A Kingdom of Stars and Shadows

CHAPTER20

Isquatted down near the brook and dipped my fingers into the cold water. Evren and Jorah were packing up our camp and stamping out what was left of the coals in our fire.

I rubbed my wet fingers over my face and tried to clear my racing thoughts. Water dripped down my neck, and I grazed my fingers over the sensitive skin as memories of what Evren had done to me last night flashed through my mind.

There was a snap of movement across the water, and my eyes shot open as I searched the trees and my marks burned against my skin. I didn’t see anything, but somehow I knew something was there.

“Evren,” I said his name softly as I stood, but I didn’t take my gaze away from the trees.

“Yeah?” he called out to me as he laughed at something Jorah was saying. “What is it, princess?”

A dagger flew through the air before I could answer him, and I cried in pain as it sliced through the outside of my left arm before lodging perfectly in the tree behind me.

“Princess!” This time Evren was screaming for me, but I was too busy staring ahead. A group of ten men rose from where they hid beyond the trees, and each one had a weapon raised in their hands.

“Princess has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” The one who threw the dagger cocked his head to the side as he spoke, and I didn’t know if he was talking to me or someone else.

I stumbled backward before reaching down and pulled my dagger from my boot.

“A fighting princess as well. Even better.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Evren roared from behind me before he jerked me backward and shielded my body with his own.

“The queen would like to meet her.”

The queen?

“That’s not fucking happening.” Evren shook his head, and I noted the black smoke that swirled around his fingers. “Not today.”

“I don’t answer to you, prince.” The man looked beyond Evren, and his gaze connected with mine. “I will be taking her whether it’s willingly or not.”

I looked behind me for Jorah, but he was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t know these men, but they didn’t wear the colors of the Citlali guard. Instead, they dressed similarly to Evren. Dark, inconspicuous, lethal.

“Is that what your other men were doing in the Onyx Forest? Coming to take the Starblessed?”

They were of the Blood Court then. The same court as Evren’s mother.

“My men?” The man laughed as he ran his fingers over the blade in his hand. “If those were my men, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”

“I won’t let you take her, Calix.” Evren squared his shoulders as if preparing himself for an attack, and I took a small step back.

“You don’t have a choice.” Calix didn’t lift the blade from his hand. Instead, power shot out of his fingers. Power like Evren’s. Black as night and laced with doom, it came for Evren quicker than I could blink, but Evren matched his power with a wave of his own.

Their power slammed into one another, and a crack of sound echoed around us.

I stumbled backward, startled by the power that was flowing from both of them, and I noticed Jorah move through the trees across from us. He lifted his sword before running up behind one of the men who was watching what was happening in front of them, and I gasped when he sliced through his neck as if it was nothing.

The scene caught Calix’s attention, distracting him momentarily, and Evren’s power slammed into him.

“Jorah.” Calix tsked, though his voice was now winded. “I see where your loyalty is buried.”

Jorah chuckled, the sound crazed and cruel. “My loyalty has always been with the prince, Calix. The fact that you questioned that is a testament to your own lack of judgment.”

Calix was still looking to Jorah when his power shot out again, and this time, Evren wasn’t prepared. The magic hit him savagely as if aiming to kill, and Evren groaned in pain.

“Take Jorah,” Calix commanded to the other guards, and they swarmed him so quickly that he didn’t stand a chance. He held his sword in front of him, but he was far too outnumbered.

“Jorah!” Evren’s voice boomed through the forest, and Calix took the opportunity to shoot another band of power in Evren’s direction.