A Dance Of Crowns & Thrones | Book I

Chapter 47 | Drowning For Air

It was a whirlwind the moment they all landed back to base at Allegiant; even with it being somewhere after one, Eko found an array of soldiers that greeted them. Alongside them was the elite medic team to deal with this sensitive matter; Mya was the only recognizable face amongst the crowd, having looked like she'd woken up; her dominating voice was evident in her instructions to the team before her.

Then the bodies moved in a hurricane around her, and before she knew it, she watched the soldiers disappear on the heel of their Commander. The medical team had escorted the three bodies back to the wing to begin an autopsy, or so she thought she heard them say.

Jasmine was gripping her shoulders suddenly; where did she even come from?

Her mouth was moving, and sky-blue eyes intently watched those fainted cherry-red lips trying to tell her something. It was white noise surrounding her.

Was this shock? She hadn't felt this since she was a kid. Surely this was shock? What else could it be?

"Eko, go to bed," Jasmine's voice suddenly penetrated the silence. "Go. To. Bed!"

Blinking profusely, the petite and shivering brunette nodded, and with a concerned glance, Jasmine's purple hair swayed around her body; even if she didn't want to leave her, she didn't get a choice right now.

With a tight squeeze on her shoulder, it pulled Eko's attention to watch as Jasmine jogged off to join the rest of the soldiers heading to their Headmaster's office to debrief.

Eko didn't know how long she stood in the hangar after everyone left her, but her body was shivering, and the candy bra was extremely uncomfortable at this point. She no doubt had water pooling in the bottom of her heels from the torrential downpour, her hair was matted and in desperate need of a wash, while her subconscious was snapping at her to go to bed, to shut down from everything that just happened, and process it.

Agreeing to that thought, Eko dragged her feet, making her way back to the shared temporary accommodation rooms in which she, Madison, and a few other survivors were located. While it had been temporary, just like everything in her life at this moment was, if she went through with this lie, she could somehow manage to pull off that; the woman they brought back was the Princess. Then she would need to find something more permanent as she began her life over again.

It wasn't so bad, right? She's capable? She's resilient? There was money stashed off-world that would be enough to set both herself and Madison up. She wanted to let go of it all and take down Ezra.

So now that the opportunity was here, why the hell was she freaking out?

Stopping momentarily, her heart sank; she knew exactly why she was freaking out.

Because the next step was telling Madison -well, this was about to turn into a shit show.

Eko knew where Madison wanted them to go, off-world to Mein so they could be safe. But being on Mein meant she would have to admit she was the Princess, which meant a world of responsibilities that she would never be ready for, not when she had seen how her mother handled it all.

Madison was especially going to lose it when she realized that she has just committed to the fact that the woman they found was Seraphina. That she also had started to place certain things into motion because of it.

The decision to that commitment came first, most of all with the knowledge that she wanted to fight her enemy on the battlefield. It was more than what she could ever do for the people of Isadora and her worlds, for the justice of the atrocities that were brought on them by their enemies.

She would do more for them than possible by being chained to that throne. Let someone else deal with the politics; she'll ensure she kept everyone else safe with all the powers in her body.