Read with BonusRead with Bonus

5_Crossing swords

Cyrus woke up early the next morning, thanking the gods that he wasn’t a drinker.

He’d looked out the window and spotted a few of the younger alphas crawling out from under the tables in the courtyard. They’d gotten so drunk, you’d think there weren’t four more days left of the yearly ritual. Just how much more would they be drinking tonight and tomorrow?

On the other hand, he was as fresh as a drop of dew. Smiling to himself, he made his way downstairs. A servant carrying breakfast upstairs for the princesses curtsied and Cyrus nodded at her.

His castle used to be empty except for about two servants who only appeared when called, but ever since Natalia and Raiden got married, Natalia’s sisters came over to visit a lot, so Cyrus had gotten more servants to take care of the princesses since they preferred to stay in his castle.

Of course, it meant his own sister spent more time in his castle, tormenting him, but he could live with that.

He came to a sharp halt when he reached his breakfast hall, staring at the table.

Milana raised her head and saw him. Her face lit up with that dimpled smile of hers. “Cyrus! Good morning.”

Swallowing, Cyrus mentally shoved himself forward. “Good morning. I thought you’d still be in bed with the others.”

She shrugged. “I wanted to have breakfast with you.”

A frighteningly loud thump shook his chest at her casual words. “Oh.” He cleared his throat. “Well… Jade, Amethyst and Veronica are getting breakfast in bed.”

Milana nodded. “I know. I made that breakfast for them.” She signalled for a servant to serve them.

Cyrus looked at her in surprise as he sat. “Again? I told you to let the servants cook.”

“I do let them cook, it was just this once.”

“No, Milana. You’re the second Princess of Gadon, your mother wouldn’t want you going to another kingdom and being put to work.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “My mother would applaud me!” He wanted to argue but she raised a hand. “I had to cook, Cyrus, my sisters love my cooking. Amie wanted these biscuits I used to make for her when she was sick, I had to make them.”

He couldn’t argue with that so, sighing, he left it alone. “Alright, fine.”

He let himself study her for a little longer whilst she instructed the servants on what to serve. As he often did lately, he quickly became lost in her, forgetting to look away. Milana was the most selfless person he knew. So regal and elegant, she carried herself with such grace and humility. He didn’t know when it had started, but he’d found himself wanting her around more and more.

He lowered his gaze, forcing himself back to his senses. He couldn’t have her. He couldn’t even dare to think of it, he knew that.

Milana glanced at him and, again, saw that frown he got whenever he was deep in thought. Reaching over, she pressed a gentle finger between his drawn brows.

“Stop frowning.”

Blinking, Cyrus raised his head and she laughed at the surprise on his face. He’d lost count of the number of times she’d poked his forehead, but it still gave his heart a jolt when she did it.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Ah…” He pursed his lips. “Just that… that I—”

The dining room doors burst open. “I’m late!” Amethyst came rushing through, dressed to the nines in black boots and a black combat outfit.

“Amie?” Milana watched her sister rush by in shock. “What’s going on?”

“Are you finally going to battle?” Cyrus called after her.

Amethyst had no time to answer their questions. She was late! Today was her first day of training and she’d promised Eroz she’d be at the army training centre at dawn. She couldn’t afford to waste this time, she would only be in the kingdom for as long as the yearly ritual festivities were happening.

Bursting out of Cyrus’s castle, she ran into the courtyard and came to a stop, eyes staring over at the mighty tower of Natalia and Raiden’s castle. If her sister spotted her, she was dead. This had to be done in secret, it was the only way she could restore her pride.

Turning away, she snuck on toward the East exit, hoping to be on her way to the training centre before Natalia woke up.

The training centre was quite a distance away and so Amie had no choice but to flag down a cabby. Trying to walk all the way would land her in bed, she couldn’t risk it.

The driver had given her an odd look or two, but she raised her hand and showed him the rings along her index finger.

