Forced To Kill The Prince

by Hollie Hutchins

  Thorn’s group of men charged toward the house. Emalee thought she heard screaming. She expected flames to go up around it any moment. Something crashed, and she knew it must be large if she could hear it from where she stood. Maybe the five-foot-tall vase in the entry way or a window?

  She could see the flames of their torches moving through the house. They went to every floor, every room. Probably looting and looking for people to kill. Had the staff already been killed?

  When they had gone through the house, they came outside. She saw them turn and come toward her.

  Chapter 6

  Emalee crouched down, staying hidden the best she could. She might have to move to stay out of sight. She could see the flames going along, some coming closer, some moving farther away. They must have split up. Maybe that would help her chances.

  Two of the men stepped onto the path that led right to her. If she moved now, they’d definitely see her. If she didn’t, they might pass her by, but it was unlikely. Her heart raced as she watched, trying to soundlessly pull back farther into the hedges.

  She had moved to the other side of the hedge and hidden herself by the time the men were close enough to see her. They moved their torches high and low, not missing anything. There was no way they wouldn’t see her when they reached her. She had to make a run for it and hope they were distracted enough in their searching.

  She took a step back as quietly as she could until she was free enough of the hedge to run. She turned toward the house, figuring it was her best option since it wasn’t on fire and they’d already been through there.

  She took three steps and two arms wrapped around her. She screamed and kicked, trying to break free.

  “There you are,” came a gruff voice. “Been looking all over for you.”

  “Let me go!”

  As she struggled, the arms around her changed. They hardened and the skin became scales. Her fear jumped to her throat as she saw hands become talons. Hot breath burned the back of her neck.

  Then, they were in the air. The large wings flapped loudly behind her. She tried to see, but was held so tightly, she couldn’t move. Another dragon shifter? Or was there some impossible miracle that this was one of Maverick’s men coming to her rescue?

  The dragon flew her over to the larger of the two enemy ships. They landed softly on the deck and two men came running over.

  “I’ll take her, Thorn,” one said.

  Thorn released her for a moment, but two other men took her arms, holding her off the ground so that her feet swung aimlessly. No matter how hard she pulled and struggled, she could not get free.

  Thorn stepped away from them and took off into the sky. His scales were a shining blue-green color. Beautiful as they reflected in the light of the flames. Too bad they covered someone who was so deadly.

  She screamed the whole time the men carried her. She told them to let her go and that Maverick would kill them if they hurt her or took her. In her struggling, she felt the bread slip from her dress. Even this little bit of her old life was gone now.

  They carried her onto the ship, down several steps, and threw her into a room, then the door shut and locked from the outside. She pounded her fists on the door and screamed, but there was no point.

  She gave up and slumped to the ground, looking around the room for the first time. It was much nicer than she would have expected from a raider’s ship. The room was sizable enough to hold a wide bed, several chests of drawers, a few trunks and a door that might have led to a bathroom.

  The fabrics covering the bed and the windows were thick and expensive. The room had carpet. A luxury even Maverick’s ships didn’t have.

  She went to the window to look out. The house was the main sight, and whatever they had done in there before, now the place was on fire. So was the garden. Everywhere she looked, there were flames.

  This must have been exactly what it was like on Grynall Cay when Maverick had sacked it. Thorn had gotten his revenge, all right. She wondered where Maverick was and again, about Molly and the staff. Perhaps it was a good thing she had never gotten that pet, or she’d be worried about it now, too.

  Tears ran down her cheeks, and over in the woods, her eyes widened as she saw several dragon forms rise above the trees and fly off. Could that be Maverick and his men? She thought she saw a red dragon, but couldn’t sure. The daylight faded and the light from the flames played with her sight.

  The door opened suddenly behind her and she spun. The man in the bandanas stood before her. Her heart leapt to her throat as he locked the door behind him and walked toward her.

  Chapter 7

  “Emalee,” Thorn said with something like desire.

  The sound of it made the fear curl in her stomach. He was a raider, and she knew the type. They took what they wanted. If he wanted her, there would be no stopping him.

  “You raiders are all the same,” she hissed. “You think you can just go around burning cities, taking whatever you want, turning into dragons and flying off with people. It’s evil!”

  His eyes narrowed. They were the only part of him she could see. Why didn’t he remove the bandanas? Could he be hideously scarred underneath? None of the other men wore bandanas like that.

  “Don’t you think it’s fair to sack Qalric after what Maverick did to Grynall?” he asked.

  “No! Neither of them were fair! Innocent people died, and for what? So you can get some gold?”

  “We also got plenty of food and wine from your”—he gestured toward the window where the burning house was still visible—“precious home.”

  “You’re just a ruthless barbarian who wouldn’t know a thing about what’s precious. How many people did you kill tonight? How many innocent people?”

  He lifted a shoulder. “Many, I’m sure.”

  “How could you be so heartless! Haven’t you ever cared about anything besides yourself and money?”

  He walked a few steps closer to her and crossed his arms. “Yes. I am heartless. And it’s precisely because I once cared. I cared very much. I gave my heart to a woman who turned out to be faithless and betrayed me.”

