Discipline (Omega Queen Series Book 1)

by W. J. May

  She flushed and looked down at her shoes.

  “Rope for the girl. Chains for the vampire. Sorry, kid,” he added, giving Asher an apologetic nod, “but you understand.”

  “I will kill you for this,” Ellanden vowed, speaking when he should very well have held his tongue. “I will hunt you down and—”

  The gag slipped in between his teeth.

  “What was that?” The man cupped a hand over his ear. “I’m sorry—I can’t hear you. At any rate, I’m afraid you’re not going to get the chance. Not after...”

  He trailed off into silence, freezing on the spot.

  The friends whirled around, to see an old man standing behind them. The kind of old man who was impossible to forget. He had long robes, a dark pointed hat, and a slate-grey beard so long he’d tucked the tip of it into his belt. A pair of ice-green eyes swept over the teenagers, twinkling a moment as they lingered on the gag, coming to rest on the men holding them captive.

  “What are you doing here?” the man in charge demanded.

  There was an edge to his voice, as if he’d suddenly lost all faith in the archers and was convinced this elderly man could do him harm.

  “I could ask you the same question,” the old man politely replied, lacing his fingers together as if the two of them were having a pleasant chat, “but I’m afraid I wouldn’t like the answer. You wouldn’t be in the process of robbing these children, would you?”

  The bandit hesitated, then scowled as menacingly as he could.

  “Listen, this place isn’t under your jurisdiction. If you wanted to—

  “I suggest you leave,” the old man interrupted. “Now.”

  Something about the way he said the last word set Evie’s teeth on edge. The bandits fell back with a collective shiver as the forest itself seemed to darken with a sudden chill.

  The man glanced towards the sky, as if it might rain.

  “Fine. We’re leaving. No need for theatrics...”

  Without another word, he and his men started speed-walking back to their horses. They were just about to mount, when the unexpected savior cleared his throat.

  “I believe you’re forgetting something.”

  The man froze, mouthing a dark curse to the forest before turning around with a sweet smile. “Right you are. My mistake.”

  He made a sudden gesture and the group of thieves immediately relinquished the friends’ weapons, laying them in a pile on the forest floor. The coins were placed on top. All except Ellanden’s, which were thrown with a bit of unnecessary force at the fae’s feet.

  “You got lucky, kid,” the man muttered. Then he and his companions leapt onto their horses and vanished into the trees.

  It took a few seconds for the friends to snap out of it.

  They kept expecting the thieves to retaliate. To hear a stampede of hooves and curses as a volley of arrows whizzed through the trees. They’d almost forgotten the old man entirely, when he picked up the coins and set them in the prince’s hand.

  “I believe you dropped these.”

  A generous assessment. A second later, the gag fell mysteriously to the forest floor.

  “...thank you.” Ellanden glanced down at it, trying not to sound as shaken as he felt. A moment later, he rubbed the corners of his mouth. “We owe you a great debt.”

  “Nonsense,” the old man replied cheerfully, as if he performed mountain rescues all the time. “Where are you kids headed?”

  “North.”

  “West.”

  “South.”

  They spoke at the same time, then bowed their heads with a blush. It was an embarrassing moment to be sure, but the old man looked nothing short of delighted.

  “That’s the correct answer,” he said emphatically. “Never tell anyone your true destination, especially if they ask. You can never be too careful on these roads.”

  ...you asked.

  Strange as the man was, the princess didn’t think he meant them any harm. She’d peg him as eccentric rather than sinister. That little incident with the weather aside.

  “So what are you?” she asked curiously. “Some kind of sorcerer?”

  He chuckled quietly. “What gave me away?”

  “The robes.”

  “The beard.”

  “The hat.”

  They spoke in unison again, then stared guiltily in opposite directions. But the sorcerer only laughed, staring at them with a nostalgic smile.

  “You’re so young,” he murmured, “so very new to this world. Sometimes, the years makes one forget...and then I see people like you.”

  Evie stared at him curiously, smiling in spite of herself.

  “What do you forget?”

  He glanced up quickly, like he was coming out a dream. A moment later, he swept back his robes and continued walking up the trail as if she’d never asked a question.

  “I’d find some shelter, if I were you.” He glanced over his shoulder with a wink. “Looks like we’re going to get a bit of rain...”

  A FLASH OF LIGHTNING split the sky and the three friends huddled closer together, staring up depressingly as the storm above them flashed and rumbled, drenching every inch of the forest.

  A bit of rain...

  The sun had been shining when he left, but just a few minutes after the sorcerer was gone the sky opened up with a torrential downpour the likes of which they’d never seen. There had been no time to find shelter. They had barely picked up their weapons before they’d found themselves racing down the muddy trail—ducking quickly under an outcropping of rocks.

  The princess shivered, and wrapped herself tighter in her cloak.

  Just a few hours ago, everything had been perfect. Just a few hours ago, she was silently congratulating herself at how the quest was going so well.

  Now look at us...

  Wet and shivering. Huddled for warmth against a pile of boulders. Waiting out a storm that had been raging for hours and showed no inclination of slowing down during the night.

  But, strangely enough, it wasn’t the storm that had them so upset.

