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His eyes roamed her features “And do you want dom?”

Sheour people”

“Do you want rounded

No “I am not sure,” she admitted softly

Lord Augustus stiffened and then stepped away He made as if to speak, then with a stiff bow, he flashed away, using his chakra to speed his ered, not even the scent of oak moss that had twined itself around him like a cloak

With a sigh, she flashed to the high balcony overlooking the grand ballroom of Castle Windhaven Hundreds of lords and ladies danced below, and the life and laughter of the people in the ball pulsed through her Men and wo fruits and drinking mulled wine

She could feel the varied e in the air: a sharp bite of lust, amusement, pity, and even sorrow, but the most prevalent was joy It was not only her mother’s ability to sense people emotions Saieke had inherited, but also the power to control water and wind She was teoblets and dump it

over their heads, and then used her wind to freeze them in their false hope If they only kne soon their co Ajali would travel to Boreas to lay siege to her unwilling heart and to their kingdom’s way of life

Duty, my child…It must always be duty before self

The ords of her grandmother filled Saieke’s heart Her parents would not understand her resolve to neverAjali They would expect her to be above all else dutiful And the cruel irony was that Saieke would resist all of his advancements because of the love and duty she felt to her people She could not allow such known cruelty into their kingdorandmother had placed her own needs before the people of Boreas and hundreds had died

Saieke would never make the same mistake

It see Ajali The only other option was to flee, and she did not want to conte such an action No, she would find another way to save her people She had twelve weeks before he would arrive on her castle steps, and she would continue to scour the great archives for a solution She leaned into the balcony railing, at a loss at finding a way to make her parents see reason

Saieke did not consider Boreas weak as her father, the Ricarkri—ruler and king of their realth, will, and beauty of Boreas Their kingdodoms, a position her father believed made them vulnerable to attacks fro factions, and they had paid dearly with lost lives and broken spirits With rued in fire with the power to withstand enemy attacks

An Allegiance

Allegiances could only be forht for power—to subjugate and conquer kingdoiance existed within Aht of rule from their bloodline and hand it to another It was unthinkable Yet her king had ht to rule from the El Shyokara bloodline, and wanted to hand it to a do the second Great War and had left death and despair in his wake A

With a soft growl, she flashed froh the massive corridors of the castle She needed to feel the wind on her face, feel the power of her Kuns—powerful four legged beasts—beneath her as she rode across the rolling lawns of Windhaven

She stopped, overlooking one of the cliffs at Windhaven The castle was located in the inner most part of Boreas, e id air, and heavy waterfalls roared as they crashed off thethe breeze and fine mist of the waterfall flow into her

The leaves on the ground rustled She spied her closest friend Raikae, a hus who had accidentally crossed through the portal gate and had rearie

“You failed with the Grand Duke,” she said, not wasting time with niceties

“I did”

Raikae laughed, and Saieke could not help s