  “I’m sure you deserved it. You’re not worthy of love. But at least you loved someone. You weren’t sold off by your father.”

  His hands fell to his sides and balled into fists. “Well, if I had been, I wouldn’t have turned into a little whore and loved the one who held me captive.”

  “Whore? You think I had a choice! I was forced into marriage. I had to make the best of everything. Maverick was all I had because he took me away from everything I knew and loved. My only friends were the few staff who felt pity for me. Who are probably now all dead thanks to you.” She broke into sobs. “Everyone I knew at home betrayed me!”

  “Everyone?” he asked. “What of Eliseo, your father’s partner’s son? He loved you like no one else!”

  “Eliseo?” The name caught her short. How could he know that name? How could he know anything about it? “He didn’t love me. And where was he when I needed him? Where is he now?”

  The tears flowed again. She did not want to be thinking of him here, now, with this stranger. It was none of his business who she loved or who loved her. It was odd that he’d said Eliseo loved her, though. What would make him say such a thing?

  “He’s dead,” Thorn barked. “Dead because of you.”

  “Me!” It came out like a hysterical shriek. How could he blame her? “I had nothing to do with it! I wasn’t there. It was all Maverick and his men. I begged him not do it. He wouldn’t listen to me. I never wanted anyone to get hurt.”

  “Perhaps if you’d kept him in your heart, he might have lived.”

  She pulled her eyebrows together. Kept Eliseo in her heart? Wasn’t that where he had been all these years? Hadn’t she done that very thing? Tucked him away, where no one could take him from her?

  She opened her mouth to speak, to tell him all of this, but there was a loud boom from outside the ship. She looked toward the house and sa
w that they had set sail. She hadn’t even noticed the movement of the ship. The house was a small bright dot on the horizon now. Home was gone, once again.

  Chapter 8

  Thorn yanked open the door and stuck his head out to listen, then he took off running. Emalee followed him. On the steps, he must have heard her footsteps. He turned his head as he kept running and shouted, “Get back to the room! It’s not safe up here!”

  She paused. Not safe. It struck her as odd that this would be his reasoning. He hadn’t stopped to lock her up first, keeping her as a slave. He hadn’t told her to go back and stay there because she was his prisoner now. He was concerned for her safety.

  She hadn’t been running to the deck to get away. She knew better than that. She couldn’t swim that great distance back to Qalric, and there was nothing to go back to anyway. It had never been a real home to her, just a place she lived for a while.

  What she wanted to see was if Maverick had come back and was attacking. As much as she hated him and didn’t want to go on being his wife, staying here with this notorious raider didn’t seem any better. If Maverick was a dragon, he could easily fly back to Qalric, and Thorn had proved a dragon could carry someone as they flew. At least Maverick would see that she got to safety and was fed and had a place to sleep.

  As she inched up to the deck, men went running past her, paying her no attention. She found a place to crouch down and hide so that she could still see what was going on. She’d watch for Maverick and see if the opportunity arose for her to run to him and be rescued by her husband.

  Thorn had changed back into dragon form. She saw his blue-green scales as he ran across the deck, his large feet thumping hard on the wood planks. Emalee saw three ships approaching and recognized them as Maverick’s. One still smoked from where it had been burning, but the other seemed okay. Three ships still burned at the shoreline, apparently too far gone to sail, or not enough crew to sail them.

  She heard a shout that she thought was Thorn’s voice, but she could still see his thick spiky tail. Could he talk while in dragon form? He must be able to. He shouted orders.

  “Turn and pursue!” he shouted.

  The ship lurched and slowly started to move backward, toward Maverick’s approaching ship. He must be crazy, she thought. Why would he go back with two ships when Maverick still had three? It seemed that on the sea, they were outnumbered.

  The ship moved fairly fast, but it must not have been fast enough for Thorn. He leapt into the air, and hovered there for several moments until many other dragons joined him in the air. They took off as a group, sailing across the sea toward Maverick’s ships.

  Maverick, too, lifted off from his ship with several dragons at his side. The two groups met in the air and fought with teeth and claws. It was a wonder to watch. She’d never seen animals fighting up close, and they were so huge, she could hardly think of them as just animals. With their mass and the minds of men, they were beastly killing machines.

  One dragon fell from the sky and landed with a huge splash. He thrashed around in the sea for a time, then flew off, crookedly, back to one of Maverick’s ships.

  Thorn’s ship was coming in range of Maverick’s and she knew the moment they were close enough, because the canons started firing. There were gun pops, too, and a line of men stood at the edge of the ship, firing at Mavrick’s ships.

  Emalee was afraid she’d be caught in the fire. She ducked back behind a large wooden structure, and peeked out on occasion to see what was going on. Men would run by her, sometimes bleeding, sometime carrying a wounded man. But every time she looked out, it seemed that Thorn was winning.

  She felt conflicted again. She couldn’t trust this Thorn, but he seemed to want her safe. That might only be so he could take advantage of her later, but though he was clearly heartless and barbaric, he didn’t act as cruel as she would have expected.

