Thea and Charlotte. And they are Louis, Edward, Harvey, and Aaron,” she finished, introducing the others.
“Nice to meet you,” I offered, stepping fully out of the nook. The others nodded, offering the same. “Have you guys been training long?”
“Most of us started last week after we became of age,” Aaron was the one to reply. “Edward and Charlotte only arrived two days ago. They’ll start tomorrow.”
“We are brother and sister,” Edward informed. “The Elevated Warriors found us during one of their rounds, we were roaming the desert lands, trying to get as far away as we could from the Hollow.”
“The Hollow…” I repeated, wondering what it was. It was the same place Asher had mentioned during our conversation.
The others looked at each other perplexed. “Yes, the Hollow. As in the Crimson Fortress. You know, the place you just escaped?” Quinn reminded.
Shit. “It wasn’t a question, the name just startled me. I’m still a bit overwhelmed.”
“We are too. Don’t worry, we understand,” Charlotte admitted, arms wrapping around her own torso, and Edward pulled her to his side, holding her protectively. It was evident he was the oldest of the two and the protective one. “It’s taken us a bit to settle, but we are looking forward to the first day of training.”
“So, here you start training when you become of age?”
“Fifteen, but you are still given the option of whether or not to join.” Louis replied. “I’m seventeen. I couldn’t join earlier because I used to help my parents, but now I want to be a warrior… they passed away recently.”
“I’m sorry,” I offered.
“It’s okay. They will be proud of me once I’m an Elevated Warrior like Asher, and get to pair with the princess.”
The others laughed at him while I tried not to punch his stupid face.
“Please, you would have to be more like Kingston, the Chief of Battle, to even stand on the same level as her. Princess Evanna can probably turn you inside out with her pinky. She’s been training since she was six-years-old,” Aaron snorted, while Harvey chuckled but remained silent.
“She has?” Charlotte stole the words from my lips, but I was glad I wasn’t the one asking all the questions.
“Yep.” Quinn straightened, pushing off the wall. “She is so freaking fierce. She began training the same year the king and queen died in battle.”
“Long live the hallowed king and queen,” they all murmured like a prayer, and I joined them.
