Chapter Hello Cousin

Days passed, the pair simply enjoyed their time together. Reminiscing on old memories and slowly cleaning up the parts of town that were manageable. They hadn’t kissed again since that first night and Rollo could tell she was avoiding that subject entirely. Just as much as she was avoiding thinking about Cal, keeping them busy with tidying up.

As they walked down the streets together, headed back towards the palace after a long day he contemplated how he was going to ask her about it when Amira stopped abruptly beside him. He looked to her confused, “What’s wrong?” He asked, looking around to try and see anything that might have triggered one of the less happy flashbacks she sometimes endured walking these streets, but this time her eyes were clear, focused.

“Something is coming,” she said in a hushed tone and Rollo fell quiet to listen as well. He didn’t hear anything at first until there, far off in the distance a single beat drawing closer. He’d know that sound anywhere, a Druhereans flying wings booming in the skies. It was trying to be quiet, gliding as often as it could, but the Princess’s sharp hearing had picked up on it and now the guard too was aware of its presence. He took a step forward and reached out to tug on her arm jerking his head towards the palace. Whoever was coming here would likely go there first, and he did not want anyone or anything to destroy that palace that the Princess cared about so much.

She seemed to agree as she nodded and they both took off in a quiet sprint up the hill towards the palace. Their bare feet made very little noise on the cobbled streets as they pushed themselves as hard as they could to reach their destination, that booming drawing closer with every passing second. They slid to a stop as they passed under the broken entrance to the palace, each of them throwing themselves into the walls on either side of the entrance to hide from searching eyes overhead. Seconds later a shadow passed over them and a large bronze dragon flew over the palace with a human on its back. Amira and Rollo looked at each other communicating silently through their bond.

‘What now’ the Princess asked, ‘I don’t know’ Rollo shot back equally as confused as she was. He edged towards the entrance and peaked out, eyes scanning the sky. The foreign creature was circling above, head angled downwards searching the ground. Rollo slipped back inside. ‘They’re searching for something… They must know you’re here’ he supplied the Princess with information worry creeping into his voice.

‘They’re Druheran...They have to be loyal to me right?’ Amira asked, but their hiding from them was answer enough to the question neither dared to answer aloud. They could trust no one. The booming grew louder and finally came to a stop as the ground shuddered under the weight of the massive dragon landing. Amira and Rollo slipped into one of the side rooms, risking peering out a window at the beast and the rider who came with it. Amira was large, but she would have been dwarfed next to this dragon. He was built for brute strength whereas she was built in between a strength type and a thinner speed type.

They watched as the rider, a male, jumped down from the bronze dragon and patted his companion on the nose before he strode forwards into the courtyard.

“I know you’re here Princess,” He yelled, eyes sweeping over the palace windows, trying to find her. “I bring a message from your sister!” He added taking a few steps forwards. “We mean you no harm I swear it,” the dragon rumbled softly in agreement to the statement.

Amira glanced at Rollo, if they still believed in the old ways they had just made a promise they could not break. If they didn’t, walking out there without having already shifted would put them at a disadvantage.

‘They don’t know I’m here’ Rollo said, swallowing once as he tried to come up with an idea but the Princess beat him to it.

‘I’ll go out there and distract them… you go to the speaker’s balcony.’ She instructed before she started to move. Not giving her friend another option as she stepped out into the hall into the line of sight of the blond-haired man she had never seen before. He smiled upon seeing her and took a step forward.

“Amirasa, cousin, look at you so grown up!” The male exclaimed as Amira continued to walk out of the palace, and down the steps, stopping before the bottom one maintaining her distance and slight height advantage.

“Who are you and what do you want?” She demanded as Rollo slipped out of the room, snatching up his discarded weapons and quickly moving towards the stairs disappearing upstairs without being noticed.

“Hey now is that any way to greet family?” The man teased. Seeing her expression didn’t lighten any he sighed heavily, “I am sure you have been through a lot, cousin, I can’t imagine having to grow up the way you did all alone, and frightened…” He shook his head in disappointment. “My name is Bastien, but you can call me Bas,” he added finally with a friendly smile. “As far as what I want I simply want to reunite our broken family.”

