“Your clan will ask for revenge.”
Broch agreed. “You really think I will be able to go on without it?”
Leonard sighed. “No, and after what I’ve seen of her, I have to say I am glad for it.”
Broch agreed, though he wasn’t glad. What he was feeling now was nothing close to glad.
“Don’t say anything about what you have learned, Leonard, not until I have talked to her people and found out what is going on.”
“Don’t you want to talk to her?”
Broch disagreed. “No, she is too enchanting, and I don’t trust myself to be impartial. I don’t think I can trust myself with her.”
“Do you want me to go?”
“No!” Broch practically shouted it. He didn’t apologize. Leonard got the point. Broch was going to deal with this himself. He was going to get to the bottom of it and he wanted to believe that he could do it without more bloodshed. So many people dead. Leonard was right. His people were going to need some kind of closure. It wasn’t going to be an easy one to do, considering that he was in love with the princess. Or was it queen?
Broch wasn’t going to rest until he had all the answers to those questions. He had to know everything.
Chapter 21
Christin
Since no one was going to help her with her son, Christin knew that the only choice she had was to do it herself. She didn’t want to think of it that way, her all alone, but that was what it was. Broch wanted to keep her safe, but he didn’t stand a chance in what she was going against. Christin didn’t want anything to happen to him. If he did help her, he would get himself killed and Christin wasn’t going to have that on her conscience.
That meant that she was going to have to figure it out herself. Christin was done playing games with Phillip. For one reason or another, Christin was done bowing down to him. Maybe it was the betrayal, the set-up, taking her son, the year in prison. Whatever it was, Christin wasn’t going to let him treat her that way again. She wasn’t going to miss it either. All Christin was looking forward to was taking care of William and getting away from Phillip and his long reach, once and for all.
Christin shifted into her true form and took to the skies. She stayed high enough to keep off the radar and went to where she used to live. She knew the best way to get in and get out, because she had done it for years, flying until she couldn’t move she was so tired. It was also the only time where she could call out into the vast world all of the pain that she was feeling because of her husband. It was all to lead her to the moment where she would finally be free. She was never going to be free though, with Phillip with her son. Her family was no longer close. Everything was changed because of him and all she wanted to do was fix it.
First things first, Christin had to get William back. She was close to the house, and she started to feel her son’s presence. It was like a warm blanket being tucked over her shoulders and now the warmth was starting to seep in everywhere. He was close, safe, alive, those were all the things that she needed to know for certain.
Christin got low enough to feel the warmth a little more, before she picked up her speed and height. It would be dark soon and Christin made a plan that she would go in at night. Christin wasn’t the same soft-spoken, scared girl that she had once been, craving love from her husband. Christin hadn’t wanted anything from Phillip in a very long time and after she had spent the last year in prison, Christin was ready to lose it all, if she had anything left to bet.
She flew back toward Broch’s, but then thought against it. She had nowhere to go, even though her home was sounding pretty damn tempting. It was going to be awkward though. Her relationship with her parents had become very strained not too long after she had married Phillip. He had made it so she never saw them, and he would slight them in all ways, like kicking her father off of the board that used to run the military. Phillip took over all by himself not long after he was crowned king. He wanted to rule it all, and he did, right into the ground from what Christin had heard in prison.
With nowhere to go, Christin waited it out, thinking it all over and hatching a plan that seemed impossible. It would have been so much easier if she had been able to talk Broch into helping her. He didn’t seem to understand what was going on, and it sounded like he had his own problems to deal with. Christin didn’t want to bring it down on his head, but she wished that she could get his help. It would have made saving her son easier. Broch had done enough though. He had freed her, cleared her, and made her feel like a desirable woman again. All of those things that she never had with her husband, she now had with Broch, even if it was only temporary.
Used to poor sleeping conditions, Christin found herself a little pile of nettles and moss to sleep on and soaked in the sounds of the woods while she slept. She had horrible dreams of Phillip and his leering smile when she had been found guilty. Then, she had dreams of killing him and finally getting her revenge, only to have her son see it all and never forgive her. After several dreams played out in her head, all of them ended the same, with William far away from her. Christin would do anything to make sure that it didn’t happen.
She woke up with a start and was glad that it was finally dark out. Her plan wasn’t a plan, but more of a mission. She had to get in, find William and get out. Nothing else mattered, and the only thing that was going to keep her from what she wanted was inaction. Christin had done enough of that in her life. It was time for her to finally save herself and her son. It should have been something that she had done a long time ago.
Christin shifted back to her true form, letting her body stretch, before she took to the skies. She had a positive mindset. Everything was going to work out, she just knew it. Christin was sure for some reason or another, that life was finally going to turn around for her. Broch handled that. It was hard to have a bad outlook on everything. Christin knew that she was going to pay him back one day, even if at the moment, she had no idea how.
Chapter 22
Broch
Finding Christin’s parents wasn’t as hard as he was led to believe. Leonard had made it seem like they were going to be guarded up to high heaven, but that wasn’t the case at all. They actually didn’t have any security and lived in such a modest home, that he was sure he had the wrong address. There was no way that a former king and queen of the biggest Dragon clan in the country, lived like that.
He knocked though, because that was the address given and he hoped that maybe they would have more information. An older woman, about fifty or so, with long, silver hair answered the door. Broch knew at once that he was in the right place. The woman was Christin’s mom. It was easy to see, by the bright blue eyes, and the smile on her lips. Christin always had one as well. Broch had seen it so many times, the one that melted his heart. He was looking at an older version of the woman he was in love with. His body reacted like it was Christin and he had to pull himself together. This wasn’t how he wanted their first meeting to be.
Broch was confused about all of it, because there was no way that this woman and her husband were able to do genocide to his people. They didn’t look like they were morally capable of it, but physically as well. Where was this army that he was told they had, taking out his own people?
“Can I help you?”
“Yes, I am here to ask you some questions if you don’t mind. Is your husband around?”
The woman fretted for a moment. She asked him what he wanted to know and when Broch said he needed to talk to her husband, she said that she wasn’t sure if that was a good idea of not.
