Poisoned Lips

30: Prince Charming

The night was windy.

Freyja slowly walked through the unknown forest. With just the moonlight, she managed to avoid tripping into the muddy ground. Howls and strange noises were like echoes around her. One shouted the other responded. Goosebumps covered her skin. She tensed at every noise.

It felt like she'd been walking for hours. The trees seemed as though they stopped beyond the clouds. She couldn't climb them. Her only option was to keep walking.

The night fell quiet.

The hair on Freyja's neck stood up. Suddenly, hands shot up from the ground and latched around her ankles. Growls and cries erupted all around her. Hands reached for arms and dragged her down. Freyja screamed for help, but her sound was muffled by the dirt in her mouth. The creatures sunk her into the sand. And just as the sand entered her nostrils, a bright light shone from above.

Freyja gasped for air as she shot up from her bed. She coughed like she was trying to clear her throat of sand. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Just another nightmare. Her breaths slowed down. She rested her face on her palms.

Three days had passed since she gave her partner the clue. Freyja was becoming more and more restless. He couldn't have played her, could he? But the worst part of it all; was coming up with excuses for Devland and Azalea.

"Oh, my translator has to attend an event."

"It's just that my translator is awfully ill."

"Ah, no, my translator had an accident."

She didn't have more excuses in her box of excuses. The cousins were starting to get anxious. Freyja could see Devland's curious eyes on her whenever she did something and frankly, she was starting to get fed up.

Freyja stood up and freshened up in the bathroom, diligently avoiding the mirror. When she was done, she went into Devland and Azalea's room to get an extra towel.

However, the gold rings on the table caught her attention. Two gold rings; one had the emblem of the peacock in a forest the other was the one she'd already seen: the phoenix from the ashes.

What the hell was Devland doing with the emblem of the Royals?

Maybe he stole it, she tried convincing herself, but she knew that wasn't true.

She left the room, uneasy, and bolted her room door shut. Freyja got out the big brown book her mother had given her and skimmed through it. She'd seen the pages of symbols before.

"—ah!"

She spotted the page and hastily began reading it. Although she barely understood the ancient languages, she deciphered the sentences with annotated symbols her mother left in them.

Freyja's heart plummeted to her stomach as she read it.

The Phoenix emblem was the emblem of Magis. The ring belonged to a star warrior, Morana, goddess of health, harvest, witchcraft, and death. She was the savior of Magis at the time of Slaughtering. She helped establish a peaceful relationship between humanity and Magis.

Well, until King Osiah ruined it.

The peacock emblem was that of Daerris; of Afoya and Brusse back when the two islands were ruled by two different kings. There were only two rings ever made. One was for the king of Brusse and one for the king of Afoya.

However, because King Osiah now ruled both the islands, he should have the two Royal rings. He slaughtered the royals of Afoya, so Osiah should have the second ring. Unless...