Chapter 15: 15: Chapter 15

ARES

It’s been a whole day since the queen was last seen. Her scent is strong going downstairs into her safe room. I have a hard time controlling my wolf when I’m standing down there; her intoxicating scent only makes me angrier. I grab the desk that is placed in one of the corners before flinging it across the room so that it breaks into a thousand pieces when it smashes into the wall.

“Your Majesty,” Zeke pleads, who is keeping a reasonable distance from me.

I growl loudly at him before grabbing the books on one of the bookshelves that I'm tearing down and hurling them to the ground.

“Where the fuck is she?!” I roar loudly, and Zeke bares his neck in response to show submission.

I feel myself losing control, small traces of fur are spreading over my body and my canines are completely outgrown. I want to wreak havoc, tear down the whole castle until I get her back. I grab the couch and break it in two as I throw it across the room.

I growl the loudest I can, my wolf is not satisfied, he wants to see blood! I know Leah wouldn’t disappear without saying something; she promised me!

I have put the whole army out to search for her. I’m sure it’s the same group that took John; I feel it in my gut, my instincts are screaming that it’s the two who are after us who are behind this! I can’t keep Zeus under control anymore, so I step out of the safe room, past Zeke and out into the castle courtyard where I let him take control of my body, and I transform into my wolf. I howl high at the sky before running out to the forest.

LEAH

“Shit! Holy fuck, Camille! We must go, we can’t wait here any longer,” Lilly says nervously as she marches into the room with all the cells.

“Calm down,” Camille hisses before grabbing Lilly’s arm as she’s looking out over the cells.

John is asleep, and I am lying still on the floor. I close my eyes when they enter the room. I don’t know how long we’ve been here, a couple of hours? A day? Several days? It’s hard to keep track of time when you don’t have the sun and moon as a guide.

I lie still on the icy stone floor; my stomach is screaming for food and water, but I have not dared to eat anything after John said that they poisoned him with wolfsbane to make him weaker. We need to have one hundred percent of our strength if we are to get out of this situation.

“He didn’t find the entrance. But I agree with you, we need to move. I have set up a spell that makes it harder for them to open the door. It was a close call; he could have accidentally torn the door open and then we would have been fucked. I’ve masked the queen’s scent in the tunnel, but they could have found us despite that,” Camille whispers harshly.

I sharpen my senses as I listen for Lilly’s heartbeat, which is beating much faster than Camille’s. She’s nervous, worried that Ares will find us.

“How the hell are we going to move our prisoners? Boris won’t be unconscious for much longer, and he’s as big as a fucking rhino!” Lilly hisses.

“Calm down,” Camille spits out, her pulse quickening with her irritation growing. “We’ll solve it… Maybe I can keep them unconscious at the same time. Or we can leave Boris here, to his own fate.”

I hold my breath; Boris would die if they left him here without food or water. I hear Lilly’s footsteps across the stone floor as she walks toward his cell. I know he’s breathing, but I have no idea why he hasn’t woken up yet.

“How long does this spell even last?” she asks Camille, who shrugs in response.

“I went all out, considering his size, so he might be gone for a day or several days, I don’t know. There’s not really a recipe to this kind of magic, but he should wake up soon.”

“Boris was always nice to me when I was working in the castle, it doesn’t feel right to leave him here without food or water,” Lilly says hesitantly.

“Are you getting soft now?” Camille asks sarcastically. She walks up to my cell and kicks the bars.

I wince at the loud noise and slowly get up to meet her cold stare.

“Good morning, Your Majesty,” she hisses, spitting on the ground in front of me.

I frown at her and stand up laboriously, my body is stiff from lying on such a hard surface. It flickers before my eyes when I get to my feet, I have to put a hand on the wall next to me for support until the glimmer before my eyes disappears.

“Do you want your buddy Boris to die?” Her gaze is cold, and her body language radiates hatred.

“No, of course not,” I reply in a hoarse voice.

“Good, then you are going to do exactly as we say, otherwise I can promise you that I will slit his throat.”

Her icy blue eyes gleam as a disgusting smile spreads across her lips. It seems as if she gets off on being a horrible person.

“What have I done to you? What’s your problem?”

Camille laughs wickedly. “Your family is my problem! Their vile bloodline will end with you and the baby in your belly will never be born.”

