It took her a moment, too lost in her thoughts, to realize that he was mocking the trunk that hung heavily at her side.
She observed him, the way the muscles in his broad shoulders rippled as he finished tying down his belongings. There were a multitude of tomes, some weaponry, and very little clothing. So little that Kaya began to feel as if she had, perhaps, over packed.
“The other guards told me that you had quite the mouth on you.” Ilias sighed. He turned to her and, before she could protest, he was already taking her trunk from her and was starting towards a white mare from her mother’s stables. “But you have been surprisingly quiet and agreeable.”
“It’s because she’s scared, Captain.” Moryna chimed.
Kaya whipped her head around, eyes narrowed with intent to petrify, but Moryna only laughed. “I’m notscared.” She started to turn back to Ilias—to at least plead her case, but stumbled back slightly when she saw how close he was.
She peered up at him with wide eyes, her heart thundering as she looked over the chiseled jaw, pillowy lips framed with coarse brown hair. The slim, slightly curved nose that proved it had been broken a time or two, and then to those eyes….
Those eyes that were a calm sage green color in her parents’ room were now the shade of a shadowy morning forest. She sucked in a breath, turning her head just slightly. By the furrow of his brow, she expected for him to chastise her or berate her for feeling fear, but instead he merely grabbed the leather pack she’d slung over her shoulder and began strapping it to her mare. She swallowed, turning to see that Moryna was, once again, in stance. Albeit, with a smug grin.
Kaya was only a little scared.
But it was not the fear of what creatures lurked the inclines and slopes of themountains. Kaya did not fear what she knew, but she was absolutely horrified of the unknown. And she’d never been close to the human territories before.
G’Illach was said to be a beautiful place and she had no doubt that it was, but she was defenseless and she did notknowthis man. As positive as her father seemed about having Ilias teach her, she couldn’t help the slight panic that lodged itself in her chest when she watched him.
He was strong, certainly. That was enough to terrify any female.
“Are you just going to stand there or do I need to come and fetch you?” Ilias asked.
Kaya jumped and shivered, blinking up at him as he approached her again. “I am very much capable of doing it myself, thank you. Please keep your distance,human.”
Ilias scoffed, shaking his head as he watched her walk towards the mare who,heknew, could only be mounted a particular way without being spooked.
He fell back a step, leaning against a silver pillar as Kaya put her foot in the stirrup. Her leg had barely crested the mare’s rump when the beast kicked it’s hooves off of the ground, sending Kaya to the quartz stones—a loud grunt sounding from her amongst the crashing of flower pots being knocked over.
She felt the spot on her head that dealt most of the damage to the flowers, but instead of whimpering or crying like he expected, Kaya’s eyes narrowed at him. She grit her teeth as she rose to her feet, dusting her hands on the legs of her trousers before moving towards him.
“You knew that would happen, didn’t you?” She demanded.
Seeing her with leaves and petals in her hair, her eyes wild with rage wasn’t particularly funny to him, but Ilias did take some joy in seeing her humbled.
Playing tutor to the princess he swore his life protect was certainly not something he would have chosen for himself, but he was loyal to Alder Aesa. He owed him much more than babysitting his spoiled and obnoxiously prideful daughter.
He’d trained for ten years to fill his role as Captain of the Silver Guard. From the moment he turned fifteen, he left his mother’s dilapidated cottage in the Human Realm and sought out Alder Aesa—a name that reoccurred in the stories his father would tell him. Ilias was successful in his trainingand was given the best treatment a poor young man could ever hope for. He proved to be a very powerful guard and the power he’d inherited from his brute of a father aided him in making that happen. He was an Energetic. His force fields were strong and he could use those energy forces to not only shield, but demolish.
His father was not a bad man, but what good man would leave their lover to birth and raise a boy all on their own?
His mother never married. She never bore any other children, as she became pregnant with him in her early forties. She nearly died bringing him into the world and she worked, day and night, as a seamstress to provide for Ilias in the best way that she could.
Until she fell ill.
Ilias let out a sigh, leading his mare in Kaya’s direction. She assessed him thoroughly and he assumed he deserved it, but said nothing and made no indication that he noticed her hateful sneer as he passed his horse to her. She climbed onto the beast with ease and Ilias took to Fury, the temperamental mare, and climbed onto her in the exact way that kept her calm.
He wasn’t much for babysitting and he wasn’t too fond of this new job of his, but he also never turned away from a challenge. And much like taming Fury, he was sure that he could take this unruly little princess and turn her into something lethal and loyal.
Chapter 2
She’d never traveled before. Not far enough for it to count as traveling. She spent the greater part of her youth running gorgeous, overgrown hills behind the cabin—swimming in the river and crashing through small ponds and puddles. She climbed trees and looked out at the city as she swayed with the breeze.
But for the last two years, she was confined to the halls of the Silver Palace as a precaution. Word started to spread about her power and a rumor of uprising amongst what was left of the clans began to swirl. For the first year of her confinement, she thoroughly obeyed her father’s demands. She took to reading and prided herself in the knowledge that she gained about the Three Clans, the fae, and Driikona as a whole. It was what her father was wanting to rebuild—the world before Caddagh invaded and nearly wiped their people off the map.
There were thousands of the fae left. Either burrowed in the mountains and hills or walking the streets of Holiadon. Though the Credulans tried to make it seem as if they did not exist, they did. She was one of them.
Kaya knew her significance to Holiadon was more than simply being a princess. For her birthright, bred into her bloodstream, was the Dark Bringer. One of three Kisses. One of three Blessings.