At the sight of those jewels, his eyes had widened. Her status as princess of Gadon and sister to the Queen of this kingdom was quickly revealed and the man bowed, ushering her in as he stuttered his greetings.

Giddy with excitement, Amie made her way to the training centre, arriving in record time and paying the driver handsomely for his services.

She knew exactly where to find Eroz and, ignoring all the looks she was getting from the giant men she ran past, she went to find him.

She burst into his office and, in half a second, flew right back out. With wide eyes, she plastered herself against the wall outside his office. Raiden was in the office!

Holding her breath, Amie wondered if he’d spotted her. If he saw her here, her sister would know all about it soon. Amethyst couldn’t let that happen.

“We’ll discuss that later,” she heard Raiden’s voice say inside the office. “Arroe will be by my office later, I’ll have signed these by then, so he’ll bring them to you.”

The sound of footsteps reached her and, cringing, Amie raced away, diving into a group of guys who stood in a circle near Eroz’s office.

Peaking under the arm of the guy before her, she watched as Raiden exited the office and, handing Eroz something, walked off with another guy beside him.

Oh, thank heaven! He was gone. She sagged with relief, hunching over with hands on her knees.

The silence around her quickly got loud and Amie shot upright, looking around her.

The men stood like a tower around her, all their eyes looking down at her in confusion.

“Princess Amethyst?” one of them said cautiously.

Blinking, she smiled awkwardly. “Uh… good morning, gentlemen.”

“Can we help you?”

Glancing around at them, she waved a hand. “Oh, no. Ha-ha. Just… here for a tour. Eroz promised… to… give me a tour…”

They looked blankly at her and Amie squirmed uncomfortably. Goodness, they were huge. Their size reminded her of that Barbarian. The criminal, the whole reason she was here and suffering this way.

“Uhm, hello?!” Eroz yelled, knowing she was hiding there.

Jolting, Amie took the chance to flee. “Yes! I’m here!”

He watched her burst out of the circle of beefy werewolves with a shake of his head. “What are you doing there?”

“Nothing, nothing,” she said, glancing about. “Where’s the King?”

“Gone back home,” Eroz said carefully. “He doesn’t know about you wanting to train?”

She shook her head with a tiny smile, leaning in conspiratorially. “Nope, the only people who know are me and you. Aren’t secrets just so fun to keep to the grave?!”

His smile was weak. “Not when they put me in danger of being hunted down by Natalia, they’re not.”

“Oh, don’t worry!” Grabbing his arm, Amethyst attempted to tug him away and, being nice, Eroz let himself be pulled along by the girl. “As long as Natalia doesn’t find out, we’re good!”

Sighing, he nodded. “Okay. But if she does find out, you’re taking full responsibility.”

“Of course,” she agreed. It was the least she could do when he would literally be preparing her to regain her pride.


Regaining her pride and acquiring new sword skills wasn’t as easy as Amethyst thought it would be.

Panting heavily, she lay flat on the ground and stared up at the blue Zaire sky. “I… feel like… death…”

Spinning a sword, Eroz displayed some fancy skills before holding the blade over her. “You’d be dead already if this was a real battle.”

Swallowing to moisten her parched throat, she shook her head. “I can’t do this.”

“Oh, of course you can,” he told her. “Couple years ago, I wasn’t as good with weapons as I am today.”

She sat up and looked at him. “Really? How come? You’re a highly ranked alpha.”

He nodded. “Yes, that’s why I could tear an opponent apart in seconds when in my wolf form. However, with swords, I was a bit clumsy. It took Natalia’s strict guidance of the army to make us all experts with weapons.”

Nodding, she glanced around as she brushed the sand and grass from her cheek. “Mm, Talia’s always been the best with weapons. She took the essence of our Viking ancestors.”

“Well, you have the same ancestors so you can do it too.”

He tossed her sword at her and Amie caught it.

“Come on.” Eroz cocked his head, pushing back his gleaming purple hair.

