Page 95 of Heir of the Beast

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My head.

Bleeding hearts.

I roll to the left and feel my temples pound in furry.

“Are you awake, human?” I hear Mort at my side. “She is waking up, and from what I can tell from the body scan, she will be fine. Fractured collarbone, the brutes, but it will heal.

“Laura has a broken arm, but Leenie said she will be fine as well. She set Laura’s arm a few hours ago.”

I open my eyes to see Mort typing and blinking.

“Uh-huh. Right, I thought so too. This is bad, but fixable. Well, I like to be positive most of the time.”

“Mort,” I say.

She looks up at me and exhales. “Finally! She’s awake. I’ll talk to you in a second.”

“What happened?” I say and try to sit up, feeling pain in my shoulder. I take in my surroundings and see that I’m in a tiny bedchamber.

Am I in a space pod? It looks very concerning with all the shiny metal and slanted lines. I steady myself and focus, going through my brain’s filing cabinet.

Oh…

Shit…

“Apollo!” I yell, feeling dread seep into every bone in my body. “Mort, what’s happening?! Where are we, and where’s Apollo?

“Why did I open my eyes?! I’m such a moron! It was just instinct—I was not thinking at my highest level! That was an amateur move.”

Mort places a hand on my leg. “There, there.” She continues, “More than likely they would have overpowered you guys anyway. They had some pretty big guns, from what I saw.

“Apollo is good, but I don’t think he’s bulletproof. So, a few things to touch base on. The House of Galleon is waging war with the House of Garthorn.”

My mouth drops open, and my heart jumps to high speed. “Come again?” I whisper.

“Apollo is on his deathbed, and it’s a lot of finger-pointing at this point.” Mort shakes her head.

“What?!” I scream, my voice breaking. “Mort, you better explain before I freak out.”

My heart is pounding so fast I feel lightheaded.

“Apollo is very ill, being poisoned and all, terrible stuff. I can’t get a lot of details because it’s against code T-9, but I can just get basic information.

“Apollo and Tarren were blamed for the Galleon Princess’s abduction. Apollo, when he was still conscious, spat in Queen Irena’s face and called her filthy names.

“That did not go over well with the King, and he vowed that if his daughters were not returned, he would have Apollo’s head. Naturally, House of Garthorn is defending their soon-to-be king’s honor.”

“No,” I whisper.

“Oh yeah, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Then the queen laughed like one of those evil witches and said not to worry. The poison will kill him.”

“We have to do something!”

Mort nods. “Well, that’s tricky because you are currently being held hostage to be sold into slavery.”

The color drains from my face.

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