A Dragon's Heart (Book Three in the APK Trilogy)

Chapter 28 | Internal Struggle

-won't have to wait long-

"-thought that you weren't going to wake up-"

-tracking you now-

"One at a time!" Circe yelled, unable to bear the noise alongside her headache any longer. The voices fell silent and when someone finally spoke, it was not the voice she had been expecting.

"Guess I hit you a little harder than I thought Princess," the cool tone said smoothly and for a moment Circe struggled to place the voice.

What had she been doing before this? She remembered leaving the Inn, there had been something Anthemin had wanted to discuss ...

Suddenly it all came rushing back to her. Seeing Nathaniel at the pier, following him down to the beach, finding Nathaniel only to be caught unawares by,

"Jhaer," Circe spat out, "what are you doing?" At least the mystery of her location had been solved. Circe now recognised the shift of the ocean beneath her and assumed that she had been put on the same boat as the one she had found Nathaniel in. "You have to know this won't end well for you," she stated.

The threat was there and Circe didn't have to speak his name for Jhaer to know exactly who she was talking about. She had half expected the other woman to be unfazed by her words but surprisingly she thought she detected a slight tremble in Jhaer's voice when she next spoke.

"Well it's not like I have a say in the matter," Jhaer uttered bitterly, "anyway, there isn't any need for you to panic, you're not going to be harmed."

"What do you mean you don't have a say," Circe said suspiciously, "are you following orders?"

"That's none of your concern," Jhaer said brusquely, "In fact, if you had just kept your nose out of this, you wouldn't even be here. I only needed Nathaniel."

"I'm sorry Circe," Nathaniel began his voice coming from directly in front of her. She conjured an image in her mind, from what she had seen of the small boat and where Nathaniel had been originally seated, they should be somewhere at the front, sitting on opposing sides. She stretched her fingers but felt only empty space behind her and had no way of telling how close she was to the side of the vessel.

As she thought this, Nathaniel was continuing, "She said that she had information about-"

"Shut up," Jhaer demanded suddenly, the weight of the boat shifting as Circe imagined her rising to her feet, "I knew it was a oversight not to gag you."

"Don't you dare!" Circe cried in outrage as Nathaniel's now muffled protests reached her ears. She attempted to throw herself in their direction but was stopped with a swift kick to her ribs that forced her breath from her lungs and laid her flat on her back against hard wood where she rolled a few times until her bound hands found the edge of the boat. She dragged herself awkwardly up into seating and swung her head in the direction she imagined Jhaer to be.

"Keep your hands off him," she said venomously, "what has he done. Who wants him? Tell me!"

Vanima? Vanima, can you hear me?

For a moment Circe struggled to separate the two conversations again.

Anthemin?

"Like I said, it's none of your concern, you might as well just enjoy the ride and be happy that I didn't just leave you passed out on the beach."

Vanima, I couldn't feel your presence, are you okay?

"Why didn't you?" Circe asked, attempting to keep Jhaer talking while she tried again to order her thoughts.