Out in the distance the Pine castle looms, and there are men on the ground below us. Tali is making wide circles while half of the Elite land. Elliott is already on the ground and signals it’s clear for us to land as well. Tali’s feet hit the grass gracefully, but she hangs back from the line the other dragons on the ground have formed. The rest of the men drop behind us to keep us surrounded. Half dismount, half stay on. The members of the army are standing in front of the dragons. They’re the first defense. It’s amazing to see the seamless formation of the men. No words are spoken, they all know what to do.

Luke jumps down from Tali first and holds out his hand to help me. We slowly walk to the front of the line. Luke is one side of me, while Elliott flanks the other. Both of their faces are hard, and I can see why so many are afraid of Luke. He doesn’t scare me, though. He and Elliott provide me great comfort, knowing they’re on my side.

When the army parts to allow us through, the other few Elite men, who left their dragons, are with us. Luke had told me there are a few contingency plans in case something goes wrong. He didn’t provide me with any details. He only said that no matter what I’ll be taken care of. But what if something happens to him or his men? Who will take care of them? That thought has been circling in my mind since he told me there are plans.

With the sun shining brightly above, I shield my eyes to look in front of me. As we step closer, towering pine trees block out some of the rays and allow me to see better. We are officially on the border of the two kingdoms.

Standing directly in front of me is a man who makes me falter in my steps. He looks exactly like me: same dark hair and slender nose, tall and thin, but he’s in armor. It’s an evergreen color with the head of a wolf on front. He’s the exact height as me. I can’t help but stare. I notice he’s doing the same thing. His mouth is hanging open as he takes me in. This is my brother, Reid. He lunges forward, but before he reaches me, Luke shoots out his arm and hits him in the throat. Elliott swiftly moves me behind him, however I shift to peer around him to see what’s going on.

Reid stumbles back grasping his throat. Men from the other side advance as does the Azure Army. They’re standing toe-to-toe. I start to shake, unsure of what’s going to happen. I’ve lost Luke in the mix and only see a wall of men and Elliott in front of me.

“Enough!” a loud voice bellows. “Stand down. All of you.”

“We don’t take commands from you,” I hear Luke seethe. He’s still close.

“I was talking to my own men, but I suggest your men back off as well.”

“We will do no –”

“Luke,” Elliott interrupts from his place before me. Then I see him. My Prince and defender. The man who makes my stomach flutter in excitement and can knock someone down with one look. The man, who people fear, but also look up to within his own kingdom. The man who every night wraps me tight in his embrace and remains there until I wake.

Over the past two weeks we’ve grown closer. So close, I started calling him mine as he has done from the beginning with me. He turns to look at his brother and then his eyes fall on me. They soften a bit. He knows Elliott kept me safe. I take a step forward and Luke meets me in the middle, while Elliott walks around him to ensure Luke’s back isn’t left unguarded. These two move fluidly with one another.

Luke looks down at me and places a gentle kiss on my nose. “Are you ready?” he asks quietly.

I can only nod. I’m not ready. Nowhere close to it, but time waits for no one, and I need to finally meet my father. Luke’s hand protectively settles on my back as he brings me forward with him. We pass the line of the Azure Army and stop beside Elliott. There is a tall, imposing figure in front of me. He has dark red hair and a long, matching beard. He’s in armor that matches Reid’s and is wide like a linebacker.

I stop a few feet from him. Luke and Elliott are with me, and at some point, Oliver joined us along with one of the other Elite. Reid has regained his composure and is standing beside our father. They look nothing alike.

“My daughter finally comes home,” the king states with a smile, but this is not a warm, welcoming smile. No. It’s one of triumph. He must think I’m here to go with him.

My fear begins to melt away and my resolve builds. Maybe it’s all of the strong men around me. Maybe it’s the strength I’m borrowing from Luke, since he seems to have enough for ten men. I’m not sure where it comes from, but I’m going to harness it and use it to speak with my father. The man who has been absent all of my life.

I square my shoulders and raise my chin. “Your definition of home is different than mine. While the Pine Kingdom is yours, my home is with the Azures.”

His lips thin and he speaks with serious tone. “Your home is with me and your brother. Your home is with your destined husband, Oliver.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I have a choice, and I choose to stay with the Azures. I choose to be with Luke. I will not be forced into a marriage with a man I don’t know nor love.”

“You’re foolish. You don’t know what you’re giving up.”

“I’m giving nothing up, only gaining everything I’ve always wanted.”