  Ellanden hadn’t said a word since their conversation with the sorcerer. Asher had tried several times to engage him, but had finally given up in defeat. And as for the princess, no matter which way she looked she couldn’t shake the image of those silver chains.

  “We need to be better than this,” Ellanden said quietly.

  The others turned to him in surprise.

  “My father would never have taken an insult from those men. He would have beaten each one to within an inch of their life. He also would have taken their horses,” he added under his breath. Lightning flashed above them as the prince stared up at the sky. “All this time I’ve been dreaming about what it would be like to finally have a quest of my own. All this time we’ve been fighting against their restrictions, begging to be taken along, swearing that we’re ready.”

  He hesitated a moment, then finished in a quiet voice.

  “But the truth is...we’re not. We’re not ready for something like this.”

  It wasn’t like him to admit such a thing so openly, and the others had no idea what to say. In a perfect world, Evie would have written it off—said he was just shaken by the attempted robbery or feeling testy because of the rain. But the words hit hard.

  Mostly because she’d been thinking the same thing herself.

  And yet...

  “Our parents weren’t ready either,” she said quietly.

  The men turned to her at the same time. Ellanden’s brow creased with a frown.

  “What?”

  “Our parents—they weren’t ready either. Do you think my mom was ready when she fled the castle? You think she’d had some kind of special training to help her deal with rogue giants and renegade dwarves? Do you think your dad was ready to come out of exile? To bind himself to the one person in the world he’d vowed to kill and set off on some great adventure to save the world?”

  She shook her head slowly, speaking over the storm.


  “There’s no way to be ready. You just figure it out as you go.”

  With that she made her way to the very edge of the enclosure, peering out into the rain. The storm showed no sign of letting up, but they weren’t letting up either. In fact, they’d only begun.

  “I’ll take first watch.” She flipped up the hood of her cloak, keeping one hand on her bow as she stared out into the darkness. “You guys try to get some rest.”

  She didn’t see the look that passed between them. Didn’t see them staring at the back of her head, their faces awash with pride. By the time she finally turned around they were already sleeping, huddled tightly in their cloaks with two knives each clutched in their hands.

  A little smile curved up the side of her face as she turned back to the storm.

  See, we’re figuring it out already.

  Chapter 13

  The three friends woke up the next morning with significantly lighter spirits than when they’d gone to sleep. Blame it on the sunshine. Blame it on the princess’ impromptu speech. But it was with a newfound energy and sense of determination that they set off into the forest.

  After hiking for more than a week over the alpine peaks they were relieved beyond words when the mountains leveled off into smaller hills, then finally the flat countryside later that afternoon. They stopped later than usual to eat and stock up on supplies, then hurrying surreptitiously along one of the long-abandoned country roads. The flat terrain made for easier travel, but at the same time they were at far greater risk of being seen. If not by the villagers, then by someone a little closer to home.

  The boys kept their eyes on the horizon. The princess kept her eyes on the clouds.

  Don’t know what I’m worried about, she thought as the sun dipped lower and tinted the sky a burnt orange. At this point, she wouldn’t yell at me. She’d just let loose a spray of dragon fire and be done with it.

  They continued walking until the moon had risen high over the trees. At that point, Evie threatened mutiny where she stood unless they were granted a few hours of sleep. She smiled to herself as she lay her head upon a cool patch of earth, silently tallying the hours they’d been walking. Each day they travelled a little farther than the day before.

  They were learning. Adapting. Finding a rhythm.

  Still—there was no shortage of surprises along the way.

  The second morning they were in the country Asher fell asleep on watch, and they were woken up to a pack of wild dogs biting furiously at their cloaks, searching for food. A few days after that Ellanden’s brilliant navigation skills led them into a sealed canyon, and they had to double back almost an entire day’s journey just to get out. Evie made no shortage of mistakes herself, but luckily none of them were too catastrophic. In fact, most of her troubles were shockingly normal.

  “Can I buy you a drink?”

  The princess lifted her head in surprise, to see a handsome man smiling down at her.

  While the friends usually kept to the wilderness and avoided towns like the plague, it had been two weeks since they’d been anywhere near civilization and they needed to check back in and regroup. They’d rented a room at the most out of the way tavern, in the most out of the way town they could find. After nearly drowning in the world’s longest baths, they’d wandered into the bar.

  “Excuse me?”

  Her social skills were a bit rusty. Courtesy of sleeping in the grass for two weeks.

  He flashed a smile, holding her gaze. His friends were watching from a nearby table, all of them wishing they’d been chosen to approach, but this man had pulled the lucky straw.

  “Whatever you ordered, let me buy it for you.” He flashed another pearly-white smile, lifting a coin as the bartender set down a drink. “Is that some wine or...”

  The smile vanished in a heartbeat.

  “...is that blood?”

  Evie glanced in panic at the counter. Of course that’s the only drink the bartender saw fit to set down. The two whiskeys she’d ordered were still being poured.

  “Oh, well, actually—”

  “Are you a vampire?” he asked directly, staring down at her in shock.

  Only someone who’d never met a vampire would ask me that question.

