Hidden Princess

by M. A. Roth

  HIDDEN

  PRINCESS

  THE ELEMENTS SERIES

  BY M.A. ROTH

  Other Books by M.A.Roth

  THE ELEMENT SERIES

  Dark Queen (Novella)

  Shattered Crown (Novella)

  Hidden Princess (Book One)

  Lost Prince (Book Two)

  CHAPTER ONE

  SARAJANE

  I run blindly. My hair is whipping in my face, unshed tears cause my vision to blur. I push my body until my lungs scream for oxygen. A quick look over my shoulder confirms no one is pursuing me.

  Long thin branches whip at my dress and face, making me slow down until I come to a complete halt.

  When I stop to catch my breath, I take in my surroundings. I’m in the woods, the opposite side of town, about five minutes from the ball I was just at. The room of sparkling lights and excited chatter seems a million miles away now.

  “Shit.” How stupid could I be to run into the woods? Every horror movie ever made where the girl runs into the woods doesn’t end well. My lungs burn as I continue to catch my breath. When it settles down, I notice how quiet the forest is, the only noise is from the inhabitants of the woods. I stand still looking in all directions, woodlands surrounds me on all sides. As my breathing and heart rate begin to return to a normal state, they grow erratic again at the twig that snaps off to my right.

  My head shoots in that direction, but I can’t see anything.

  Quietly, I remove my heels and carry them. My black dress is now dragging along the ground, but I can’t do anything about it. Leaving my bag behind me on the bar counter leaves me with no cell phone to call for help. I’m not even sure if it would work out in the woods, anyway.

  I slowly move around a large tree, keeping my back to it as I try to calm my pounding heart. I curse myself again for being so stupid and entering the woodlands, but when I was grabbed from behind, I kicked and broke free and just ran. My eyes dart around the area, everything looks sinister. The trees seem to bend towards me and I know it’s my frightened mind that is conjuring this.

  A large hand clamps over my mouth and the owner of the hand soon fills my vision. I have a moment of thinking everything will be okay until I take in the serious expression on this guys face. He isn’t the man that chased me through the street, but he feels all wrong. The black leather clothing looks almost medieval. Maybe there is a festival close by, maybe he was walking in the woods? For what Sarajane? I ask myself. His hand slowly lowers from my mouth and he wears a strange expression as he searches my face. His height has him looming over me and it feels like shadows are cast everywhere.

  “Sarajane.” Josh shouts. I look away from the unusual green eyes and in the direction of Josh’s voice.

  “Sarajane!” When he shouts again and I slowly step away from the tree, the man lets me go. There is nothing making sense about this situation but I run towards Josh’s voice as he continues to call my name.

  “Josh!” I shout back when I can finally see him, he’s so familiar and I know I’m safe now.

  “What are you doing?” He asks but I throw myself into his arms. “I went outside to check on Susan and she’d left. Someone grabbed me and I ran.” Now I look over my shoulder to see if the man is near but I don’t see anyone. “Someone else is here.” I whisper now, and Josh nods, he takes out his phone and my pounding heart starts to return to some semblance of normal. Josh being here is telling my brain that everything will be okay.

  Josh lowers the phone as he stares at something over my shoulder, his fingers are there on my hand and my head snaps back. The man in the funny clothes is standing there with a sword drawn. I move back towards Josh.

  “You need to leave.” He tells Josh, his voice is deep and husky eliciting a shiver from me.

  His head flicks to the left as if he hears something. A leather bind holds his blond hair in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. What century was this guy from?

  “We need to leave.” He tells me now, his green eyes focused on me.

  “She’s not going anywhere with you.” Josh says the words that bounce around in my head.

  “I don’t have time for this.” That’s medieval guy’s final words. He moves fast, faster than should be possible. He’s past me and the warmth of Josh behind me is gone. A loud thud has me spinning around. Josh is on the ground and green eyes stands over him.

  My lungs tightened and I can’t seem to find any air. Stumbling back, my stomach twists as another man comes towards us. It’s the man who attacked me.