Reid takes a hesitant step forward while still rubbing his neck. “Alison, I didn’t mean to startle you before. I’m sorry. I was surprised by how alike we look and was going to embrace you. I’ve wanted to meet you for so long. I can’t believe you’re finally standing in front of me. Please, come with us. I’d love to get to know you.”

“I can get to know you without living within your walls. We can meet and talk, but on neutral ground.”

“Whatever you’d like.”

I give him a small smile, but bring my eyes back to my father. “I want you to turn over the men of the Azure Army in exchange for Oliver.”

“Fair enough, daughter. I’m a man of my word.” He waves his hand and two men come forward with guards on either side of them. Oliver, however, doesn’t look like he knows where to go. He stands in the middle of the lines.

He turns to me with pleading eyes. “Please, Princess. Come home with me. I will care for you and make you happy. Anything your heart desires, I will provide. Please.”

My heart breaks a little for him. He was nice to me down in the dungeon on my first day here, and from what Stephanie said, he only has the best intentions where I’m concerned. However, I’m not his and will never be. My heart belongs to another.

“Oliver,” I say, stepping closer to him and placing my hand on his arm. I notice Luke and Elliott move with me. “I can’t. I’m sorry. My place is beside Luke. I know my father promised my hand to you, but he never should have. I’m a woman who has her own mind. I don’t do as I’m told. I was raised by a mother,” I look to Reid briefly, “who taught me to be an individual, to never let someone dictate my life. She made me strong and gave me confidence to believe in myself. Things that Luke and the rest of the Azures embrace about me. They don’t try to mold me into something I’m not. I can’t be who you want me to. You wouldn’t be happy with the woman I am.”

“I would,” Oliver quickly states. “I’ll love you the rest of our lives for who you are. I don’t want to change you, only to have you in my life.”

Shaking my head, I say, “I can’t go with you. I’m sorry.” His eyes close and my heart hurts a little more.

“Move aside, Sage,” my father demands. He pushes Oliver and stands directly in front of me. Oliver falters for a second, but then places himself between my father and me. Luke and Elliott have stepped forward, blocking me as well. A wall of strength.

Luke growls, “Take one more step, Pine, and I will slit your throat, just like I did to your second in command. You remember him, don’t you? The one you sent to fight me, since you were too cowardly. Yet, you cut down Leo with no problem. I don’t know whether you’re stupid or have a death wish. Either way, I’m happy to grant the wish.”

“Afraid? Of you?” My father starts laughing a big, hearty laugh. “That’s rich.”

Luke moves until he’s nose-to-nose with my father. Oliver doesn’t stray from his position in front of me. He appears to be protecting me, but I’m not completely sure. I know he wants me as his, and my father wants me to come with him. Maybe they are doing this to take me. At this point I only can trust Luke and the Azures. The Pine Army moves to stand beside their leader. Reid is swallowed up by them, pushed to the back and out of my sight.

“Enough of the games. Sage, get over here and bring my daughter with you,” my father commands.

Oliver doesn’t move. I look around and everyone appears to be ready to jump into battle. Then a loud roar punctures he sky and everyone, including me, turns toward the sound. Oliver now stands next to me to see where it came from. Tali has her head pointed high and is roaring almost piercingly. Her front legs lift from the ground. She must have sensed the tension in the air.

I look to Oliver, but before I get a word out, I’m jolted back against a hard chest of armor. The metal chills my skin through my shirt. A cold blade bites into the skin of my neck. I freeze on the spot. I can already feel something warm run down my neck, and know if I move further, the wound will be much worse.

Looking around, I see a look of pure shock on Oliver’s face. Elliott has his sword drawn along with everyone else in the Azure Army and the Elite. They must have been watching Tali along with me and my father stepped up behind me. I was vulnerable and he took advantage of it. I glance around wildly trying to locate Luke without moving my head. I don’t see him anywhere. How can he be gone when I need him most?

“Father, don’t do this,” Reid begs. He’s only a couple of feet away now. “You need to stop this. Let her go.” My father is the one who’s trying to harm me? The man who my mother told me to find and that I’d be safe with? He must have been a different man when she knew him. She never would have told me to find someone who would try to hurt me.

“Wouldn’t you love that, my son? You’re always trying to avoid conflict. You spend more time smoothing things over between people in our land than addressing the real problems.”

“To our people, their issues are real. To them they’re not insignificant like you think they are. They need my help and I’m happy to provide it. I don’t want this war. Alison said what she wanted. Let it be.”

“You’re weak. You always have been. Just like your mother. She couldn’t handle battle either and fled when it got bad.”

Reid’s face becomes as hard as the armor he wears. “Did you ever consider it wasn’t the war she was running from? Maybe it was you?”