  Her eyes cooled and she was about to come up with a witty reply, when a cool arm slipped around her waist. Pulling her right off the barstool and onto the floor.

  “Her boyfriend is.”

  The princess’ eyes snapped shut as Asher appeared suddenly beside her, offering the man a breathtaking smile which inadvertently gave a spectacular view of his teeth. To drive the point home he casually pulled her against his chest, resting his cheek innocently against the top of her hair.

  “Oh, I didn’t...” the man stammered and flushed, half-falling off the barstool as he hurried to put some distance between them. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know she was spoken for.”

  Spoken for?

  Evie clenched her teeth, grinding her heel into Asher’s foot for good measure.

  “Actually,” she corrected sharply, “the girl’s been taught to speak for herself.”

  The vampire bit his lip, trying hard not to smile. “Aw, don’t be like that, Pumpkin.”

  To make a bad situation worse, Ellanden chose that very moment to see what was taking the whiskey so long. He paused in surprise when he saw the little stand-off, then ventured a step closer.

  “Is everything all right?”

  If the guy was surprised to see a vampire in the middle of his backwoods bar, he about had a heart attack when he looked up and saw the fae. For a split second, it looked as though he simply couldn’t believe it. Then testosterone took over and he stared back at Asher with suspicious eyes.

  “But you’re the boyfriend?”

  The vampire nodded practically, gesturing to the oblivious prince. “We just use him occasionally to keep things interesting.”

  The princess let out a silent curse, while the fae looked at them in confusion. A few seconds later Asher was leading them back to their table, feeling highly pleased with the whole encounter.

  “And that is why we never send Evie to get the drinks.”

  Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh—that was my fault?” she said indignantly. “I was handling everything just fine before you sauntered up and started making claims about sleeping with the both of us.”

  Ellanden set down his drink. “Is that what you—”

  “It couldn’t matter less,” Asher said dismissively, reaching for his drink. “The point is that I saved the day. Just like I always do. I really don’t know what the two of you would do without me.”

  There was a brief pause.

  “I think we’d be just fine.”

  “Yeah—I’m pretty sure we’d manage.”

  The vampire pointedly ignored them, reaching again for his drink. A drink he was just starting to realize that Evie was withholding on principle.

  “Give me the blood.”

  “Apologize for your behavior.”

  His eyes narrowed slightly, appraising her across the table. “Give me the blood...or I’ll have to get it from somewhere else.”

  The wink that followed was so preposterous, she couldn’t help but laugh out loud as she slid it across the table. The vampire caught it and downed it in a single gulp—wincing ever so slightly before turning the cup upside-down.

  “It’s good that we decided to sleep indoors tonight, because there’s something we need to discuss. According to the—”

  “Do you need some more?” Ellanden asked suddenly, eyeing the empty glass.

  The vampire paused mid-sentence, taking a second to double back. “No, it’s fine. Now, according to the—”

  “We haven’t found anything but grains and vegetables for the last few days,” the fae pressed cautiously. “I can’t remember the last time you had something to drink. Now it’s a single glass and you’re done? Get yourself another. We have the coin.”

  The vampire flushed, looking h
ighly disconcerted by the whole thing.

  “It isn’t the coin. It’s just...it’s a little disgusting. I’ll fine something later before we go.” He pointedly shoved the empty glass to the opposite side of the table, eager to move on. “Now, like I was saying, according to the map—”

  “Why is it disgusting?” Evie asked curiously, unable to hold the question back.

  He didn’t like to speak of such things, but the last few weeks had torn down some of those usual barriers. Trekking alone through the middle of the wilderness, each of them had been forced to lean hard into their strengths. Whether he liked it or not, Asher’s strength was as a vampire.

  A few nights ago he’d woken them up from a dead sleep, convinced he’d heard a group of people approaching. When they’d clambered into a tree to see what was happening, they’d realized the people he’d spoken of were actually several miles away. Their final night in the forest, he’d been overcome with hunger and volunteered to carry back the rabbit Ellanden had shot for dinner. When the other two glanced over their shoulders, he’d been draining the creature dry.

  He paused before answering, feeling two eager stares upon his face.

  “It’s cold,” he admitted quietly. “Blood tastes different when it’s cold.”

  The other two absorbed this in shock, having never thought of it before.

  “But I’ve given you cold blood all the time,” Ellanden said suddenly. “When we go off on hunting trips, I usually pack something from the butcher—”

  “—and I drink it. And it’s fine.” Asher shifted restlessly in his chair. “Can we move on? Or are there any more delightful questions you’d like to ask me?”

  It was silent for a few seconds, then he quickly changed the subject.

  “According to the map, we’re only half a day’s journey from the mine. Now, we can stock up on supplies here or somewhere else. But I don’t think we should do it all in one place—”

  “So it’s true,” a loud voice interrupted them. “You’re really a vampire.”

  The three friends lifted their heads to see a dozen men standing before their table. Hovering in the back, looking highly embarrassed, was the man who’d offered to buy Evie a drink. Judging by their aggressive stance, they were looking for a fight. And, judging by the pile of empty glasses sitting on their table, they were wasted. Not a good combination. Especially because Asher was a vampire.