Darien grabs my arm. "I'll try to talk my way out of this. Keep your head down, don't say or do anything."
Before I can protest, the men's voices reach our part of the tunnel. It isn't long before their leader rounds the corner.
"Well, well, well, boys. What do we have here?"
Darien's grip on my arm tightens.
"Julius," he drawls.
The large, red-faced man smiles, showing the few teeth he has left.
"Darien Adler, prince of the pirates!"
His band of men laugh at the last part.
"Your father owes me a lot of money," Julius says, spit flying with every word.
I force my self not to gag at the smell of his breath. The stench stings the inside of my nostrils.
"My father paid his debts, he no longer has anything to do with you," Darien says, his voice wavering.
"He still owes me for stealing my ship and half of my not-so-loyal crew. It should be me sitting with the Queen mother in the banquet hall right now, not him," he spits. "It should be me negotiating the terms of the sea."
Julius reaches his pudgy fingers out to Darien and grabs a fistful of his long leather jacket. Darien wraps his long fingers around the man's wrist.
"That ship originally belonged to my grandfather, and as for your crew, they followed us on their own."
Julius laughs, making his belly jiggle. He releases Darien and steps back. His beady eyes move to me as if noticing that I'm standing there for the first time.
"And what do we have here? A young girl?"
I pull my hood lower over my eyes, praying he doesn't recognize me. To my horror, he takes a few steps closer and takes the cloth of my hood in his sweaty fingertips. In one swipe, the hood is off my head, revealing my platinum waves. His beady eyes grow wide.
"You are the princess."
I gulp, not wanting to know what he'll do now that he knows. I close my eyes and inhale a sharp breath before grabbing Darien's arm and pushing him ahead of me.
"What are you doing?" Darien yells, having almost fallen off the cliff.
"Saving your life!" I shout, before swallowing a scream.
Time to go.
With a final burst of adrenaline, I push Darien off the cliff and jump after him, straight into the screaming waves below us.
YOU ARE READING
RULE (Completed)
Adventure"You are queen now, start acting like it." Ariana has waited her entire life to become queen and rule her country. But things prove to be much more difficult than she ever thought they would be. After the death of her beloved father, her mother sudd...