“Gweneth has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with me,” Amira said coldly, folding her arms over her chest as she looked down on the man. He must have been somewhere in his early thirties. If he were to truly be one of her cousins like he claimed he had to have been one of Byran’s older sons.

“Lies, I swear it, Gwen has never said such things. You really should not believe everything those Heliki scum put in your ears. She wants nothing more than for you to join us and get revenge for everyone here.” He said looking around noticing now how clean everything was. “Clearly you still care...or else you wouldn’t have cleaned up.”

“Who is us?” She demanded, she needed to know how many of the remaining citizens of Druha had really made it out, and had to know if there were any others of her family who had survived the slaughter.

Bastien frowned, “you know you really could be kinder,” he said sounding rather frustrated before he reluctantly answered her question. “As far as Druherean it’s just Ian and Gwen,” he said, gesturing to the bronze dragon behind him. “We have allied with the witches and the werewolves, along with any Druha citizen who chooses to come fight alongside their Queen.” That word, Amira saw red for a moment and seconds later it was gone.

“Princess,” she corrected him. “Gweneth is still a princess. She cannot be queen until the-”

“We performed the passage of wills without you.” Bastien cut her off, “We all thought you were dead and so we simply granted her the title.”

“Then un-grant it,” Amira snapped. She didn’t know why she cared so much, it’s not like she ever wanted to be Queen anyways, it just felt wrong that her sister took it without even trying to look for her.

Her cousin flinched away from her ire. Even the dragon, Ian, seemed cautious as he leaned backward, slightly shifting his weight to his hind legs as if he was prepared to flee. Ah, so he was a brute and a coward. Good to know.

“You know that’s not how it works Princess,” Bastein said carefully, “Why don’t you just come back with us and let Gwen explain it all to you,” he suggested taking a step forward and holding out a hand to her. Amira ignored him and instead looked to Ian, the bronze dragon watching the situation hesitantly. Why hadn’t he shifted? Why wasn’t he involved in the conversation?

“What does he think about all this?” She asked as she felt Rollo’s mind brush up against hers, ‘I’m here’ he told her but she didn’t risk a reply. She stepped around Bastien and his outstretched hand as she approached the dragon, head tilting slightly as she took him in as she approached Ian hissed, drawing his lips back, scales clacking against one another in warning.

“He is in agreement with us,” Bas said hurriedly chasing after the Princess, “don’t get too close he doesn’t like-” Amira hadn’t stopped. She marched right up to the beast who lashed out at her, head snaking down to bite her head clean off her torso. Bastien moved just before that happened, wrist snapping outwards and that enchanted chain he held became visible as he yanked on it hard pulling the beast’s head to the side causing him to narrowly miss the Princess.

Her gaze whipped to his, and her beautiful golden eyes were no longer, instead, they were pure blazing violet as she glared at her cousin. “Do you remember what they used to call me cousin?” She asked anger boiling off her in the form of steam, slowly rising from her skin, magic raising to face the threat. She waited in silence until he carefully answered, “No…”

She smiled softly looking up to Ian who was still softly snarling at her but watching warily instead of attacking now that she had not made any move to harm him. “They called me their little burden of truth.” She said as she looked back to him, “I’m going to assume you don’t know why either,” she continued as she moved towards where that enchanted chain was wrapped around his neck. Ian let her approach, and Bas couldn’t do anything to stop her. “It was because no matter how good a lie, I could always sense it and would promptly tattle.” Her hand reached up to the chain, and Ian lowered his head hesitantly, to allow her to grab one of the links around his neck, slowly starting to figure out the Princess was not there to harm him. “And you, cousin, are the biggest liar of them all,” She said before she let that flame of hers pour into the iron grasped around her fingers, she heated the metal quickly and efficiently, there was magic here that had reinforced it, that made the chain resist her magic, however, she simply overpowered it. She did not have the skill to unravel the enchantment, but she did have enough brute force to break it.

Bastien lunged for her, at the same moment an arrow flew, embedding itself in his leg. The male cried out and hit the ground hard, there was a satisfying hiss and the chain broke. Amira grabbed one end and pulled, hauling the massive weight off of Ian’s neck, letting the pile of metal fall to the ground with a heavy clunk. The beast roared and spread its wings wide, it didn’t waste any time in launching itself into the air, and disappearing above the cloudline, battering them all with the wind until he was out of sight.

“Enslaving ferals?” Amira demanded as she stormed over to her cousin, “pathetic,” she spat at him, “and disrespectful to all our ancestors. You should be ashamed.”

Bastien ripped the arrow out of his leg with a yelp, eyes flashing up to the balcony to see Rollo for the first time, casually leaning on the railing with a lazy grin on his face. The guard waved hello to the messenger and Bastien’s face twisted with rage. Turning to face Amira he schooled his expression, “You’re right, you’re right, and I’m sorry for offending you Princess, but we needed him, and the others, you don’t understand, the measures we’ve had to take for revenge that we are deserved they’re not cheap. Drastic measures had to be taken.”

“I do understand, I understand more than you could ever imagine Bas, I am not a little girl anymore, I have seen and done things most in my situation would not,” she paused as realization dawned on her, she chuckled softly and shook her head, “oh wow...wow” she laughed as she looked to him struggling to stand up. “Ian...he wasn’t the lie was he… you didn’t forget…” her eyes brightened as the truth set in clear as day. “He was just a distraction, you tried to cover up one lie with another!” She exclaimed, eyes fading back to gold as she smiled at him.

“Clever cousin, very clever,” she said, walking away from him as Rollo disappeared back into the castle to make his way down to her side. She turned back to face him as he finally made it to his feet once more, “Gwen didn’t send you did she?” He was silent as he glared back at her, an answer in and of itself. “You came here on your own… which means you have your own plans, your own ambition… or you think you’re going to fail in whatever it is that you’re doing.”

Bastien was smiling a stupid shit-eating grin and Amira couldn’t tell why, her head cocked to the side as she studied him as Rollo stepped up to stand beside her, placing a gentle hand to the small of her back in comfort.

“You are very smart Princess, very smart indeed, you almost got to the real reason why I am here, but not quite,” he straightened up, his leg having healed quickly. Far more quickly than it should. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rollo’s hand fall to his sword. “Since I am feeling generous due to your companion’s choice in not killing me,” a faint nod of his head to Rollo, “I will tell you why I am here. I came here of my own volition because of a plan Our Queen enacted that I believed would not be successful unless we were certain of your removal from the equation, so you see, Ian and I were a distraction of my own making.”

Panic slowly started to creep into Amira’s chest but neither she nor Rollo risked interrupting the man while he was spewing important information. “That wolf bitch worked better than we expected, she hadn’t thought you’d leave the way you did” he whistled lowly, smiling to himself, “of course she has her own agenda I’m sure, but keeping you away from the Prince was her primary objective on our part. Murdering him will be much easier without you there. You see, I wasn’t lying about Gwen wanting you back, she really does, she simply cannot trust you when you are bonded to that terrible excuse for a soul. Once he is out of the picture and our revenge is had, she will welcome you with open arms. So just stay here Princess, enjoy our home, relax and find peace. This will all be over soon.”

He reached into his pocket and the Princess and her guard moved as one, lunging forwards Amira threw out her hand fire snapping from her fingertips scorching his wrist he snatched his hand back out of his pocket in time for Rollo to slam into him, knocking him to the ground. The pair wrestled for a moment before Rollo managed to rip the item out of Bastien’s pocket and toss it away. Amira picked it up and looked it over quickly while the other two still struggled. It vibrated with a strong energy and she looked back to Rollo.

If Bas came knowing that he may lose Ian he would have had another escape plan. She looked back to the clock looking piece in her hand, then to Rollo one more time as he pinned her cousin beneath him briefly, “I think it will-” Amira started before being cut off.

“Just go!” Rollo roared, all the male could think about was his best friend, in danger and he wasn’t there to protect him. His one sworn duty in life, and he was about to fail it. The shout cost him and Bas got the better of him. He slipped out past Rollo’s grasp and lunged for Amira, his fingers hit nothing but air as she vanished after turning the dial.