Page 15 of Royal Lies

They were eighteen sun cycles. At that age, they should learn to show some maturity. They weren't children anymore. Gods, if we were also counting their mental ages it wouldn't do children justice to call those two childish.

Wrinkling my nose I glared down at the banter before me. Rolling from side to side covering themselves in mud. Glancing up, having finally felt my presence, the boy's sharp narrowed blue wolf eyes landed against mine, "What are you looking at?" His nose wrinkled in disgust as I rolled my eyes. He could sneer at me all he wanted but the bottom line was he rescued me. Which meant he or the girl might have needed something from me. But what?

Taking advantage of the boy, Eli's, momentary distraction the girl, Everetta, snatched the dirt-encrusted meat from his pale calloused hands. For a moment the girls scowled in disgust, perhaps realizing their banter was all for not, but in another second the meat was cleaned. In the third the whole cooked and now clean again werehound's thigh was in her mouth.

Of course, I should have known. Magic was always involved in this world, especially with them.

Can't lift something, just use magic. Got some callused hands just used magic to fix it up.

As I thought the idea, the boy, Eli, did just that, using his magic to clean himself off, as well as the girl, then staring at his hands and removing the calluses from them. Because gods forbid he actually gets his flawless hands dirty.

The boy frowned at havinghismeat taken, eyeing the girl, but just as it was in the past, he made no complaints againsthertakinghisthings. Sighing, the boy took up another werehound meat these two had hunted before my rescue, from the looks of it a lot. I frowned, cocking a brow, and rolled my eyes tossing mymeat ladened skewer into the fire.Pity such animals had to die in their hands.The girl gawked at me horrified. I rolled my eyes.Did she seriously expect me to eat that thing, or was I supposed to toss it to the boy and play a game of toss and grab, like a pup fighting for its first kill? Ya, no thanks. The boy glared at me as the girl started to tear up almost like she was about to cry, "My hard work!" She moaned as the boy rolled his eyes all the while patting her back.

"You should appreciate that we're even sharing food with you."

His ice-cold sapphire eyes turned venomous as they landed on me, "How could you destroy a perfectly good piece of meat?"

I rolled my eyes.

I am not playing their games.

"Ya, my hard work." The girl, Everetta, picked up the piece of stick from the fire that once held said meat. Nearly charred to a crisp. Bits and pieces of the meat flaked off the stick. I rolled my eyes, raising my freshly picked and washed berries. "I have this, so no thanks," I went back to eatingmyfruits.

As if I would ever eat something as disgusting as shadow wolves.

That's what they were, wolves corrupted by dark magic twisting them into the monstrous creatures known as werehounds. But before I could have the tiniest bite of fruit the boy knocked the stash in my hands into the fire.

"Oops." The boy, Eli, shrugged as I closed my eyes. Trying with all the magic in me to remain seated. I am not going to involve myself in their childish banter. Glaring back towards the boy I took out another one of my stored bags of fresh berries. I had picked them up along the trail once we had run far enough away from the Summer Court capital.

Just a couple more days and I'll be gone, just relax. We'll reach the Winter Wonderlands soon.Gods grant me the sanity to put up with these two.

As if reading my thoughts the boy just had to provoke me. Using the magic that chained me to him, he yanked the magic-ridden cuffs against my wrists. I watched in a red haze as my food dropped once more into the dirt. It wasn't as if I could use magic, not with these cuffs on my hand. Cuffs, the girl seems all too willing to manifest without a protest against the boy. Honestly, it doesn't matter what life we live, those two will always be the same. Always revolving around their own little circle, never letting anyone else in. It's just like them to never even question one another, to never even get mad at one another. But I know what the boy is hiding. I've seen it in his actions, in the way the girl acts too, in his private questions for me.

But I can't say anything, if I did she wouldn't believe me anyway. Like I said the girl was blind when it came to the boy and the boy towards her.

Knowing my helplessness at the moment the boy smirked down at me. I don't know why I snapped. Maybe it was because of something in his self-assured gaze or perhaps it was because I knew of their futures. Futures in which theystole. Those thrones wereneversupposed to be theirs. Or at least not the boy's to claim. How I wished I could just break my magic binding cuffs and strangle the boy.

The boy shrugged, "Hmph, maybe next time you'd think twice before throwing something away."

To the shadows with restraint, I launched myself at the prick.

"I'm going to fucking kill you!" I tore at his blond waves or at least tried to but he had two hands free, and I was cuffed.

"Hey, hey, hey! No fighting!" The girl bellowed, yet she dared not do anything to stop it. Or at least she was about to but thenrealized something and didn't. See this is the exact reason why I don't like either of them, they are so-so irritating! They're such-

Ugh! There's not even a right word to describe their kind.

I kicked my free knee against the boy's groin but he anticipated it. Using one of his hands to hold me in place while using his left to cover his junk all the while twisting out of my reach. Cocking his head and smirking at me as if to say “Is that the best you can do?".

I could practically feel the heat from my crimson cheeks as I flared up, my body bursting into purple flames. The boy's eyes went wide. Guess he wasn't expecting me to do that, was he? I smirked, feeling the lick of galaxy-colored magic skittering across my body, through my veins, through every ounce and crevice in my body. The click of the cuffs on my hands was like the chirping of a bird in the morning. The small thump as the metal hit the soil was even more glorious. The girl crept closer, her head tilted in amazement, in intrigue, as if I was some specimen to be examined. I rolled my eyes.

"Wow, you're like a Phoenix , well, I mean youarea Phoenix so this only makes sense-" The girl‘s eyes lit up with an eerie shine as she grew even closer. Creeping in on me like I was some specimen to be examined.

I glared at the boy, no he's not worth my time.Control yourself, Luna, you will get your revenge soon.I don't know why they saved me but one thing was for sure they needed me alive, at least for now.

"I am so done with this," I muttered, grabbing my bags as I turned, heading towards the sleeping grounds in the trees. After all, we were in the Shadow Lands. A region not under any of the court's domains. The lands were not protected by the royal family's magic and thus, a victim to the ravages of shadow creatures, such as the werehounds and all sorts of other monsters and no one should sleep on the grounds of the ShadowLands. The trees were a bit safer. Less creatures live in the trees, at least those that wouldn't be twice your size.

Making myself a little nest of pillows and blankets I snuggled down to hopefully sleep this nightmare away. But, I knew I couldn't really do so. Not until we reached the Winter Court, there I would have the necessary equipment to do what I needed to do, to help end these vile creatures. Closing my eyes I let the dark abyss of the night envelop me.

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