  Dread trickles down my spine as he approaches us calmly, while speaking, “You got her?” he says to green eyes. I hadn’t seen my attacker properly but now that they both stand before me, I notice how they wear odd clothing. My eyes flicker down to Josh. His chest rises and falls, and that is giving me some comfort.

  Green eyes sheaths his sword now. “You. Move.” The stiffness and coldness of his posture makes me realise that if I leave with these two men, there is a very good chance that I will make the six o’clock news. Anger bubbles up inside me. “No.” My bravery vanishes as green eyes comes right up to me, his cold gaze on my face.

  “If you don’t, I will carry you, princess.”

  My heart pounds in my ears and I lose my vision momently as it blurs. But when he takes a step towards me I give Josh’s body one final glance before I start walking.

  It’s almost dark and I can barely see two feet in front of me. Green eyes walks behind me, and the other one takes the lead. I don’t know where they’re taking me. Or what they want. That makes this scarier. Each time I let this situation sink in, I want to burst into tears. Or curl up into a ball and hope when I open my eyes that it’s over. Their silence isn’t helping either.

  The guy in front of me stops abruptly, causing me to smack into his back.

  He swings around, grabbing my arm to steady me. My pulse spikes at his touch and how unnaturally fast he moved.

  “Legis, what’s wrong?” Green eyes asks from behind me.

  “Sir, I need some light.” He looks back at him as he speaks while releasing my arm. The sleeveless dress isn’t doing much to fight off the cold and I shiver now.

  “I shall lead and you stay behind her.” Green eyes pauses as he walks past me. “Don’t try to run. I am in no mood to chase you.” He takes his position in front of me but doesn’t move straight away. I’m telling my heart to settle down before I pass out. My eyes flicker across the green foliage before returning to green eyes and his outstretched hands that he holds out in front of him. “Lux.” Is whispered and a light radiates in front of him. I jump back, slightly startled.

  “Let’s move,” he commands. Legis nudges me on. We start walking again. The light is guiding us and it’s not the light of a torch or a lantern, I have no idea where it is coming from. I’m trying to peer over green eye’s shoulder to see where the light is coming from, but he’s so tall I can’t see over him, so I settle on just staring at his back. I have a million questions I want to ask, but each time I think of an answer, fear grips me too tightly. So I focus on one foot in front of the other and the broad back that fills my vision. A hand is raised, the motion for us to stop. Then the light goes out. He swings around and places his hand over my mouth, startling me, while pulling me back into his chest. Legis stands as still as stone, not even blinking. We wait. I can’t see or hear anything, only the pounding of my heartbeat, that threatens to come out of my chest. I’m too close to my captor for comfort. I can feel his muscles tense in his chest, I try to shift myself to put some space between us, but he tightens his iron grip on me as he makes a hand motion to Legis to get down. Then slowly he lowers himself and me to the ground, never taking his hand off my mouth. He lies down on his side right against me and pulls my hand
s to his chest, holding them with his other hand.

  The heat radiates off his body against mine, making my back feel cold. I can now hear the shuffling in the distance. Maybe it’s Josh.

  I try to scream, but my sounds are muffled. Green eyes moves closer and whispers in my ear. “Stop or we all die, you stupid girl.” I try to scream again and pull my hands free, but I can’t get them out of his iron grasp. I bite his hand until I taste blood. He doesn’t even flinch. I know it’s hopeless as I release his flesh from my mouth.

  The movements pass us and I can now hear there’s more than one person. Tears roll down my cheeks when I realise I will not be heard or rescued. I have no idea what’s going to happen to me. Every horror movie I’ve watched is playing out in front of me. Tightening my eyes stops it and when I open them I find my captor staring at me, a muscle jumps in his tight jaw. It feels like forever that we lie like this; then he speaks. “I am taking my hand away.”

  I look up into his eyes and my stomach twists, I drop my gaze and manage a nod of my head. He removes his hand slowly, but he still holds my hands against his chest. He doesn’t say anything, just watches my face. His green eyes have softened. A blush rises in my cheeks. I can’t take much more of his closeness.