My father’s grip on me tightens at Reid’s words. “How dare you speak to me that way!” he bellows.

“Let her go.” Oliver demands in a low and deadly voice. His sword is drawn, and he’s pointing it at us, or at my father to be more precise. The sword hovers higher than my shoulder toward my father’s head.

“You too, Sage? I should have known. Ever since you found out I had a daughter, you’ve become obsessed with finding her.”

A loud, deep voice yells, “Free her now or suffer the consequences, Pine!” Luke. He’s somewhere amidst the army, but I can’t find him.

The blade cuts deeper into my skin and I gasp in fear. A tear runs down my cheek. Elliott looks like he’s barely able to hold still, and Oliver flashes between fear and murderous rage.

“Show yourself, Azure. I know you’re out there. One slip of the wrist and she’s dead.”

“You’d kill your own blood?” Elliott asks in astonishment. I thought that was obvious, but maybe Elliott thought it was all a ruse.

“Of course. I don’t want her in the hands of my enemy to be used against me.” I’m nothing to him but a pawn in this messed up game he’s playing. A game of lives.

“You’re sick,” Elliott says.

“King Pine, it doesn’t have to be this way,” Oliver adds. “You can let her go and walk away.”

“Never,” my father hisses.

A whooshing sound reaches my ears seconds before there is a loud thump behind me. My father gasps in my ear, and I hear Luke speak low and cold, “Never try to take from me what’s mine.”

The blade at my neck slides and slices deeper. Elliott rushes forward and grasps my father’s arm to pull him away from me. The coldness at my back is gone. I fall into Elliott’s arms, blood trickling down my neck. I turn around to see Luke standing there with a bloody knife in his hand. My father is lying on his side, on the ground, with a growing pool of crimson beneath him. His chest rises once, twice, he coughs out blood and grows still. No more breaths.

My hand flies to my mouth and I look at Luke. He lowers his head and turns away from me. My father is dead. All of my father’s men reach for Luke at the same time, but the Elite are there by his side in an instant. Blades start clashing all around me. The ting of each hit rings in my ears. The Azure Army is fighting Pine’s.

I start to grow dizzy when strong arms grab me from behind, and I’m lifted in the air. I kick and scream to be let go. I’m unsure who has me and don’t want to be held captive. Luke turns at my cries. In the second he meets my eyes, he’s left himself unguarded. A blade slashes deeply across his chest and blood starts to seep through his white shirt. He pitches forward, his hand on his chest, but he keeps fighting with his other arm. It’s with less force than before.

It’s then I realize his armor is gone. Why isn’t he wearing it? I’m screaming internally and then externally. “No! Luke! No!” Where’s Reid? Why isn’t he putting a stop to this? “Reid! You have to stop the fighting!” My eyes scan the area in front of me, and I see him staring down at our father dead on the ground. Reid is immobile. His face is blank. No sadness, no hurt, nothing.

Next thing I know I’m being dragged backward, but not without a struggle. I want to get to Luke. I want to put pressure on his chest. I need him to be okay.

I ball my hands into fists and start punching the person holding me. Before I know it, I’m being held by two men and placed on a black dragon. We’re in the air in seconds. Each sweep of the wings furthers the distance I am from Luke.

“Let me go!” I yell. I don’t care who has me at this point. All that matters is returning to Luke.

“We will if you stop struggling,” Elliott says from behind me. I turn and give him a death glare. Then I look in front of me and see Oliver. It doesn’t even register to me that men of different sides have me.

“We have to go back!” I scream. “How can you leave him there? He’s hurt.” I turn to look at Elliott again. “He’s your brother and you left him! You left him and he needed you.”

“I know, Princess. Believe me, I know. But this was the plan. If he got hurt he wanted you taken away at all costs, and that’s what we’re doing. We have to ensure your safety, and right now you’re bleeding. You need to see the healer.”

“And what about his safety? Why wasn’t he wearing his armor?”

“He’s got the rest of the Elite and our army helping him. Also, Luke has a habit of shedding it during battle. He says he can’t move as well with it on.”

“Why would he do that?” Then I remember him saying how he’d rather not wear any at all. That he’s used to it, but still prefers to not have the restriction. “We have to go back!” I cry. Tears start pouring down my cheeks. I grip Oliver’s shirt in front of me and sob into him. I don’t care that I’m hurt. Luke is all that matters. “Please, we have to go back.”

His arms wrap around my back as he pulls me close, but they don’t provide the same warmth and comfort that Luke’s do. He holds me tightly as the dragon banks to the left, and we make our descent to the Azure Kingdom. Before closing my eyes, I see the field of blue flowers below where I first met my prince.