Falling Kingdoms

“Shocking,” he said. “Maybe there’s more to you than beauty and a shallow personality.”

“Don’t you dare insult her,” Nic snapped.

Jonas rolled his eyes. “Looks like you have at least one admirer among us. This one would give his life for you, wouldn’t he? Wouldn’t you, Nic? Would you die for the princess?”

Nic swallowed hard, but his eyes held steadily onto Cleo’s face. “I would.”

Oh, goddess, this was all too much. She couldn’t stand by and watch Nic die at the hands of this disgusting boy. “And I’d die for him too,” she said firmly. “So take that ridiculous dagger and point it in my direction instead.”

Jonas turned his narrowed gaze fully on her. “I can make you a deal to spare your dearly devoted friend’s life. Are you willing to bargain with me?”

She glared at this boy, one she both feared and loathed. There was only one answer that could give Nic the chance to get away. “Yes.”

“The deal is this: you will come with me of your own free will. You won’t try to escape. You won’t give me any problems.” He cocked his head. “And I let your boyfriend here run away with his head still attached to his skinny body.”

“No, Cleo,” Nic snarled. “Don’t do this.”

She kept her chin raised and didn’t look away from Jonas’s searing glare. “You want me to trust that you won’t kill me? To agree to go with you even though I don’t know where you’ll take me? I’ve heard what happens to girls who are kidnapped by savages.”

He laughed. “Is that really what you think of me? A savage? How Auranian of you. I could just kill him, you know. I’m bargaining with you because I’m no savage. Unlike you and your friend who killed my brother.”

If she went with Jonas, she was putting her fate in the hands of a boy who hated her and blamed her for his brother’s death. But if she said no or tried to run away, she had no doubt this heathen would kill Nic. She couldn’t live with herself if she let that happen.

“Fine. I’ll go with you,” she finally said. “Now take that blade away from his throat or you’ll be very, very sorry, you scum-sucking son of a pig.”

It was a meaningless threat at best. However, if she got the chance to get that dagger away from him, she wouldn’t hesitate to thrust it deeply into his throat. “Understood, princess.” He eased the blade away from Nic’s neck.

“Cleo, what are you doing?” Nic’s words was panicked. “You can’t agree to this.”

What she despaired about wasn’t that she’d fallen into the clutches of a savage boy who was willing to kill without a second thought. It was that her search for her sister’s cure was now at a dead end.

“Keep searching for the Watcher,” she urged. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Don’t worry about you? For this moment forward all I’ll do is worry about you.”

“Jonas said he wouldn’t kill me.”

“And you believed him?” Nic’s expression twisted with agony. Normally Nic was the one with a smile and a joke and very rarely serious. But he was now.

She had to believe him. She had no choice. “Go. And don’t try to follow us.”

Jonas took her by her upper arm and yanked her with him along the dirt road, back in the direction they’d taken from the village, still muddy from last night’s rainstorm. He cast a dark look over his shoulder toward Nic. “Follow us and the deal’s off. I’ll keep the princess and I’ll kill you. Now run along home where it’s safe.”

Nic stood there in silent fury, his fists clenched at his sides as Jonas dragged Cleo away. His face was now as red as his hair. She looked back over her shoulder at him as long as she could until he was only a speck in the distance.

“Where are you taking me?” she demanded.

“Shut up.”

She hissed out a breath. “Nic’s not around for you to threaten anymore.”

“So now you’re going to give me a hard time? I don’t suggest it, princess. You won’t like the result.”

“I’m surprised you’d even bother to use my royal title. It’s obvious you don’t respect it.”

“What would you prefer I call you? Cleo?”

She looked at him with disgust. “Only my friends call me that.”

He scowled at her. “Then I’ll definitely never call you that. No, I like princess. Or, maybe, ‘your highness.’ It reminds me how high and mighty you consider yourself when faced with a lowly savage like me.”

“That term seemed to bother you. Why? Are you afraid it’s true? Or do you consider yourself more refined that that?”

“How about you shut up like I asked you to earlier? Or I can gag you if you’d prefer.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Where are you taking me?”

He groaned. “And it begins again. The princess has a big mouth.”

Her thoughts raced. “You’re going to use me to extort money from my father. Aren’t you?”

“Not exactly. A war is brewing, princess. Did you know that?”

She gasped. “War?”

“Between Limeros, Paelsia, and your precious, glittering Auranos. Two against one, which are odds I can support. I believe it’s possible your delicate presence in my land will help end things quickly and without bloodshed.”