Page 7 of Queen's Griffon

“You mean conquer Daerva,” Avera huffed as she rose to her feet.

“I thought you wanted Benoit removed from the throne?”

“Not by having a foreign country invade,” she muttered. Never mind the fact she’d toyed with the idea of hiring mercenaries to help her oust the pretender.

“What happens won’t be up to you, little queen. As of now, you are my property and I will decide what happens to you. Although, keep annoying me and I might simply decide to feed you to a kraken.”

“Krakens aren’t real,” was her surly reply.

“Said by someone who’s obviously never sailed the Eastern Seas.”

“Wait, you’re saying they exist? You’ve seen them?” her curious nature couldn’t help but ask. After all, in the past few weeks she’d seen many a thing she’d once thought impossible.

“Aye, and I don’t recommend it. Even the babies are deadly.”

“You survived,” she pointed out.

“Barely.” He walked away, and she didn’t think twice to follow.

“What would it take to convince you to take me to Verlora?”

“Nothing will ever make me return,” came his flat reply.

“When we spoke before, at the chapel”—before he’d kidnapped her and established himself as the bane of her quest—“you asked if the stones I’m after could have caused the problems in Verlora. Don’t you want to find out if that’s the case?”

“No.”

“What if it fixes things, though? Makes Verlora safe again,” she asked as he descended the steps and went to the last door at the end of the hall. She caught the panel of wood before he could slam it in her face. “You can’t ignore me.”

“I will when you speak nonsense,” he snapped, whirling on her. “How exactly do you think you could fix Verlora when no one else, even some incredibly gifted scientists, couldn’t?”

“Opal said?—”

“I don’t know or care who Opal is or what she’s managed to convince you of. Verlora is lost and nothing can change that.”

“If you believe that then what’s the harm in dumping me there?”

“I won’t risk my crew getting close and that’s final.”

With that, he slammed the door in her face.

Avera pursed her lips.

That didn’t go well. However, he wasn’t the only one who could be persistent.

Chapter 2

Griff

Griff glaredat the closed door that hid the woman standing beyond it. He should have kept her royal pain in his ass locked in the cabin. But no, he’d listened to his first mate who felt sorry for the little puking queen.

“Where’s she gonna go, Cap?” Kreed had cajoled. “Not like she’s gonna jump off the ship and swim for land.”

No, she wouldn’t, but the little queen sure could—and would—make his life annoying with her ridiculous demand to drop her off in Verlora.

Verlora was dead. His offhanded comment to her, asking if the rocks she sought could have caused the problems in Verlora, didn’t mean he thought them responsible. The fact the stones disappeared in and around the time of Verlora’s destruction was simply coincidence. And nothing—not even a hardheaded queen on a foolhardy quest—would change Verlora’s fate.

If it had just been the volcano, they might have recovered. After all, the poison ash cloud eventually dissipated, and the explosions and flows of lava ceased. It took five long years for that initial damage to die down enough for Verlorians to dare venture close, sailing into the perpetual fog surrounding the continent.

---