  Maverick, on the hand, had proven his cruelty. Thorn was getting revenge, and she couldn’t blame him much for that, but Maverick had attacked in the first place. He treated her well sometimes, but she was nothing more than a possession to him. Convenient and there when he wanted her. A bargaining chip with her father, and nothing more. Maybe Thorn would let her go. Maybe he’d take her somewhere and she could have a real life.

  She shook her head. Thorn and others like him had no motivation to do a thing like that. He had no reason to help her. Maybe she was nothing more to him than his bargaining chip with Maverick. He might kill her and toss her overboard when he was through with her.

  When she allowed herself to think of Eliseo, she thought being tossed to the sea might not be the worst thing. If what Thorn said was true and he’d really loved her, then she’d lost more than she could bear. She couldn’t figure out why Thorn had said the things he did. It tugged at her heart and made her ache for him worse than she had these last years. She would confront Thorn when she had the chance and find out what he knew, find out why he would say such a thing to her, and how he knew anything at all about Eliseo.

  Chapter 9

  The next time Emalee dared a peek to see what was happening, all three of Maverick’s ships were on fire. The dragons no longer fought in the air. She searched the sky, but her eyes landed on them standing on the deck of the ship.

  She watched Thorn catch a sword that one of his crew tossed him. He stepped forward and roared loudly as he drove the sword into Maverick’s heart. Maverick roared and stumbled back, bright red blood pouring from the wound.

  She didn’t see any other dragons. The other men must be injured or had changed back into men. Maverick clutched his chest as the blood continued. Thorn stabbed again, in the other side. Maverick held up a clawed hand feebly, but had no strength to fight back. He fell to the ground and went still.

  Emalee gasped. She hadn’t expected him to die, even if she had wished for it. And judging by the look of Maverick’s ships, it was a good thing she didn’t have him rescue her. She’d be trapped on that ship, burning alive right now.

  A tear escaped her eye and ran down her cheek, but she found it was more from relief and guilt of that relief than sadness for his death. If she let herself be honest, she hated him for killing Eliseo, even more now that she knew he’d loved her. They might have had a life together if things had been different. He’d killed an innocent man, and she couldn’t mourn his death knowing all the horrible things he’d done to her home island and the people on it.

  Thorn and two of his dragons flew over to Maverick’s ships, circling above each one for a time. They must be checking for anyone still alive. They returned to Thorn’s ship. They were out of a sight for a few moments, then Emalee heard Thorn tell them to put the ships back on course.

  He stepped into view, dressed only from the waist down, pulling on his shirt. Before he could turn toward her and see her, she scampered down the steps, heading for the room she’d been taken to. She shut the door and sat down, acting like she’d listened to him from the beginning. Several minutes passed before he came into the room.

  His clothing was replaced, as were his two bandanas. “Did you enjoy the show?”

  She looked down, sheepish. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I know you were up there the whole time, watching.”

  “I was. I’m sorry I disobeyed, but I—”

  “No,” he said firmly. “I’m not your master, your husband, or your father. You don’t have to obey me like you’re a slave, and I don’t want you to. I only wanted you to be safe.”

  “And I am.”

  “I see that, and I’m glad,” he said.

  “And you’re okay, too?”

  He nodded. “My men faired well.”

  “Can’t say the same for Maverick.”

  “Sure can’t. Does that bother you?”

  “I have nowhere to live now,” she said.

  “I’m sorry for that. I would have taken you back to Grynall Cay if there was anything to go back to.”

  “I don’t know if that woul
d have been the best place for me anyway, if Eliseo is dead. I’ve been wondering. Why did you say those things to me about him? How would you know any of that?”

  “He was a very good friend of mine,” Thorn said. “When you were gone, after your father sold you to Maverick, Eliseo swore to save you. We set out together. We were coming for you. But when he learned that you had given yourself over to Maverick, to that brute, he died of a broken heart. You killed him.”

  Emalee shook her head fervently. “No, no. How can you say that? I was forced to marry Maverick. Would you have me killed on my wedding night for refusing him? What was I to do? I had to do my duty, whether I liked it or not.”

  Tears trailed down her face when she thought of all the times Maverick was on top of her and she was thinking of Eliseo. Anytime she was able to enjoy it, it was only when she pictured him.

  “I had no choice,” she whispered. “I would never have given myself over to him willingly, and I didn’t.” She paused to wipe her eyes, but the tears still flowed. “Maverick told me he killed Eliseo in the raid. Eliseo and his wife. He must not have been too heartbroken after all, if he married.”

  “Lies. Eliseo never married. Maverick killed someone. He killed everyone on Grynall Cay he could find. But he did not kill Eliseo.”

  The tears came heavier and her shoulders shook. “I loved him. I loved Eliseo with all my heart. He’s all I ever wanted. I had no idea I had been promised. I always thought when I came of age we’d begin courting and would one day be married. This was not the life I wanted. I only wanted a life with him. And I didn’t even know he loved me! I had imagined it all, hoping that I could make him fall in love with me. I never dreamed that all this time, he already did. If I had known, I might have tried harder or run away. He could have kept me safe. Why didn’t he just tell me he loved me!”