War Queen

Chapter 9: Debra

I glare at the back of the retreating queen, I imagine my eyes shooting lasers straight to her skull, melting bone and frying brains. I'm still on the deck, propped up on my elbows to get a better view while I wait for my broken ribs to magically heal. The sea lion shapeshifter shifts back into her animal form as she gracefully dives over the edge of the railing and into the water. Giving a long sigh, I look up at the contemplative look on Marco's face.

"What are you thinking?"

He snaps out of his thoughts and smirks down at me before holding out a hand to help me up. They are rough and covered in calluses from working with ropes and weapons day in, day out. Placing my hand in his I use all my strength to rise, forgetting about my ribs for a moment, regretting it instantly. I wince and hold my sides with my hands as a look of concern crosses Marco's face.

"Are you alright?"

I nod and stand up straight, trying not wince and schooling my face into a mask of mild interest.

"What are you planning?"

With that Marco turns away to look at the two captains who are still stuck in ice anchors.

"Are you fools still stuck?"

Marco shakes his head before walking off to his cabin, I follow quietly, not giving him a reason to snap. The door we walk through has pure gold laurel leafs imprinted on it, giving away that this is a royal chamber. I hesitate at the door for I was never good at gauging the emotions of those I talk to.

Taking a deep breath I follow Marco inside. Looking around I notice that most of the wood of the ship is hidden beneath designs and patterns made from gold leafs, even the desk in the centre has golden art decorating the legs. On the right a large bed occupies the corner, on the left is a dinning table with six chairs, and directly in front of me is a beautiful stain-glass window which would look out of place from an outside view.

"Wow..."

Marco looks up at me and smirks.

"Like what you see?"

I nod and continue to stare.

"This could have been yours Debby, but instead you chose to go with that scumbag Maximum, that absolute useless cousin of mine."

I hang my head and stair at the embroidered carpeting that decorates the floors.

"I know"

When I look back up he is nodding his head in closure.

"Sit"

I look to where Marco points and I carefully make my way over to the wooden chair, making sure that my skirts don't catch onto anything.

"Marco..."

He holds his hand up and I immediately shut my mouth. His expression shows that he is thinking so I leave him be and start twiddling my thumbs. A few minutes later he slams his hands down onto his desk.

"Would you stop that!"

I glance at my thumbs then at Marco before back at my thumbs, he catches on quickly.

"Yes, stop fiddling"

I stop immediately, a blush creeps it's way across my face. I can't seem to do anything right today.

"How did she know that you were a spy?"

I go to answer but he glares at me so I close my mouth letting my thoughts run wild on possibilities. The only one that I can think of that is even remotely plausible is Claus and Selia, they could have been spying on me.

"Marco..."

He turns to me annoyed.

"What?"

Taking a deep breath I look up at Marco, straight into his eyes and with as much determination as I can put in my voice I say...

"The Eagle and the Seal"

He contemplates the idea for a moment.

"There is absolutely no way that Krissandra can mind speak with shifters, not possible, not possible at all"

I think back to all the times that Krissa and the shifters interacted. They were almost always in human form and she spoke out loud. I turn to face Marco to voice the revelation.

"She spoke to them verbally"

At this Marco stops his contemplative pacing and looks at me with wide eyes.

"Of course, but they only respond to spoken commands after being called for."

I think about this but realise something else.

"Thomas called them but handed over charge to Krissa"

Marco rolls his eyes and puts his head in his hands.

"Of course he did, you couldn't have told him not to?"

I glare at him.

"I tried okay, but I swear somedays he just doesn't care anymore"

Marco rolls his eyes walking over to the dining table where a plate of food, with what looks like fish and potato, is sitting.

"Debby dear, your definition of tried is ask once and move on"

I sit down in one of the chairs and cross my arms over my chest.

"So what if it is, and we're getting off topic."

Marco sighs and picks up the fork, playing with the cold food.

"I've underestimated Krissandra before, however, I do know that she will follow through with her threat so we need to be prepared."

I nod along, waiting for him to continue.

"Father told me to not come home unless I have made an alliance or successfully invaded Meacambro, so we need to find a way to distract the queen. Any ideas?"

Shaking my head I stand up and walk around to Marco, placing my hands on his shoulders and massaging them. Thinking to myself, I realise that Krissa has lots of things to worry about, and she cares deeply for everything, if we were to indanger something she cares about we might just have a chance. Contemplating this I stop massaging Marco and move around to face him once more.

"We need to kidnap the shifters!"

*Thank you all for reading up to here! I hope you are enjoying Krissa's and Debra's story!

😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