  “What are you staring at?” The stupid words tumble from my mouth and he lets me go and stands up.

  Legis moves up beside us. “Was it Clive?” he asks.

  “I think so. It sounded like there were three of them. It must have been Taurus and Felix as well.” Green eyes looks down at me. I’m still lying on the ground, my body refusing to co-operate. He reaches down and grabs my wrists roughly. I’m about to protest when he pulls me off the ground.

  My focus goes to his hand that I bit. There are no teeth marks. “I bit you. I… I tasted your blood.” I’m looking from his hand to his face while shaking my head.

  He withdraws his hand. “We need to move now.”

  “But I bit you.” He ignores me and starts walking away, my mind is reeling. I’m picturing us lying on the ground and which hand I had bit. Yeah, it was that one. I must be in a state of shock, my mind isn’t allowing me to think clearly. Nothing is making sense.

  We come to a clearing where two huge black horses are waiting. They don’t stir when we come closer, just stand still obediently.

  “I’m not getting on that horse until someone tells me where I’m going and why?” I figure it didn’t matter now if I spoke or not, but they just might answer me. They both ignore me. Instead, Legis retrieves a leather roll from behind a tree and unravels it, revealing three black cloaks.

  Legis and green eyes put theirs on and fasten them around their necks. Panic surfaces like a wave in me, these guys are lunatics, a cult or something.

  While their backs are turned, I slip off my high heels and move quietly away. My heart is racing now. My mind screams, Run! So I do. The minute my feet hit the wood’s floor, noise rises, alerting them. I run and don’t look back. I can hear green eyes calling my name as he takes chase after me. The rocks and sticks dig into my feet, but I ignore the pain and push my body harder. I can hear him behind me, his heavy boots breaking every twig under them. I glance over my shoulder just as he reaches out to grab me. I try to pull away but fall awkwardly, taking him down as well. I land beside the trunk of a large tree, slamming my side into it before falling onto the ground. The air is sucked from my lungs along with a cry of pain.

  Green eyes rolls off his back and comes over to me. “Move your hands. I need to see if you’re hurt badly.”

  I move away. “Don’t touch me.” I squeeze out as I start to gulp in air.

  “Fine. Get up then, and walk.” I stand using the tree for support. My side is burning, but it doesn’t feel as if anything is broken, just a lot of bruising.

  Legis comes rushing through the forest, a little out of breath. “You got her.”

  Green eyes nudges me on. “Move.” and reluctantly I do while holding my side. We make our way back to the clearing.

  After following Susan outside at the ball I was grabbed by Legis. He just tried to hold me but I managed to escape kicking him and running stupidly into the forest. But since both of them have grabbed me neither of them have hurt me or threatened me, and green eyes only knocked out Josh.

  Which meant, more than likely, they wouldn’t hurt me. But why take me?

  We reach the clearing again. Green eyes marches towards me and I hold still, fear keeping me rooted. My mind tried to convince me only seconds ago that they wouldn’t hurt me, yet now as I’m face to face with one of them, my mind and body are telling me something completely different. He places a black cloak around my stiff shoulders. As he ties it at my neck loosely, I watch his hands. Definitely no teeth marks.

  I don’t know why, but tears run down my face silently.

  His hands pause, and he tilts my chin up so our eyes meet.

  His gaze has softened, his brows drawn down and I’m frozen at his touch. He lets my face go abruptly, the coldness seeping back into him, and he jumps up on the horse and stretches out his arm for me to take. I could run, but he would just catch me, so I have no choice but to take his hand. He pulls me up on the horse as if I weigh nothing.

  “Hold on tight,” he commands.

  “Why?” I ask. He kicks the horse and we launch forward. I grab his waist tightly.

  “That is why,” he says.

  I don’t reply. I’m just praying I don’t fall off. We dodge trees so closely I can see the veins on the green-brownish leaves. My heart is in my mouth. I close my eyes tight. My stomach isn’t holding up well. Maybe not seeing every tree in such detail will help. We come to an abrupt stop, and I open my eyes. We’re fifty feet from a cliff.

