Love Before Blood

Chapter 19

“It seems like you two are catching up,” she says,” I wish I was invited to catch up with you, as well.”

It took a lot of my strength to retort something back. “I hadn’t seen my mother in a while and I wanted to talk about some things with just the two of us.”

Queen Rosario scoffed,” I see, and you were thinking about having your precious mother move away with you to the Land of Drakes, correct?”

Curse her enhanced hearing. “I don’t see a problem with that, especially with how well the treaty is going.”

“Assuming the treaty will go well,” Rosario corrected me and with a smirk.

“What do you mean by assuming?” I asked suspiciously.

“Oh, nothing, it’s just you can’t assume the treaty will go well just because both sides are signing and the treaty has been passed. It does take a while for everyone to accept the changes provided by the treaty.”

I grit my teeth and clench my fists. “Well, it seems that I have ruined the atmosphere for your lovely reunion, so I will go first. Enjoy your time together.”

When Queen Rosario and her entourage were out of earshot, I whispered,” b***h queen.”

Mom gave me an incredulous look. “I’ll think about it a little more, okay? Now, why don’t we continue our afternoon snack?”

I reluctantly did, and the atmosphere returned. Once our reunion was over, my first thoughts were how Azriel was doing.

Azriel”s POV

Cassian and I arrived at midnight. I left Midnight at the stables. Maybe Avalon could use a little getaway while I was away. I even told my mother to give her the note if there were any signs of Avalon being bored or wanting to get away from the castle. The Mineral and Metal Clan soldiers I picked out had already set up camp in a cafe near the village.

Wards surrounded every tent with a magic barrier surrounding our tent. “Sir, we have already conducted some scouting on the village and the bandits. They have sent scouts.”

“Did you at least catch one of them?” I asked.

“Actually, sir, we caught their nightshift group, which is a lot smaller than we had expected. We’re keeping them in the center of the camp, and we knocked them out, blindfolded, and bound them. They shouldn’t make any trouble until tomorrow.”

“Good work, we’ll do interrogations in the morning,” I said. “How are all the soldiers settling in?”

“They’ve been settling in just fine, their attitudes aren’t as somber as the war.”

“Hopefully, there won’t be any casualties like the war,” Cassian interjected.

“There won’t be,” I said in determination,” That will be the goal of this mission. No more casualties, unless it is absolutely unnecessary.”

“Yes, sir,” everyone said.

The tent I am using is roughly the same size as the others. I thought it would make it a little harder for intruders to find the leader. I shared the tent with Cassian for the night, and when my head hit the pillow the only thing I dreamt about was Avalon safely in my arms.

The next morning, we woke up the scouts by roughly shaking them. Some of them struggled as they realized that they were bound. The soldiers brought them to me and forced them on their knees. “Good morning,” I said in a mocking voice, and their heads immediately turned towards me. “I hope you enjoyed being knocked out for the past twelve hours. All of you slept more soundly than a newborn babe.”

“Who are you?” one of them asked in panic.

“You don’t get to ask questions,” I said in slight annoyance. “You’re the ones scouting our camp just last night. You and your other buddies. Speaking of which, they probably don’t even know you’re missing, do they?”

The man who asked the first question started laughing and said,” You’re all idiots. Of course they would have noticed by now. And soon, they will help us kill every single one of you. All of you are going to die soon.”

“Is that so?” I asked. “With the way you’re trembling right now, I think you’re bluffing right now. So, instead of babbling your mouths about how we’re going to die soon, I would start thinking about yourselves.”

“You’re a cocky bastard,” he said, and spat towards my feet. “I would surrender once they get here if I were you. You’re way outnumbered, as far as I can tell.”

“And how would you know when you’re blindfolded?” I asked.

“I didn’t hear a lot of footsteps when you were dragging your asses back to us. Not only that, we got reports that there were only about thirty of you in this camp.”

“Not bad,” I said. “You’re quite resourceful in spying skills.”

Before he could retort, a soldier came up to us and whispered in my ear that there were bandits climbing up the cliffs towards our camp. “Hmm, a little later than I had expected. Well then, why don’t we take them and dangle them over the cliffs. Just to show what they’re risking.”

The scouts began to break out in a cold sweat. “They won’t care about us. We made a promise among our brothers that we would not be rescued if we ever got caught.”

So, they can’t be used as hostages. Though, I’ve never really liked the thought of using hostages to gain an upper hand. So I’m glad I didn’t have to actually go down that path. “Well then, if that’s the case, then set off the traps,” I said. “And make sure none of them die.”

“Yes, sir.” Cassian and the others flew off.

“Wait,” the scout said,” that sudden gust of wind. No, it couldn’t be. W-what are you?”

“I am Prince Azriel, the third prince of the Land of Drakes. And it’s high time that your brothers left this place.”

“W-we’re going against Drakes?” another scout said.

“We didn’t sign up for this!” one of them actually started to cry.

“Sign up?” I asked incredulously. “Well, I definitely learned something today.”

Below us, explosions were going off, and soldiers were flying around frantically making sure no one died from the fall. When they came back, Cassian said,” Sir, we got them running back towards the village. We should follow them and press our attack before they can regroup.”

“Very well,” Azriel said,” Prepare for aerial attacks, but only aerial attacks. We don't know for sure if the villagers are still there or kept hostage.”

“Yes, sir,” Cassian said as the soldiers gathered their weapons. I then thought about it some more. How much are they willing to spill about their group since they know they're not going to be rescued? I looked at the captured scouts and asked,” So why don’t we cut to the chase and tell me what the situation is in your village?”