Marked By The Unseelie

Chapter 37 Catch That Princess

Chapter 37 

"Your Highness, I'm honored to be at your presence." Efeiza lowers herself on the ground as a sign of respect for Klovis. "However, I regret to say that we have to keep moving. Grignel and the others will be here soon." She urges while wrapping the mirror securely around her back.

"Grignel?" Klovis raises a brow. He's still in a sitting position on the floor. "Am I missing something?" He turns to me for advice.

"I think we all know that you missed out on a lot of things." I try to joke, but getting reminded about the situation and where we are right now doesn't sit right with me. "Efeiza is right. We should leave as soon as possible. Can you walk?" Klovis has been sitting on the floor for a while now, with Jade lying on his lap. We can tell that he's still weak, as he is still recovering.

"Don't worry. I manage to restore some of my strength just now. Getting to...feel my surroundings and breathing outside air is helping me recover." Klovis tries to make a point by standing up, but his legs suddenly wobbles. He would have fallen if Jade had not grown just in the right size in order to catch and assist him. "Well that was embarrassing." Klovis chortles and pets Jade's head. "Thanks, Rengar. I guess I might have to rely on you for walking."

Rengar? Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting that it's Jade's name. Whatever. I'll still call him Jade.

The four of us start to head out, with Efeiza taking the lead, me at the middle, and Klovis and Jade at the rear. We're in a hurry this time since more guards are patrolling. They must have seen the bodies that Efeiza killed while we were trying to get to the treasury.

I start to hear footsteps. I look to Efeiza and await her instructions on what we're supposed to do. She turns back and gestures for us to head off in another direction. With Klovis being unable to walk by himself and needing the assistance of Jade, it did not take long before we encountered a few seelie guards rounding the area while we were turning around a corner.

"Stop right there!"

I don't even know why the pursuers would bother to tell us to stop when it would clearly put our lives in jeopardy. Honestly, it's just a waste of their breath, and they're basically announcing their purpose.

"Get on Jade, your highness. I will distract them!" She brings out her blades after ordering us to leave. "Livia, you as well."

Klovis grabs my hand when I start to hesitate about leaving Efeiza. "Come on. Efeiza is one of my shadows. She does her job better when she's alone." Klovis isn't the type of person to lie about the lives of his subjects, so I decided to follow him. He gets me on Jade first before climbing to sit behind me.

"Rengar, or Jade." He snorts at the name that I have given to his emerald beast. "Let's go."
Jade moves and seems to grow larger while he runs. He starts to leap, and he runs right over the soldiers who were standing in our way. He passes through them as if they weighed nothing more than paper. I have never seen Jade this aggressive since I first met him in the library. He acts so ferociously that I fear that I might fall from his back if Klovis wasn't behind me.

Jade finally makes it to the ground floor and disappears into the garden, following the same route we always take when we want to visit the Unseelie Palace without going into town. His movements are so fast that it feels like I am riding a roller coaster without any seatbelts.

"The crown princess is heading to the garden!"

"The Unseelie Prince took her!"

Someone announces. I can feel Klovis stiffening behind me. I craned my neck to see him have a ghostly smile on his lips.

"Crown princess? Since when!?" I hear him question me with a hint of amusement in his manner of speaking, as if he's mocking me.

"That's what I would like to know!" Wasn't it just this morning when Zhier proposed to me? Now, I'm a fuc—sorry—a ducking princess?! Zhier's delusional mind is going to a whole new level. "Come now, princess. No need to gatekeep your title. Don't you trust you captor?"

"Klovis, I have no idea where you find the time to tease me when we have a bigger prob—" And then the worst thing just happened. While Klovis and I were talking, an arrow suddenly flew towards us, hitting Jade's belly while he leapt to jump the gate that's separating us from freedom.

Klovis grabs me and jumps off of Jade's back before the emerald beast falls to the ground near us. After making sure that I'm safe, he then goes to check on the wound on Jade's belly. He pulls out the arrow before pressing his hands on the wound to heal him.

"Rengar, stay with me." Sweat starts to form on Klovis's forehead while he uses his magic to save his friend.

Is it alright for him to use his magic even though he just got out of the mirror?

I did not have the time to worry enough for him because the guards soon started to surround us, pointing their weapons towards Klovis. I try to stand to get to them, but I am pulled back by one of the fairies roughly by the arm.

"Livia!" As soon as Klovis finishes healing Jade, he quickly turns to try and grab me, but a sword is immediately pointed at his neck. Jade gets back to his feet slowly and comes to his master's side as he surveys the situation. His tail moves protectively around his master.

"Don't move, Unseelie Prince!" The fairy keeping me captive has me in a chokehold while he addresses Klovis. He tenses up and holds me even tighter when he notices Klovis trying to advance forward.

Klovis raises a brow. "Are you sure you want to treat the crown princess that way?"

Bloody hell, this guy. How does he find the time to joke around in a serious situation? It seems like his personality doesn't differ that much from when we are in the dream.

Still, his words seem to make the soldier hesitate and loosen his hold on me. Maybe that was Klovis's purpose? I should use this opportunity to get myself free.

I bite down on the fairy's arm and use my elbow to push him back. I try to run to Klovis to his outstretch hand, but the fairy recovers quickly and hits me across the face. I got thrown back, but I am quickly steadied by another prince in the palace. As soon as I get my bearings, I look down when I notice something rolling by my feet.

It's the head of the fairy who had hit me.

"I told you to bring her to me safely, but it seems that my words mean very little to everyone here. I hope that this is the last time that anyone will ever disappoint me." Zhier's voice rings, scaring the fairies around us and making them lower their heads tensely. His left arm is keeping me pressing against him while his right holds a curving sword dripping with purple blood.

I don't know what's more frightening to me at the moment—the fact that there's a severed head next to my feet or the fact that I am in the arms of the fake Seelie Prince.

*~*~*~END OF CHAPTER~*~*~*~*