Winter's Warrior

Chapter Two

"What?! What do you mean he is past the point of saving?!" Tall-Dark-and-Grumpy boomed.

Several other voices rose, shocked, angry, disbelieving... I spotted Karen's knowing smirk as she hovered over Luke, tying off a bandage. No one had even noticed she had yet to update me on the boy's condition. I couldn't restrain my laughter any longer, or maybe I could and I just didn't want to worry them any longer.

"Oh my gosh," I wheezed through my laughter. "Your faces are priceless!"

"What the hell?!" One of the boys, the one with the bright blue eyes and two streaks of blond in his brown hair, exclaimed in shock.

Silver eyes' strong and steely gaze narrowed on me, thinly-veiled fury etched into his smooth features. "We do not have time for such childish games. This is inappropriate. Take us to the queen, immediately, young girl."

With a smirk, I led them out of the room, straight to the throne room. "She'll be back momentarily."

I ducked out of the throne room and dashed to my room once I was out of sight. Quickly, I tossed off my hunting gear and threw on some sort of royal dress that billowed around me in waves of white silk and tulle. I slipped on a pair of heeled slippers decorated with clear diamonds. After smoothing my pale hair down, I placed the royal crown on my head, crystals jutting out of the white gold band in an imitation of icicles.

Taking a deep breath and composing myself, I straightened my posture. With that, I left my room, taking long strides back to the throne room, careful not to trip in the heels that generously added to my unfortunate height. Jaws dropped as I stepped through the doors, keeping my chin up and gaze straight ahead of me. I avoided looking at the men, silently demanding their respect for the rightful ruler, the queen of Glacialis Regnum.

"Holy-" Blue-eyes breathed, quickly cutting himself off.

Another of the group spoke up, unafraid to be heard. "You're the queen?"

One stuttered so badly I couldn't tell if he had even spoken the same language.

I allowed the corner of my lip to raise a millimeter, a slight, smug smirk. "Why yes, I am the queen. Is that so hard to believe? Is it a problem?"

The one with the silver eyes glared at me, but slowly, ever so slowly, dipped into a bow. The others followed suit, though, with less hesitancy.

"Well?" I asked. "Who might you be?"

The first to introduce himself was an aristocratic-looking man with fiery brown eyes and angular features, his soft brown hair falling in waves around his ears. "I am Prince Victor Morgan of Terra Arenosa, and these," He swept a hand towards his friends, "Are my diplomatic escorts."

Internally, I balked. Him? A prince? He definitely looked the part, but I hadn't heard him take control once. Everything was dictated by silver-eyes, I thought. A coup d'etat, perhaps?

The next to step up was, speak of the devil, silver-eyes. "Duke Owen Blackbourne of Terra Arenosa, Your Highness," he said, and I could hear the forced polite tone in his voice. My status had not made him any friendlier towards me. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The introductions continued. There were three knights—North, Silas, and Nathan—the three largest of the group. Next was the royal stylist—Blue-eyes, aka, Gabriel. Dakota, who also went by Kota, was a philosopher, and started to introduce the injured man, but was quickly interrupted by North. Lucian—or Luke—was introduced as a chef, but something nagged at the back of my mind, alerting me to the fact that it was a lie. I suspected Luke wasn't who they said he was, but I didn't push the matter.