Page 52 of Quest for her Knights
He slowly turns to fully face me, his frown firmly in place. I fill the silence. “You have every right to be upset with me. Although, if I have a choice in it, I wish you weren’t. The last thing I want to do is make you upset.”
His eyes snap up above my head, and I open my mouth to speak, but all that comes out is a small gasp when he draws his sword and yanks me behind him.
I spin to see what he’s looking at and end up taking a step backwards in fear. Moving towards us, just inside the edge of the trees is a giant… “Ogre!” I whisper in horror.
I take another step back and suddenly the other three knights have joined Draven, aiming their weapons in the beast’s direction.
It has to be at least twelve feet tall, wearing some sort of well-worn animal hide, like a giant loincloth. He holds a giant club that looks like a tree trunk.
“Stay back!” Ranger yells, holding his sword out between them in warning.
The beast growls and steps out into the clearing. Then, to my horror, it looks like he splits in two, but I quickly realize it’s just another one, stepping out from behind him.
Once the two of them are standing in the clearing, side by side, they stop for a moment and stare at us with hunger in their eyes.
“Foooood,” one of them mumbles, stepping towards us. His voice rough and barely understandable.
“Oh, hell no,” I mumble as I stumble backwards.
Arrow releases an arrow at one of the ogres' heads, but it doesn’t even seem to notice when it sticks out of his forehead. Blaze and Ranger charge forward with their swords, slashing at their legs.
The ogres try to use their clubs to bat them away, but they’re slow and my knights easily duck out of the way.
I hear a grunt behind me and spin around, finding a third ogre staring down at me, licking his lips like I’m a juicy steak. A small shriek escapes me as I trip over my own feet, falling on my ass. I stare up at the beast as fear coils tightly in my stomach. He raises his club above his head and a scream rips from my throat as his arm swings down towards me.
I squeeze my eyes shut tight, but after three seconds, when I don't feel anything, I open them and see he’s staring at his empty hand in confusion. Looking up, my eyes widen in shock. Hisclub is hanging in the air above him like a scene from Harry Potter. I stare, waiting for it to drop on his head and knock him out, like in the movie, but it stays still, and the ogre turns to me, revealing his teeth in an angry snarl, like I did this to him.
“Shit,” I whisper, trying to crawl backwards. Movement beside me has my head turning to see Draven slowly moving in front of me, his palm outstretched towards the beast.What is he doing?
He places himself between me and the ogre and I watch as his hand moves to the right, and at the same time, the giant club moves in the same direction, in front of the ogre and getting his attention.
Hells bells!Draven has telekinesis! My jaw drops open in shock as the ogre tries to grab the club, just to have Draven move it out of reach. He continues to tease him with it until an arrow comes soaring over our heads, hitting the beast directly in the eye.
It roars, loud enough to have me clamping my hands over my ears to try to block out the terrible noise. Ranger and Blaze appear in front of me, their swords swinging towards the beast as they attack it. Blood sprays from its wounds and the sight makes my stomach roll.
I yank my hands away from my ears to cover my eyes, turning sideways to try to avoid seeing the worst of it. Something touches my back and I tense up, but when I realize it’s a hand, I relax and let them pull me into their lap, holding me againsttheir strong chest as we listen to the sounds of the ogre being attacked and groaning in pain. I move my hands back to my ears, keeping my eyes shut tightly as I lean against my knight.
A soft humming comes from the man holding me and I try to focus on it, letting it drown out the sounds of the battle. I’m still not sure who it is, the chain mail not letting me get a good read on their body.
The humming fades away and so does everything else. Silence surrounds us, and I slowly lower my hands, placing them against his chest as I take a few deep breaths.
“Princess? Have you been harmed?” This doesn’t come from the man holding me, so I tentatively open my eyes to find Ranger crouching down in front of me, a deep look of concern on his face. “Are you alright?” he asks again when I don’t answer.
I give him a quick nod as I try to take stock of my body. Besides tripping over my own feet, I don’t think anything else happened. My eyes catch sight of the dead ogre and my heart starts to race again, my breath stuttering in fear.
“She’s not.” I jerk in surprise, turning to see the man who spoke was Draven. And I’m sitting in his lap. He’s the one who held me through the attack? Who hummed to drown out the noises?
“Draven?” I say in question, wanting to ask him a dozen different things, and yet not having the words to ask any of them. His eyes meet mine and he presses his lips together tightly, looking frustrated or… worried.
Is he mad he had to show me his secret, one he obviously wanted to keep hidden? Is he worried I’ll tell someone?
Unsure what he’s thinking, I throw my arms around his neck and hug him tightly. He seems to freeze up underneath me. “Thank you for saving me,” I whisper against his neck. His body slowly relaxes, and he gently hugs me back.
I pull back and give him a kiss on the cheek.
His face turns pink and he clears his throat, looking away as he mumbles, “You’re welcome.”
Oh my god, is he blushing right now? My smile is huge as I stare at him. He narrows his eyes at me, clearly not liking my reaction. He grips my waist as he stands, pulling me to my feet with him.