Amethyst was about to groan tiredly but then her head filled with a pair of mocking grey eyes.

Gritting her teeth, she thought about the Barbarian. Gosh, he’d been so insufferably scornful. He’d looked at her like she was little more than a flea!

Forcing strength into her muscles, Amie pushed herself to her feet. She’d gone as far as accepting subtle jibes from others of her kind, from pure vampires and from werewolves.

She’d be damned if she took any mockery from some criminal of a specie she didn’t even know.

He would pay and he would pay dearly.


“I’m not paying.”

Harald gasped. “What?! But you owe me! We made a bet!”

Frank turned his nose up, crossing his arms over his round middle. “Don’t care. Your fault for making a deal wiv a Barb.”

“Where’s your pirate’s honour?! A man’s weight is only worth his word in gold!”

Bjorn cringed. “What on earth does that mean?”

“Jokes on you,” said Frank, scratching his cheek with the blade of his knife. “Pirates are acshually bigger crooks than Barbarians.”

“And you’re not a pirate!” snapped Bjorn, loading the cart before him.

“Hey.”

They all looked up.

Gunnar crouched on a tall rock, looking down at them. “This isn’t time to joke around, guys. We’re moving camp, get busy.”

The men quietly went back to work, setting all jokes aside.

The main tent opened and Thoran marched out.

“Steel.” One of the men quickly approached him, walking beside him.

Thoran glanced at him as he walked. “Noah. Is the silver packed?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“We’re leaving!” Thoran shouted.

The men doubled their pace as a result, running about in a coordinated system where everyone played the role assigned to them.

“But there may be a problem,” Noah said.

Harald was struggling to lift a big wooden chest into a cart, his knees shaking with the effort.

“What problem?” asked Thoran. Grabbing the chest, he easily hoisted it into the cart.

“Thank you, Steel!” Harald tooted happily.

“It’s Gorden,” said Noah, following Thoran around as he checked that everything was being properly packed. “He knows we’re going to target Lady Hadgar next. She’s his cousin and he’s already warned her. It won’t be easy to get to her jewels, she’ll be fully alert.”

Thoran scoffed, tapping one of his men on the shoulder to show him the forgotten satchel on the ground. “She can be as alert as she wants, I’m still taking all her jewels.”

“Her being alert,” said Gunnar, walking up to Thoran. “…means she’ll have some additional security.”

“Not some,” Thoran said. “Plenty.”

“We should go elsewhere before we take her jewels, Steel. That way she’ll let her guard down and we can easily take what we want.”

Thoran hummed deeply, his disagreement showing in the frown on his face.

Gunnar knew what that look meant. “Steel—”

“Gunn, we’re going to take the men to a hostel and then you and I are going to store the silver away. And then…” He met Gunnar’s gaze. “We’re going for Lady Hadgar’s jewels. Nothing’s stopping us.”

Pressing his lips into a thin line, Gunnar resisted the urge to argue. Steel had a head as hard as his name, there was never any getting through to him.

That’s what happened when you had full confidence in your own abilities. It was true that the rich pomps feared Steel more than Satan himself and so he could afford to do as he pleased with them, but that didn’t mean it didn’t put their people in danger. Where they couldn’t hurt Steel, those heartless bastards would easily try to hurt whoever he held dear.

“Let everyone know they’ll need to have easy access to their weapons,” said Thoran, done with the conversation.

Unclenching his jaw, Gunnar let it go and looked about the camp. “Have your knives handy! Have your blades near and your daggers at hand. Every man fights for his life and that of his brother!”

The camp roared with loud voices of agreement and Thoran marched through, his ears filling with the loud cheers and clangs of metal against metal.

He had one mission in life and nothing would stop him from getting it done.

Not additional security, not the risks he was taking and not even…

Thoran slowly came to a stop, staring ahead of him and locking eyes with a familiar pair of fierce hazel ones.

Not even a sparkly little woman…

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter