The Pirate Prince
Page 20
The one who’d betrayed them stood before her. General Jack Stephans. He’d deceived her family and the fifth moon settlement. He’d traded them in for money and power. Josselyn lifted her gaze briefly to the hard depths of the steel green eyes before her. She wanted to kick, to give one last good blow, to go down fighting, but she couldn’t raise her limbs.
“Poor little Josselyn, so heartbreaking,” the General grabbed her chin and swiped beneath her eye. He looked young, was in fact very young for his position, only a few years older than her six and twenty. And yet they all knew so much more of fighting than anyone their age should, than anyone ever should.
“We gave you a home,” she whispered. “How could you do this? How could you join them?”
“You gave me a place in your stables,” he spat, his grip tightening on her chin, bruisingly so. “Not a place at your table. Not a place by your side. Not equal. They gave me a rank, a title. They give me respect. They give me a place in this world.”
“Jack,” she said, her voice softening for the orphan boy they’d found over twenty years ago. If she begged him, maybe fate could be turned around; maybe this day could be erased. Fate had spit them out in a whirlwind of chance and deceit. Maybe all that had happened wasn’t his fault. Maybe it wasn’t hers. None of it mattered. None of it changed the fact that he had taken everything she held dear, everyone, and now he was robbing her of her family home. Her tone hardened and she closed her eyes. “General.”
“Look at me, Josselyn,” he said. His tone caught even as his grip on her face tightened until his fingers pressed the inside of her cheeks against her teeth. “You’re so cold. Even now, your face is composed. Is one, lonely tear all the passion you can muster?”
“I am Lady Josselyn of the House of Craven.” Her eyes opened slowly, focusing on the shiny white of his uniform. It gleamed with the orange glow coming from the fireplace. The material looked odd in the drabber earth tones many on the fifth moon wore. Theirs was a world based on Medieval Earth. Each moon in the Florencian system was different, each settlement patterned off a singular time in the human past, times that history had almost forgotten. But the principals of the ancestors who’d established the colonies no longer applied. Times were different now. What had started as preservation of history had turned into reality, into laws and a way of life they all believed in as generation after generation was raised into the worlds of the Florencian moons.
The General shook her by the face until finally she forced her eyes to meet his. He looked angry, hurt, wildly hopeful. “I can save you. I can say you had nothing to do with the treachery of your family. No one wants to kill a woman of noble blood. The line of Craven doesn’t have to die. I will take your name; the name denied me by your father.”
Was he serious? She knew he’d asked her father for her hand in marriage. In fact, she’d dismissed the proposal with the full knowledge he only asked because he wanted power. Did he think she could love him now? Want him? Take him into her bed?
He must have read the answer on her face because his own expression hardened. She knew Jack. He wouldn’t ask again.
“I suppose not,” he said, almost sad. “Even if you agreed, I could never trust you not to take a blade to my back. Not after today.” He sighed heavily. “Not after this.”
“Ago,” she whispered, even her voice beginning to fail in its strength, “pugna quod int-”
“Quiet your tongue! This house is mine. Mine.” He let go of her chin and her head drooped. “And you can die knowing that I have taken more than what you all refused to give me in life.”
“A place at our table,” Josselyn said, her tone softer still, the will to live leaving her. Her heart called out to her ancestors, to her dead family, begging them to come and get her.
“My table,” he answered, stepping away. The General lifted a gun, pointing it at her head. She heard the telltale click of metal on metal. The weapon was not one found on the fifth moon. They fought with swords and axes, like the old medieval ways. Though technology was available, not using it was a point of honor. He must have brought the weapon from another moon. Perhaps the Victorians? The Elizabethans? It appeared to be too old to be from much later in time.
“Do it, Jack.” She didn’t look at him as she waited for the final discharge of the gun, the loud bang before the end. When it didn’t come, she repeated, the words a mere mouthing of her lips, “Do it.”
“Speed you to a quick end, Josselyn Craven,” Jack whispered. “You all brought this on yourselves.”
His Frost Maiden
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Mei’s Family…
Learn what happens to Mei’s family…
The series continues
Seduction of the Phoenix
Dynasty Lords Book 1
A prince raised in honor and tradition, a woman raised with nothing at all. She wants to steal their most sacred treasure. He’ll do anything to protect it, even if it means marrying a thief.
Prince Zhang Jin is a man raised in honor and tradition, so it is a great surprise when he is compelled to claim a stranger as his bride who has neither. Francesca La Rosa is hardly a match fit for a prince. Though beautiful, she is a thief with one thing on her mind–stealing the sacred Jade Phoenix of his people. But the mystery doesn’t end there. With the aid of the spirits of his ancestors he must discover who this woman is, why she would destroy the Zhang Empire and most of all, if she could ever return the love that is growing in his heart.
* * *
Seduction of the Phoenix
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The series continues…
Mei’s Family
Seduction of the Phoenix
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Jarek’s Crew
His Frost Maiden
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Want to read the Draig side of things?
Dragon Lords: Barbarian Prince
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Qurilixen Lords: Dragon Prince
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Dragon Lords and Lords of the Var® in Modern Day Earth?
Captured by a Dragon-Shifter: Determined Prince
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Read all the Dragon Lords and Var books?
Yay, you, keep going!
Space Lords 1: His Frost Maiden
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About Michelle M. Pillow
New York Times & USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Michelle loves to travel and try new things, whether it's a paranormal investigation of an old Vaudeville Theatre or climbing Mayan temples in Belize. She believes life is an adventure fueled by copious amounts of coffee.
Newly relocated to the American South, Michelle is involved in various film and documentary projects with her talented director husband. She is mom to a fantastic artist. And she's managed by a dog and cat who make sure she's meeting her deadlines.
For the most part she can be found wearing pajama pants and working in her office. There may or may not be dancing. It’s all part of the creative process.
www.michellepillow.com
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The Pirate Prince
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