  He speaks in a language I don’t understand. He says a few sentences gently, but his body is tense.

  The ground trembles under us and when I look down, small pebbles and branches vibrate. My hands tighten around his waist. “What’s happening?” I roar over the noise that erupts from the fire that launches itself up through a long crack that has opened up just at the cliff’s edge. It roars up into the air. He kicks the horse and charges for the wall of fire.

  CHAPTER TWO

  SARAJANE

  Legis moves up beside us. just as we hit the wall of fire, They both shout “Aeirus” in unison, while I scream and shut my eyes tightly. It’s funny that this is how I die. They say fire is the worst. I cling tighter to my captor as my ears pop as if I’m on a plane just at take-off.

  Now I can’t hear anything at all. A weightless feeling takes over and I wonder now if we have gone over the edge? It doesn’t feel like falling, and I’m still gripping my captor’s waist like it just might save me.

  I open my eyes slowly and wish I hadn’t. We’re in a large bubble, the two horses side by side. When I look down, their hooves aren’t touching the bubble, but floating. Outside, the fire rages all around us. It looks like we’re moving at an incredible speed by the way the fire licks past us so quickly.

  I start hyperventilating. Oh God, what’s keeping the fire away? What if it breaks? My breathing becomes harder.

  My captor’s voice is strained as he calls to Legis. “Can you hold it? She is panicking.”

  “Yes, sir,” Legis replies. Their voices seem far away and everything is turning dark. He swings himself around and grabs me before I fall off the horse. He places me in front of him so I’m facing him. His lips are moving, but I can’t hear anything, and then I black out.

  In my dream, faces of tormented people race through the fire, reaching out for me to save them. The smell of burnt flesh makes me gag, and I recoil. As the hands come through the bubble, reaching for me, all the flesh melts away, leaving only bones. I scream and fall off the horse into the waiting hands of the dead.

  I wake with a thud. My eyes shoot open. I’m lying against a large chest that’s covered in black leather. My captor has his arm firmly around me. His other hand holds the reins. I can feel the horse beneath me slow down.
He relaxes his grip around my waist, and I glance up at him.

  “Let me off now.” I demand and am surprised when he stops the horse immediately. I jump down, clumsily landing on sand, white sand. I look around me.

  There’s nothing but sand for miles. Oh God, I feel sick. His feet slam into the sand as he walks towards me.

  “Stay away from me,” I shout.

  I’m surprised for the second time when he stops abruptly. “I know you’re upset.” But the way he looks at me says he doesn’t care. He holds out his hands in front of him as if he’s trying to calm a wild animal.

  “Upset? Upset? Not even close. Where the hell am I? And what was that… fire?” I ask, my gaze flickering around me and coming up with nothing.

  He approaches me slowly with his hands still outstretched.

  “We need to move now.” His voice is full of irritation.

  I’m shaking my head. “Like hell I will. Answer me now. What just happened?”

  He looks at Legis who says nothing. “I will tell you where you are, but then we have to move.” I don’t answer him. He comes right up to me then, still taking caution not to get to close. “You’re in Saskia and the wall of fire is the passage to get here.”

  I don’t even know how to respond. Maybe all this is one big nightmare. I pinch myself hard on the arm and let out a little squeal. I’m not dreaming. I take some deep breaths to calm myself.

  “Okay. Okay, so I’m in Saskia… And why am I here?” I can hear the hysteria in my own voice.

  “I can’t answer that.”

  I let out a roar of frustration that he uses as an opportunity to grab me and throw me over his shoulder caveman style.

  “Let me down now.”

  He climbs up on the horse and places me in front of him. I try to wiggle out, but he restrains me with his arms. “I told you we need to move. So calm down and soon all your questions will be answered, princess.” He spits out the last word before he kicks the horse. We start to move. That’s the second time he has called me princess, as if I’m some spoilt brat.