“Stay here.” Her father reaches for the handle, but it wrenches open before he can grasp it.
“Briny God!” She swears.
Framed in the summer night is a fair-haired woman with tight-fitting leather armor. The snowflake of Skalor burned on her chest.
“Good evening, Your Highnesses.” Isabel Kilton jabs a giant needle into her father’s hand, administering a blue liquid into his veins.
Aura slams her fist into the side of Isabel’s face, too little and too late.
“There’s that fire, Princess!” Isabel rips out the syringe and tosses it aside.
Immediately, Sigvid’s shoulders slump, and he falls forward, forcing Aura to catch him.
Azure.
Azure Blooms are blue flowers grown uniquely in Salt. Bottled into a potion, they become a potent sedation that can knock out a raging berserker. Thanks to Sigvid, the continent learned two decades ago that they could be used on a non-berserker without killing them.
His dead weight forces Aura to the floor of the carriage.
She slips out to find a battalion of soldiers. Some have the three-mountain crest of the Pike Hold of Skalor, and others have the snowflake representing the Skalor Royal Family.
Aura seizes her father’s discarded axe from his hand. He watches her intently, even with his body paralyzed.
“Sigvid is more predictable than we could have hoped.” Isabel sneers.
“How are you out of jail?” Aura demands.
Isabel paces along the inner ring of the circle of warriors. “Good question, but not the one I will answer now. You see, your dalliance with the Iss Drengr.” She pauses to tilt her head in mock adoration. "Awe, don’t look at me like that. Neither of you were subtle.” Isabel winks as she strides toward the open door of the carriage.
Aura leaps in front of her, blocking the sight of her father. “You will not touch him!” She growls.
“I have no desire to touch the man who felled my father.” Isabel waves her hand dismissively. “I just want him to clearly hear how we bested him.”
Three warriors grasp Aura, tugging her away from her father and the carriage. She shouts and struggles to no avail.
Isabel kneels so she is at eye level with Sigvid. “Calder acted exactly as instructed. He seduced the Princess of Treland…”
Her struggle ceases.
Calder would never cross her family. Regardless, the hot knife of betrayal stabs in her heart as she realizes his words in the garden were truthful.
He never wanted her.
She was always a means to an end.
“...destroyed Guy and his troops, and then, Your Majesty, in your enraged state, brought her to us.” She taps him on the nose.
“Fuck you, cunt!” He bellows. “I will fucking kill you! I have been waiting for an excuse to hunt down your entire fucking family!”
She slaps him across the face. “Sleep with the stone, Your Highness.”
Sigvid loses consciousness as the Azure finally seeps into his bloodstream. Aura cries out, struggling against the soldiers. Another set of hands restrains her until she is immobile.
Isabel focuses her attention on a horse riding up the road. When the man jumps to the ground, Aura recognizes him as the Jarl she met outside the jail.
“Has he succumbed to the Azure?” He pulls Isabel in for a long, passionate kiss, weaving his hands through her locks.
“You planned this from the beginning!” Aura shrieks.
