The Queen Imperial

Chapter 45

Cold.

A room had never felt colder. Anne-Marie could barely get her thoughts together watching Aiden pace around the room like that, he was nervous and she could tell.

She held her breath as she watched him, she couldn't help but wonder what it was he was thinking about besides the fact that they had just invited one of the elders of Niyagra to speak with them. Aiden had a lot of worry about, he was scared. This was his last option, his last resort to helping Niyagra and he couldn't help but worry he wasn't going to be able to convince the elders one more time to let him.

He wasn't even sure what was going to happen the moment Elijah walked into that room with one of them, he didn't want to imagine it but he was prepared for the worst case scenario.

Where were they anyway? It was over two hours, why weren't they there yet?

Aiden turned to the clock on the wall, he let out a frustrated breath that made Anne-Marie roll her eyes again.

"You know, pacing like this isn't going to help us solve anything." She had to say it, Aiden turned to her. "If anything, you're only going to wear your legs out."

"Yeah, it's easy for you to say. Talking to the elders of
Niyagra isn't as easy as you think it is. I've tried doing that for seven years, of course I'm nervous and worried. This is our only shot, everything that happens from this moment, is dependent on what happens in this room from today."

He stopped pacing and drew a deep breath. He turned to his sweaty palms and rubbed them together, Anne-Marie exhaled.

They both turned to the door the moment they heard footsteps approaching it. Anne-Marie got up from her chair immediately so she could have a better chance at looking the moment the door opened.

Aiden puffed his cheeks with air, this was it, the moment they had both been waiting for and he had never been more nervous. The door opened and Elijah walked into the room immediately, taking a bow to Aiden the moment he did while another guard walked in with an older woman in front of him. Anne-Marie took a good look at her, with the way she dressed, anyone could tell she was one of the elders of Niyagra at a glance, the youngest of them, the one in charge of taking care of the infected.

She exchanged quick glances with Aiden,

"It was hard getting one of the others." Elijah went on to explain. "She was the only one that wasn't together with the others."

"Is this all you could amount to?" Aiden returned his gaze to the woman that raised her trembling voice at him, he could see how she tried to hide the fear in her eyes by glaring at him so fiercely. "Abduction? You came into our home and we let you, now you're just going to walk in the footsteps of your father and abduct one of us?!" She yelled at him. "Was this your plan after all? Is this your way of caring for us? You think abducting me is going to make us bow to you?"

She chuckled.

"You're mistaken. Nothing you do is going to make the elders change their minds, not even if you decide to kill me here. So if you're going to kill me, get on with it already."

Aiden sighed. She was indeed really feisty. He turned to the guards that held on tightly to her and nodded after a few seconds, encouraging them to let her go.

The woman felt her body tense and let out a relief exhale when she felt them take their hands off her. What was that? Was he really letting her go? She narrowed her gaze on him, why?

"I'm sorry for the way my guards brought you here," Aiden went on to tell her. "Sometimes, they tend to be too efficient and do all they can to get the job done. I'm sorry if you felt violated, this is not an abduction, you're not being abducted in anyway."