Queen of Ashes │ Season 1 │The Journey

22 │Hunting time

"Because you're even prettier when mad."

She stopped walking abruptly. "What?"

"Oh come on, don't tell me you don't consider yourself good-looking?"

"Well..." She started but somehow wasn't able to finish. Was she pretty? Did she consider herself as such? She never took a great time analyzing the subject.

Noticing her fluster, the Prince came with an answer on his own, "Let me put something straight, Princess." He was now standing in front of her with his arms crossed. "That brother of mine is one lucky bastard for having you for a bride. I believe I can freely say that for every man having a chance to look at you even for a second."

Freya blushed so much, that her ears tickled. She didn't know how on hell should she respond to that, so she came up probably with the most stupid thing, her brain could master at that moment, "Even Qadir?"

Leander rolled his eyes with visible annoyance, "That peculiar bastard can go fuck himself."

Freya chortled. Yeah, she gathered as such, already had learned their companion's dynamics.

"Let's get going," she stated, allowing the subject to drop dead.

Walking through the trees, she got a familiar sense of belonging. The forest was her home, she couldn't deny it. A soft caress of autumn leaves made her calmer than she had ever been. At that moment, she wasn't Freya—the bastard Princess, or Freya—the future Vampire Queen. She was just a woman in the forest, surrounded by her beloved nature keep whispering sweet things into her ears.

Slowing down her walk, she grabbed one branch standing in her way. Looking at the last orange leaves barely holding onto it, she wished for the summer greenery to last just a little bit longer. The fall was beautiful, but it was a bitter reminder of a pause in the chords of life. The painfully accurate metaphor for her fate. Deep inside her heart, she felt that the winter was coming, but was she destined to live until the spring?

She smiled, after all. Not now. She shouldn't think about it like that. She had to meet her spouse, her court, and learn her duties first... Maybe that new life wouldn't turn out so bad—she had hoped. Being at the last thought, she almost let go of the branch when her eyes caught the change in its structure.

The branch's leaves weren't orange anymore.

They were green.

What the heck?!

With a sudden move, she let go of the branch, making it almost hit her in the face with a brute force she put into the movement. Leander stopped at his stroll, turning toward her with one of his brows slightly cocked.

"Everything all right there?" He asked.

Freya didn't have any words in response. What should she say? Ahem, sorry mister, just playing with the life here?

But her eyes couldn't possibly muddle her, right? She was staring at the leaves, still green as fuck, without any idea, what the hell just happened. It couldn't be her, right?

Right?

Nothing seemed so sure anymore...

Sensing Leander uneasiness with her standstill, she looked at him and nodded. "Yeah... I got lost in thought, sorry."

"Okay." She could see he would like her to elaborate, but thankfully, he left it at that. "This way." He gestured.

After what seemed to be a couple of minutes of walking, they finally spotted their prey. As Leander sensed earlier, a small flock of pheasants was roaming surrounding bushes, apparently in search of some fruits and roots.

"Are you going to spoil it and join, or will you be a good boy and let the woman have some fun for herself?" Freya whispered with a smirk, already having pushed the earlier experience into the back of her head. Not the time for analyzing.

Leander responded with an even more impish smirk, "I'm good with watching a woman having fun by herself, don't worry." He sent her a charming wink. "Go ahead. It'd be a pleasure to watch."

Freya didn't need to answer. Her heartbeat told him probably everything.

Yeah, she was a real sucker for his teasing. She wished to be angry with him for constantly distracting her, even if this time that was she who provoked him, but right now it wasn't anger she felt in her core. The wetness of her undergarments was probably a good proof of that.