At a Cost
POV: Alexandra
Jynx was the only one refusing to place her weapon down as a blade was being held to my throat. Amazingly, at this point, I didn’t have fear. I thought that perhaps the adrenaline was keeping me from feeling the emotion. I didn’t feel that fear until Marquis Maigny noticed that Jynx was still pointing her sword at him. He pressed the blade to my throat and I felt a sting. He shouted, “Young lady, don’t think I won’t slit her throat if you don’t drop your weapon.” Everyone was turned to look at Jynx trying to convince her to drop her weapon. The fear was bubbling up in me as I felt my own blood slowly trickle down my throat. Suddenly behind us, I could hear a low growl as I knew Sebastian would make his long-awaited appearance. Suddenly I knew what Jynx was trying to do by not giving up her weapon. Maigny turned his head slightly to see what was behind him. I took this opportunity to pull the dagger that Jess gave me out of its sheath and swiftly stabbed him in the side. He dropped the dagger that he had to my throat and bent over clutching his side. By this time Sebastian had knocked him over and pinned him to the ground. I heard all around me the resumption of fighting.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned my head to find Jheelis looking at me with a worried expression on his face. I smiled at him, “It’s okay. Just a little scratch.” He turned me around and took a closer look at the small cut on my neck. He shook his head, “Let me try to heal that for you once we’re done here.” It occurred to me that he might get in trouble if his king noticed that I was injured. My eyes widened, “Oh no! You’re going to be in trouble huh?” He shook his head, “What? No! I don’t even care about that! You’re my friend and I’m worried about you. Fuck what that other guy thinks. Anyhow, stay with me so we don’t have that issue again.” I nodded at him, wiped off the dagger, placed it back in the sheath and we made our way through the crowd. We were saving each other from being stabbed in the back and we were working in perfect harmony. As we went through the crowd, I had wondered to myself why I had never had the desire to learn how to fight until now. It wasn’t that I was enjoying it, it was that I was happy to help defend Lucien’s home and kingdom and my friends. I had lost a small bit of focus as we went along so I snapped out of my deep thoughts. We had finally reached the dais which was the place where we would all meet. Jheelis thought it was best to get me to the safest spot in the room as well since there was no one from The Order up there.
We both stepped up and, from our vantage point, it looked like we were going to be the likely victors of this battle. There were a few members of The Order left to take down. It wasn’t hard since it looked like Derek, Talon, and Jynx were doing the brunt of the work. They were jawing at each other about who was winning the competition they had set up at the beginning of the fight. Jheelis chuckled, “It looks like Jynx is winning against those two.” I nodded watching her swiftly work from one member to the next, “She has the advantage of being small and fast. The other two have big swords whereas she has the two smaller blades.” He looked down at me, “Exactly! Look at you, we’ll have you become the warrior queen you should be before this all plays out.” I sighed and mumbled, “The question is which one will I rule over.” He looked down at me, “Are you thinking you will accept the Prince?” I shrugged, “If I don’t win this competition, I don’t know if I can stick around here to watch Lucien get married to someone else.” He gave me a sympathetic look and shook his head, “I doubt you’ll lose. I think after all this, your Elders are going to narrow it down to you two ladies. You won’t have much competition from Lady Ligidew from what I understand.” While it was true that Rayla didn’t really want the throne, it wasn’t like she was able to drop out of the competition either. There was still a fifty-fifty shot that I wouldn’t be by Lucien’s side after all of this.
He once again felt the need to place his hand on my shoulder and turned me around, “You really don’t want to use Seely to escape your heartache here, my friend. There’s so much politicking there that there just isn’t here. There’s a very fine balance between diplomacy and death there. I know that King Renier doesn’t just see you as a tool to gain the power he wants but he’s also obsessed with you to the point that I have never seen before. It is dangerous there so I advise you that maybe Terre would be a better place for you to escape to.” He looked down at me intensely but he must’ve seen the defiance I was feeling in my eyes because he shook his head. He turned, placed his hands on his waist, and sighed, “You’re going to live to regret that, little busy bee.” I looked up at him confused, “Little bee?” He chuckled, “Yes, I have decided that you have become such a friend that you get a nickname. With your desire to come meddle in my realm, I have dubbed you little busy bee. You’re going to have to work hard to fix us, you know. I have seen that look before, my mother had that look when she thought she could fix Renier. That stupid, lovely woman is in love with him. I don’t get it, she should hate him after what he did to her husband and children. Damn her, she doesn’t.” I muttered, “I think your mom has Stockholm Syndrome. That’s the only explanation I can think of.” He looked at me confused, “What is that?” I proceed to explain to him that often victims will start to sympathize with their captors after a while in captivity. I believed that she had been held there for so long that she fell in love with hers. He thought that this might have been the correct way to put it.
