Chancellor Pike and his second, Bellamy Blake, order an unprovoked attack on a Trikru army sent to protect Skaikru, resulting in the death of hundreds of Trikru warriors. After General Indra kom Trikru, receives word of the massacre, a summit is cal...
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After my conversation with my fiancé, I get out of bed and get ready to go back to Arkadia.
"I need to settle some things in Arkadia before we leave for Azgeda. How long until our marriage ceremony and where will that be?"
I gather what little I brought with me into our tent. Roan kneels before me and straps a gorgeous curved steel dagger with a smooth bone handle sheathed in a beautiful worn leather scabbard. Roan's family crest is engraved on the butt of the dagger.
"Until you have a personal guard, Echo will accompany you wherever you go. Our marriage ceremony will occur in three months from now at Neutrum Terram in the old castle. Neutrum Terram is a place commonly used as a sacred neutral ground to sign treaties between krus and officiate political marriages. The last political marriage to occur here was my great grandparents; King Thadeous kom Azgeda and Heda Raina kom Trikru."
Roan fluidly gets back to his feet before shuffling over to his chest full of clothes. He pulls on black fitted pants, tall black boots, a long sleeved navy tunic, a thick leather vest and a dark black cloak with black wolf fur sewn onto the shoulders. I watch as my fiancé fashions his hair into dark masculine braids before placing his bone crown on his own head. It should appear vain, but instead I find his confidence and practiced movements breathtaking and hypermasculine. Something about this man both makes me feel like a submissive virgin and the Wanheda all the krus believe me to be.
"Will uh, will you not be coming with me?"
Annoyingly, my voice sounds shy and unsteady, as if I haven't been doing things on my own for years.
"Not today my bride, I have many things to take care of. We will eat dinner together tonight and you will again sleep in our bed with your head on my chest. Do not look so disappointed Wanheda, I will tell you all that I have accomplished and I look forward to hearing about your day. Besides, my sister tells me girl time is important for all women."
Roan smiles at me with the softest expression I've ever seen on any warrior. I sigh softly before I give him a sweet goodbye kiss. The Azgedan king leads me to his fierce spymaster before ordering the beautiful warrior to protect me with her life. The brunette bows low before taking her place next to me. Roan, trusting his orders will be obeyed gives me another possessive kiss before mounting his huge black horse and galloping away gloriously with his guardsmen in tow. Several Azgedan warriors are left guard our campsite.
"Have you eaten Wanheda?"
My new shadow asks as we walk towards Arkadia's gates.
"Not yet, but I have so much to do today. It's really not that important..."
The words have scarcely left my lips before Echo drags me over to a fire and proceeds to force me to sit on a log while she cooks me a hearty breakfast of dark meat, fluffy bread, dried strawberries and scrambled eggs. She fills my plate full and hands me waterskin full of cold water. I stare in shock and I fight back tears as emotions churn in my gut. It's been years since I've had someone care enough to feed me. As of late, remaining coldly logical and unattached has grown difficult. Echo watches me with a frown that almost looks worried while we eat in charged silence of words unsaid. After our meal is finished and our plates are quickly washed and dried, we make our way unmolested back through the gates of my home. Our first stop is to my mother and if I were a weaker woman I'd avoid the conversation that's about to take place. I take a deep breath to steady my resolve. Echo gives me the side eye, but keeps silent.