Time stops when I register her words. The baby in my belly? I instinctively bring my hands to my stomach. I can’t find words as she laughs at me.

“Oops, you didn’t know? I apologize if I revealed the surprise,” she says wryly, smiling wickedly. “It is really obvious to me that you are with child, I can see it on your aura.”

“What has my family done to you?” I whisper as tears begin to burn behind my eyelids.

Her eyes darken at the mention of my family. “Your grandfather, former King Ilano of the supernatural in South America, was the descendant of one of the purest bloodlines in werewolf history. Their blood was considered sacred, and if you spilled it, you were cursed. Your grandfather was a horrible man, he hated witches but loved to torture them. Several covens had to endure his horrendous ways.

“It was a late October day when I woke up to the Royal Guards dragging me and my family out of our house. I was just a kid then, but I remember it like it was yesterday. They mutilated my father and forced us to watch as he bled to death in front of us. It didn’t take long for them to move on to my brothers who were hung by snares from trees, like simple thieves.”

Camille’s gaze is filled with hatred as she marches back and forth outside my cell. I feel the nausea increasing inside me, but I try to suppress it. If I am pregnant, I must find strength within myself and do whatever needs to be done to get out of this situation.

“King Ilano joined the massacre after they raped and murdered my mother in front of my eyes.” Her facial expression darkens at the memory. “He wanted to save me, he said, so they imprisoned me and took me to the castle. I spent weeks down in the dungeons before one of the guards started feeling sorry for me. He helped me escape. I lived in hiding for years, practicing my witchcraft, and I got stronger. I was finally able to return to the castle to slaughter every single one of the royal family. But I missed one…your dad.

“He was born in secrecy. You see, the king was not a kind man, neither to his people nor to his queen. Her handmaid helped her to hide the pregnancy from him out of fear that he would murder the child who would once threaten him for his place. When I tortured the king, he had no knowledge of any children except for a couple of bastards that I of course took care of afterward. But the queen… She knew what kind of man he was, so she gave birth to your father in secret and the handmaid took the baby with her a couple of days before the battle began.”

“But, my father was just a baby and I am just a normal person. We are not like King Ilano, why do you want us to suffer for his wicked ways?”

She hits the cell bars with her fists and hisses at me. “The day they raped my mother in front of me, I swore on everything I believed in that I would destroy his bloodline. If the handmaid hadn’t accidentally gotten drunk just two years ago in a local bar and blabbed about the righteous son of the deceased King Ilano, I wouldn’t be here today. I thought everyone had died that night at the castle. But look how wrong I was. And I thank the queen’s former handmaid for this, so that I can finish what I began.”

“You’re fucking sick…,” I say breathlessly. She’s crazy. Who in their right mind justifies killing the grandkid of a barbarian?

“Yes, but this is not the whole truth. Your blood is believed to consist of immense magical powers, as you are the descendant of such a pure bloodline. Before I kill you, I will sell your blood to the highest bidder. So, you can rest easy, Your Majesty, you will not die yet. But I can’t make that promise to your friends here,” she says, laughing wickedly.

She turns around and signals for Lilly to follow her. They lock the door behind them, and I can hear John immediately shuffling up from the floor.

“Leah,” he whispers, his voice is hoarse. I can hear how tired he is. “Don’t worry, I’m going to get us out of here. Nothing will happen to you and your child. As long as I live, I will protect you with my life.”

“John… Why do you even care this much?” I sink to the floor with my back against the stone wall. My knees are pulled up to my chest as I let the tears stream down my face.

“Please don’t cry,” John says in a whisper.

But I can’t help it, the emotions are too much and I cry loudly. Knowing that I’m carrying a new life inside of me, while stuck in a cell with maniacs who want to drain my blood to the highest bidder, is too much for me right now. With no food in my stomach and no water for a long time, I can no longer hold it together.

“Leah, please, don’t cry… I…I can’t stand hearing you this upset, please,” John pleads. His tone is something I’ve never heard from him before; he sounds genuinely concerned, and it makes me take a few deep breaths. I wipe away the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.

“Okay,” I whisper. “I’ll try to pull myself together.”

“You are our queen; you are carrying our future king inside of you. You will survive this.” John’s voice sounds more confident now that I’ve stopped crying loudly. “You mean everything…,” he says, then adds almost inaudibly, “to me.”