6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
“Prince Torin.”
“Call me Tor.”
I gulped. I needed to fix this. I didn’t say anything wrong, but maybe my expression did, and I hadn’t realized it. How could I be expected to leap into a partnership with someone I just met?
Tor turned around and chuckled when he saw me.
“No need to panic. I was pushed into this too.” He waved me over to stand beside him. The view of Crysia would have been better with the stars sharing their glow over the mountains and river cascading through the kingdom. But the lights from the market, and everyone’s homes would do.
I stole a glance at Tor. His gaze was on the kingdom as well.
“I am going to try. It’s what’s expected.” I offered my first whole truth since meeting him and he nodded.
“Me too, but can I ask a favor?” His voice deepened for a moment, then he cleared his throat and faced me. The word favor fluttered around my stomach like a group of butterflies.
“Sure.”
“I can tell you don’t like lying, and you’re not good at it. Moving forward, can we be honest with each other? I believe it’ll make the—” He paused. “Transitions easier.”
My shoulders relaxed, and I sagged onto the railing. This I could manage.
“Sounds like a plan.”
A cooling breeze brushed against my skin, and I closed my eyes to focus on the chill. The thrill of living and feeling.
Tor tightened the knee length jacket he wore over his gold embroidered tunic, pants, and black boots. He saw me watching him and shrugged.
“It’s a lot warmer where I come from.”
“Would you like to go inside?”
Tor shook his head and focused on the mountains with the subtle sounds of music at our backs. “In a few. I know we’ve got time to get to know each other. But this is nice.”
I knew what he meant, and his honesty was surprising. Maybe being married to Tor wouldn’t be so bad. This meeting was calm, and real. As brief as it was.
We walked back into the ballroom a few minutes later and stood beside my parents. They entertained the prince while I avoided Nyx’s puckered lips and silent laughs.
The night was a success in my book. Tor and I met and we got along just fine. He wasn’t an asshole like Foxface who’d been staring at the swells of my breasts and exposed thigh all night.
So, with the night being perfect as could be, I shouldn’t have been a surprised when after my fifth yawn of the night and bed called my name, that a line of ten soldiers wearing black and red armor dropped down from the skylight. They just had to ruin a good thing.
My father took a step closer to my mother and shouted, “Guard the prince and princess!”
Silver armored soldiers from both kingdoms fought soldiers, their pinched expressions watched us and the intruders simultaneously.
A hand grabbed ahold of mine. “I’ve got you, Sapphira,” Tor said with an unsheathed knife in his hand. I believed him and his willingness to protect me was admirable. Another point in the “Maybe being married to Tor wouldn’t be so bad” column.
But I wasn’t a damsel in distress.
A snarling soldier ran toward us with his sword raised and no one to block him. My fingers tingled and I gripped the hardening crystal spikes I grew in my right hand. I threw it straight for the opening in his armor between his helmet and chest plate.
A wet smacking sound echoed and the soldier stopped. Eyes wide, oddly black veins on his face turned red, and blood shot out from his neck far enough to splatter the hem of my dress.
Tor stood beside me, mouth gaped wide as more soldiers jumped through the skylight.
“Sapphira!” my mother yelled through the commotion. The sounds of metal smacking something and shattering came from behind me. She was near and trying to reach me. The one person I could always count on to protect me no matter the cost. She’d take out this whole room if she had to.
The ground trembled from the influx of soldiers hitting the floor, causing me to stumble as the hand holding mine yanked me to the right. “This way,” Tor said and I moved despite my mind screaming I should take lead. We were in my palace. I knew it better than he did.
He pushed open the doors to the balcony we’d talked on earlier. This was a bad choice, we were trapped.
“Stand behind me. The doors will bottleneck them. I can handle them one by one until the soldiers get the rest.” Tor stood, feet positioned for an attack.
Like the spike I’d created from my sapphire core, a medium turquoise sword shot out of Tor’s hand.
A nifty trick crystal core holders could do. Create anything out of gem.
The palace shook again. Screams rang from the ballroom.
“Not possible,” Tor said too quietly and I gripped the railing as another rumbling of the palace nearly dropped me to my knees.
A soldier in black shot past the doors, then another behind him. Tor swiped and as I started to harden my skin for attack, the balcony shook and the soldier lost his footing.
I grunted as his body slammed into mine, knocking me over the edge.
“Sapphira!” Tor yelled.
I grabbed onto the ledge of the balcony with one hand and tried to swing my other up but my fingers couldn’t get a grip between the railing posts. The stone was too smooth and my dress weighed me down.
Tor grappled with a soldier on the ground, and just as he stabbed the soldier in the thigh, his gaze shot to me. My fingers slipped.
“Sapphira!”
I didn’t have any powers to help. No shifting into a bird, or ability to ride the wind, or be a legendary dragon.
The only hope I possessed in my well of absorbed powers would be my mother’s diamond skin.
I closed my eyes, felt the wind whipping my hair and dress around me as I fell.
A body slammed into mine and muscled arms wrapped around my waist. Seconds later, I was pulled even closer than before and collapsed against a broad chest as the sounds of earth and metal grinded against each other.
Myself and hopefully my rescuer shook as we slowed to a stop, dust wafting around us like a thick cloud.
“I’ve got you,” a low voice said and my head shot up to look into a pair of icy blue eyes beneath me.