All Alina could see was blackness.

She felt the edge of the knife at her throat, and knew that Kat had fallen silent meaning that her friend’s blindfold had been removed.

“Gods would you look at her eyes? Theys ain’t right. Like an animal’s,” Patrick exclaimed mockingly.

“If we needed any proof that she was the House Witch’s daughter I suppose we have it,” Dexter grumbled from the back of the cart.

“I never noticed because of the fire always being lit, but I can see now it isn’t just her mind that’s unnatural.” Roscoe’s voice sounded from the driver’s seat.

Alina could feel the jostle of the cart beneath her, and feel the cool night breeze brushing her cheeks and tousling her hair.

She felt her insides clenching over and over…

She was scared.

She was tired.

Her wrists and ankles were bruised and bleeding.

Her best friend had been hurt multiple times protecting her– though admittedly she seemed to be enjoying the freedom of speaking whatever crossed her mind a little too much…

Alina let out a soft breath through her nose.

She wondered what her mother would have done. Ainsley Reyes.

Probably negotiated a release with the captors calmly… but Alina didn’t want to negotiate with them. She wanted to kick their shins and sensitive manly bits until both were all crumpled on the ground.

She wanted them apologizing and groveling at not only her own feet, but Reese’s, Katarina’s… Lorelai and her daughter’s feet…

Then she wanted them to be tossed in a cell for decades until they were withered old men.

Imagining herself sentencing them in such a way seemed almost like a dream from the perspective of another woman…

Alina imagined her dress… green and gold… could feel her crown on her head, and… could feel Brendan’s silent strength behind her. Supporting her, protecting her…

She missed him. Missed his strength, his reliability, his controlled reasoning… the way his eyes brightened when he saw her. How she knew every slight shift of his face, and knew what he was feeling. It had become comforting in a way that she didn’t realize until she was scared and alone.

Then, her mind turned to her father, and somehow… thinking of him slumped in his throne… surrounded by nothing but dust and silence… thinking of his wife and children how they used to all convene and happily read or talk during better days.

Alina could feel her throat begin to ache.

She wanted to go home. She missed her mom. She missed her father, and she missed her brother, and she wanted everything about her present to be an absolutely terrible dream.

These men… these horrid men… for the sake of coin and pride hurt people. If she hadn’t been a Princess, or Kat a Lady, they would’ve done worse, and that alone made Alina’s stomach roil.

A strange unfamiliar feeling began to spread through Alina’s chest, one that she hadn’t felt so potently ever before.

She knew she’d been angry before, but she had never felt… enraged. Despite her hands being tightly bound behind her, Alina felt them curl into fists. Her nails digging into her palms…

The cart rolled over quiet grass for the rest of the night, and she could make out the faint light of day from the seams of her blind fold.

“We’re here. No one makes a sound or the Princess is laid to rest in those trees over there,” Roscoe ordered them before snatching the blindfold from Alina’s face so that she was faced with the trees her captor spoke of.

Hadn’t they just left a forest? What forest were they in front of then?

It took two of the men to haul Reese off the cart in his battered state, and so for a brief moment it was only Alina and Katarina seated on the cart while Patrick sat on the end.

“Kat, you can get away can’t you?” Alina asked quietly. She was taking an educated guess after seeing her friend’s handling of a bow and arrow, and hoped she wasn’t wrong.

Slowly, Kat nodded, eyeing her friend suspiciously, the gag still firmly placed in her mouth.

“You heard Dexter. They know now I’m the Princess, and aren’t taking risks. They’re threatening me, but odds are they won’t risk their necks over it. Get out of here, and get help. Unless you’ve been bluffing this whole time, in which case I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you, you are the most annoying creature to walk the face of the earth, and I’d like you to sweat away from me from now on.”

Kat’s eyebrow quirked upwards indicating she found Alina’s words humorous before her eyes darted to the men who were still struggling to get Reese to stand on his own.

“Reese and I will be fine, Kat. I know you want to protect me, but we can’t do this forever. Just get help. Please. I don’t want to wait for the cavalry. We just need to go ho-”

Alina’s words were cut short as Dexter strode over to the end of the cart and gestured them towards himself. “Move along. We have to walk through the woods and I don’t want any funny business.”

Alina sighed, then began scooting herself awkwardly closer to her captors. When she reached the end of the cart, she glanced back at Katarina expecting to see the same mirth and grating calm confidence that she had plagued everyone with for days.

Instead, Alina caught a look of hesitancy… of fear… she saw the trickle of sweat down Kat’s face and frowned. Yet when Kat lifted her face and they locked eyes, her gaze morphed from uncertain, to tentative resolve.

Slowly, Kat nodded to her friend before Alina turned her head in time for Dexter to gently clasp her bound wrists and shoulder to set her on the ground.

“We’re going to cut the ties from your ankles so that you can walk through those trees, but I am tying the three of you on a line together, so don’t even think of trying to run,” Roscoe informed them while eyeing Kat in particular who was shifting forward slowly on the cart.

The large man frowned suddenly as he watched the redhead shift closer to him.

Was it because he had driven the cart all night that he thought she looked to be glowing… orange and gold?

Blinking and shaking his head, he waited for the redhead’s feet to dangle over the edge of the cart before he began cutting the rope from her ankles. He made sure to keep a firm grip around her slim calves to stop her from trying to kick him in the face. An idea she had definitely thought of at least five times.

Alina meanwhile was already being tied onto the line connecting her to Reese.

The rope fell away from Kat’s ankles onto the grass, and slowly, Roscoe raised his face to stare at the golden eyes that had taunted him for days.

Only… those golden eyes weren’t just gleaming like they had the previous night…

They were shining like two brilliants suns, and the strange aura he had thought he had seen before, was now undeniable, flickering around her like flames.

