AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Fergus,” the last one grunted. Without needing to say what court he was from, I could tell by what the others were that he was spring.
I wasn’t sure how to go about all of this, but I knew I wanted to bring peace to those who were still suffering. It was too late for my world, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t stop to help save theirs. “Now that the introductions are out of the way, can we leave now?”
I knew for Áine, I had to. All four were not subtle in their glances over my silk gown. With nothing below, they could see the points of my breasts sticking through the thin fabric. Crossing my arms, I tried hiding what the cold of the air had done to me. It was immodest for a princess to be seen in her sleep attire by other men. It was supposed to be Philip who woke me up for me not to worry about what clothes they put me in for my slumber. Awkwardly standing among them, I knew nothing could happen in this thing.
“I might need a change first.” Pointing at my wardrobe, two of them stood in front of it. Both stepped aside for me to open the door, only seeing the fancy dresses on the right side. When my hand reached to the right side, they all gave me a quizzical brow.
Bain was the one to speak first about it when he saw the riding pants and waist corset with a tunic. “Aren’t princesses supposed to wear dresses?”
Smirking at him, I knew it was time they learned something else about me. “I never grew up as a princess,” I admitted now that they knew Áine pretended to be my mother. “Áine raised me in a cottage that sits in the forest outside of here. My whole life, my parents visited every birthday as they pretended to be my aunt and uncle who traveled. I was never allowed to come to the city while growing up, so I never knew they were the king and queen of this land or my parents.”
Without saying more, I knew they all understood it. I was not the princess that got to be doted on by her people. Instead, I cleaned the house and worked the garden when Áine had to go places without me. I never minded when she had to go, but the forest grew lonely sometimes.
“Can you gentlemen turn your backs for a minute for me to get dressed?”
None of them put up a fight because they knew they needed to respect my request to keep my modesty intact. Stripping the gown was easy from how it fell down my body. Once I got my shirt and pants on, I cleared my throat to let them know it was okay. My hands were still doing up the buckles of my leather corset that sat right below my breasts. My hair was a massive pile of waves, but none of it had mattered while I was sleeping. Digging out the boots from my closet, I let them all see that I was not just a princess who wore her sparkly slippers. Going back to the bed, I took the skull of my love and crushed it against the wall to have finer bits and pieces of it. All the men watched me gather small pieces of the bone, sickened by my disrespect. But none of them knew why I was doing this. They had no idea how much I loved him.
Everything within my body told me to break down and cry over this, but I knew I had to be strong. This was my one chance to seek revenge on the monster who killed my family and my love. Marching over to my vanity, I opened a few drawers before finding a vial for potions. Áine had given me a couple of these for different enchantments to have them on hand when something went wrong.
Adding the smaller chunks of Philip’s bones to the vial, I let them all see why I did it. This potion bottle was sealed by a cork that Áine put holes in for it to have a leather handle. This one was situated to be a necklace, so I placed it over my head once I filled it. Turning back to the others, I let them see what hung on my neck. “I’m not going anywhere without him,” I spoke my boundary with them all.
Cullen dipped his chin again in a show of honoring my choice. For a lot of people, it wouldn’t make sense, but it did for me. I’d always have a piece of his essence with me. That meant more than anything right now, giving me an extra boost of confidence.
Bain looked around my room for a second until his eyes cast upon what he had been searching for. On the side of my wardrobe, he found where my satchel hung. “You might want to pack a few things.”
Taking the bag from his grip, I walked over to where I had just retrieved my outfit and pulled out two more pairs of pants with two tunics. With my hairbrush and few hygienic supplies on my vanity, I tossed them into the satchel as well. Everything seemed to fit fine, so I wasn’t worried about what might come.
When I was walking to the door, Bain and Cullen stopped me from going to the stairs. When I gave them my attention, both pointed over to the window on the far side. Alasdair was the one who spoke, grinning like a fool. “Sorry, Princess, we had to come up the hard way, and we’ll have to go down the hard way.”
Hating his arrogance already, I just rolled my eyes and ushered them to lead the way.
5
Briar
“My home,” I cried out when we left the castle, climbing down the thick and dry vines. From being so high, I could see there was nothing left of my kingdom. Houses had been torched and demolished along the main path to the nonexistent forest nearby.
“There is no saving your world, Briar. Morrigan drained your core dry. I am sorry you lost so much,” Bain whispered from being right beside me. “Ours has been turning into this as well, claiming the lives of those who tried to stop her.”
Keeping my thoughts to myself, I hated how all of this was going. It was almost like yesterday for me because I slept too deeply. Before I closed my eyes for a century, this was all forest and greenery. Seeing it in this state haunted me.
“Where are we going next?” I asked the apparent leader of the group. Cullen was just getting to the bottom of the vines.
His brown eyes greeted me as he opened his mouth. “Áine’s summer home is where she said the book was that will guide us.”
“Oh, that sounds like her. Áine always planned things perfectly. Morrigan was the only one she couldn’t outsmart. I bet her home is lovely like her.”
“While it is a stunning manor, there is another prince residing there who won’t enjoy us stopping in. It’s her son, Cian. He possesses the power for darkness and shadows.” Cullen almost sounded bitter about the other prince. When he saw me confused over it, he sighed, knowing he needed to tell me. “Cian was sent many messages to come help his mother, but he let her kingdom fall. To say he might not be on our side for this would be an understatement.”
Letting my feet land below, I studied the present anger on their faces. None of these guys liked what we had to do. Cullen looked around for a second, thinking something over. Bain picked up on it, speaking his mind on the matter. “He can’t know who Briar is. If he catches wind of our plans, he might do something to ruin our quest.”
Fergus hummed in agreement as they began walking in a direction that they planned to lead me down. The man with the earth powers made a different noise that sounded displeased. “Will we be telling Cian of his mother’s death?”
“That’s what I’m stuck on. If we announce her death, what will make him help us? If we say the book is for his mother, he might let us take it to her.” Cullen had his sword drawn just in case we ran into anything, but the others didn’t even bother pulling a blade. My world was conquered, leaving silence in the absence of life. No birds sang. No crickets chirped. Nothing survived.
“How bad would the guilt eat at us if we did this?” Fergus brought up. I could tell he was the most thoughtful of the group without knowing everything about him. Just like I could tell Alasdair was going to annoy me with his excessive flirting. His eyes were more focused on my goods than where we were going.
“You just kissed me awake with the corpse of my true love, but not telling someone about their mother’s death is your line?” It slipped from my lips without thinking it through. The others snorted, finding out that I had a sharp tongue when I forgot to filter myself.