I heard a sudden shout from Derek, “Guys, I think we won!” I swept my gaze across the room to do a count of the people we came in with. I saw Talon wiping off his sword with a little smile on his face. Vanessa had approached him to cauterize a wound he had suffered on his arm. He winced in pain as she seared the wound shut. I saw Jynx making a count of the people she either injured or killed. Derek and Jess were in an embrace and it quickly turned into a kiss. I was happy to see that battle had helped them to make up all the way. I didn’t imagine that Jess could stay mad at him for too long. She had been in love with him since she was a young girl. Ashton was standing next to Sebastian patting him on the head and looking down at the man who had raised him to hate the family he should have been with. Lucien was leaning against a wall. My eyes swept over his body to see if I could surmise if he had received any wounds. Luckily his shirt didn’t look stained with his own blood. He just looked somewhat emotionally drained and exhausted. Talon walked over to him and held him up. They started to walk towards us at the dais.
There was one person that I was missing. My gaze swept across the room again in a slight panic at not seeing Mordred in the room. The panic intensified as I couldn’t see him the second time around. I yelled out, “Vanessa! Where is Mordred?” She looked up at me with worry in her eyes, “I…I don’t know.” I looked over at Jynx who nodded back up at me. It was a relief to know that I had found my own version of Malinus in Jynx. She knew exactly what I wanted when I looked at her. She started to look through the men and women lying on the floor to see if maybe Modred wasn’t as lucky as the rest of us to not be seriously hurt. Vanessa, from another part of the room, started to do the same. Jheelis hopped down off the dais as Derek found himself stepping up next to me. Jheelis looked back, “I’ll go help them. Three is better to sweep the room.” Talon placed Lucien on his throne and turned back to the gallery, “I have to help Vanessa find her father as well.” I nodded at him, “Be careful, Uncle.” He nodded and hopped down off the dais. I watched for a short time as the four of them took a corner of each part of the room and began the search for Mordred.
I dropped to my knees in front of the throne and turned my attention to Lucien. I began to look him over to make sure there wasn’t something I missed. As I began to fret over looking at him, he grabbed my hand. I looked him in his eyes which had held a couple of pooled tears. He pulled me in and kissed me deeply. He embraced me gently at first but his grip intensified, “You scared me. I thought we’d lose you.” I held my head to his chest, “I know you were scared, Lucien but I don’t think I was ever in danger. You see that big glorious animal over there? He would’ve kept me safe.” He pulled me away from him, “I don’t understand why he didn’t come out right away.” I shrugged, “I didn’t feel any fear when he first caught me. For some reason, my mind thought that he wouldn’t dirty his hands that way. It was silly of me to think that but I just don’t see the Marquis as…well…having the balls. It wasn’t until Jynx forced him to cut me that I felt any fear.” He looked over at Jynx who had looked up at him. He nodded to her and she smiled. It was a show of mutual respect which was nice to see because Lucien wasn’t really sure about having her guard me at first. I looked up at him as he fixed his gaze on me, “Are you hurt anywhere?” He shook his head, “By the grace of the Gods, no. I’m just tired. I slept last night but not very well. It was restless, I dreamed but I also had nightmares. It was a very strange thing, almost prophetic.”
The side door that led to the King’s private ready chambers flung open and Toby stepped inside. He walked in front of the dais and bowed, “Your Majesty, the castle is secure.” Lucien nodded with relief but you could tell he was exhausted, “Good, thank you Captain Ligidew. Have you done a sweep to see if we have any major injuries?” He nodded, “Yes, Your Majesty. We have a couple of major injuries to report. Lieutenant General Chalshin has suffered an injury to his leg. Lady Ligidew has had a stab to her gut trying to save Chalshin from further injury. Doc’s team is looking at her now. And the General-” A shout came from the back of the room from Vanessa, “I found him! Help me!” We all turned to see Vanessa pulling her father from by the door near the Marquis. He was alive but clutching his side. He had a small dagger sticking out of it. I hopped down from the dais and ran over to them. I kneeled in front of them, “Hold on, I’m going to help seal the wound.” Vanessa nodded at me and I turned my attention to the dagger. I noticed there was a coat of arms on the end of the dagger. I narrowed my eyes to look at it and looked over my shoulder at the man pinned below my shadow dog. Marquis Maigny’s blade no doubt. He must’ve done this before he got to me. I pulled the blade and sealed the wound. I felt a bloody hand weakly grasp my cheek and touch the wound on my neck. He muttered, “I tried to stop him. I’m sorry.” He passed out shortly after and Talon helped Vanessa hold him up just as he went limp.
At that moment, I was mad that Marquis Maigny could once again hurt someone I loved. The room grew silent to me and my anger took me over. I hopped to my feet and strode angrily over to where my shadow dog was. I was going to punch that man in his stupid pudgy face. It would make me feel a hell of a lot better. Just as I was about to reach him, I felt Jynx holding me back. She whispered, “It isn’t worth it to get revenge now, my lady. We will all get ours when he is punished justly. He has injured the King of Witches, that is not something to be taken lightly here in Vellum. You have other things to worry about. Your King needs you. Look.” I looked up to see that Lucien had a look of panic as he was speaking to Toby. He looked over at me and shouted, “Alexandra, we need you.” I hurried back over to the dais in a panic, “What is it?” Toby looked at me and sighed, “I was supposed to come to get you on Doc’s orders.” I asked, “Is everything okay?” He shook his head solemnly, “It’s the General. He’s seriously injured.”