Startled, Roscoe took a step back as Kat spit the gag out of her mouth.

“I’d like to say sorry, but I’m not a liar.”

Then, before Roscoe could seize her again, Kat’s boot shot upwards and collided with his groin.

As he doubled down, she headbutted him, and that was it. She took off at a sprint, her long legs easily carrying her across the green grass leaving behind her companions, despite her hands still being bound.

“GODSDAMNIT! GET HER BACK HERE!” Roscoe roared from the ground, forcing Patrick to scurry after the redhead and abandoning the bard who slowly collapsed back onto his knees.

“Unhitch the horse and get after her! Send Patrick back here to help me with these two!” Dexter ordered Roscoe before grabbing Alina by the back of her shirt and holding her firmly. “She can’t go far, she hasn’t slept for days and has barely eaten.”

“Did that wench look human to you just now?! Who knows what magic she is capable of!” Roscoe shouted while finally managing to stand again and limp to the front of the cart where he hastily unhitched the horse and mounted it bareback, only for his bruised balls to protest painfully, making him double over yet again.

“Oh for the love of the Gods, get down, I’ll go after her myself!” Dexter snapped catching the horse’s reins as Roscoe slid meekly from the steed.

Quickly, Dexter mounted the horse and took off after Katarina who had already grown significantly smaller in the distance. Patrick had failed to even come near her…

Alina watched, her heart racing as she hoped with all her might that her friend would make it.

“If your friend doesn’t get back here, we are moving you to a different location. She won’t be able to find you.” Roscoe’s breath tickled Alina’s ear and made her stomach burn with her anger.

“I should be your favorite person in the world right now for giving you some peace and quiet, and that’s how you thank me? Gods. My father always did say citizens could, at times, be ungrateful.”

Alina turned her chin slightly over her shoulder, her hazel eyes sharp when they met with Roscoe’s, and she took pride in seeing him flinch.

“You realize you will most likely not survive the consequences of this.” Alina’s heart beat fiercely to the point that it felt as though every pulse rattled her ribs, but her voice was calm and steady.

“Which is why plans have changed,” Roscoe informed her gruffly.

Alina raised an eyebrow. “Change your plans all you like, this will not end well for you.”

This time the brute didn’t respond, and instead he pulled on the rope linking her to Reese, and tightened the knot around her wrist until it bit deeper into her skin.

Roscoe glanced at her briefly as he worked. “I guess that remains to be seen.”

Alina snorted, and smiled coldly at him.

“Roscoe, I want you to remember this moment when you are brought to your knees in front of me. If at that time you open your mouth to plead for your life? You should know that I don’t change my plans once I’ve made them.”

***

Fin stood with Norman and the Troivackian King on the castle steps leading up to the front doors while receiving the latest report from Captain Taylor, when Mr. Howard exploded out of the doors, tripping over his feet as he ran with a small piece of paper clutched in his hands.

“LADY KATARINA ESCAPED! SHE SENT A MISSIVE!” The assistant stumbled to a halt before the three men, brandishing the note to Norman who immediately snatched the paper from him.

His hazel eyes swept over the page swiftly before immediately thrusting it towards Fin.

After he too read the note at record speed, he faced Brendan. “Kat escaped and ran until she reached a village where some of our Knights have been posted. They sent a bird as soon as she reached them.”

“Where is the Princess?” Brendan demanded stepping closer, his dark eyes intense.

“The village Kat made it to is between Austice and Xava. She ran straight through the woods, so my guess is there is a cottage, or hut the Princess and the Bard are being kept in on the outskirts of Xava,” Fin explained while Norman was already moving down the steps with Mr. Howard at his side.

The monarch was already commanding that orders be sent to the Knights residing in Xava, and to any of the local Coven members who might be able to hasten the investigation. He then ordered horses be prepared for himself and Finlay.

The redhead was beginning to descend the steps with Brendan at his side, but something was peculiar in the witch’s eyes. There was a strange milky light slowly filling them…

“Viscount, is that all the missive said?” Brendan asked, a little louder than he normally would as the chaos of the men around him grew louder.

The House Witch turned to face him, his blue eyes nearly gone behind the strange glowing white light.

“They said… that there were signs that Kat had been abused, and…” Fin trailed off for a brief moment, as everyone around him slowly began to notice the strange magic filling his eyes.

Brendan’s stomach churned at the thought of anyone laying a hand on Alina, and immediately felt dark violent urges like he had never known before.

“My daughter… is… right now… terrified.”

That was all the Viscount managed to say before he fell to his knees.

He did not fully collapse, however, as the light in his eyes shone brighter, and Norman stepped forward, his expression grave.

“What is happening?” Brendan asked while instinctively reaching for his sword.

Norman placed a hand on his forearm stopping him, his face grim. “Fin can see images and sometimes hear sounds of his children or wife when they are extremely afraid, or in pain, or in danger… Katarina has been none of those things, until now.”

After another moment, the strange light faded from the Viscount’s eyes, and as he momentarily swayed, Brendan stepped forward to catch the man’s shoulders, only a small gloved hand appeared on the Viscount’s shoulders before his could.

Brendan’s eyes snapped up in time to see Viscountess Annika Ashowan standing before him.

Fin was slowly pushing himself to his feet, his face pale, but when he spoke, his voice was hoarse with ire.“Kat isn’t scared for herself, she’s terrified that she had to leave Alina, but Gods… I saw her face Annika. They hit our girl multiple times… they hurt our girl.”

The Viscountess’ face was drawn and weary, and she wore britches instead of a dress, but her eyes…

Oh… her eyes.

They thirsted for blood, and when her gaze locked with Brendan, in a single moment the two understood each other completely.

They would see justice dealt, and it would be carried out the Troivackian way.