Fearless

"Your Highness! The King sent the Queen here!" An imperial woke me up, at four fucking AM in the morning.

"Shut up and let me sleep. It's not dawn yet." I grumbled and turned on my stomach.

"But Your Highness, it's the Queen—" the imperial didn't get to finish before I jumped up, suddenly aware of what he was saying.

"The Queen? What happened?" I exclaimed. The imperial rambled on and on about how Paedyn begged Kitt to go here instead of him.

"That stubborn girl." I growled, making the imperial shiver in fear.

"Make sure she gets here safe. Not a scrape, no injuries, or you will be getting something far worse than an injury." I ordered, making the imperial nod fearfully and scramble away.

I paced back and forth. Paedyn? Here, fighting with us? No way Kitt allowed that. There must be some reason he's doing this.

I ordered the imperials to get ready since the sun was almost up.

Everyone wore armors and had swords or bows in their hands.

The imperial from earlier rushed back to me, five other imperial behind him, and a someone who is far from being an imperial.

Paedyn. This girl is gonna be the death of me, and my undoing.

I grabbed her arm, tugging her to a private corner where no one could hear our conversation.

"Why are you here?" I said through gritted teeth.

"Kitt called me in the throne room yesterday and then he went on and on about the war telling me it was going down hill so I of course got worried and then Kitt was like 'You are my wife so you will take my place' and other things but I said no because I don't know anything about ruling let anyone rule a kingdom by myself and then—" Paedyn blushed, looking away when she realized she was rambling.

I chuckled, flicking the tip of her nose. "Alright, alright. I get it, you didn't want to be left alone ruling Ilya."

Paedyn sighed, still blushing heavily.

"You're cute when you're not trying to kill me, Darling." I smirked, making her pull her dagger out and actually point it at my neck again.

"Well then, am I not cute now?" She said, tilting her head a bit.

"I don't know, you still look adorable." My smirk didn't falter, maybe even got annoyingly wider.

She nudged my neck with the dagger, making a trickle of blood down my neck.

"Alright, don't kill me before a bandit does." I said, wrapping my hand around her wrist and putting her hand down, but of course. She's too stubborn to listen. Plagues, this girl.

She continued trying to kill me with the dagger before finally giving up when the tables turned, getting the dagger on her neck instead.

"Giving up now, are we?" I chuckled lowly.

"Just so you wait, Azer." She grudgingly said.

I let go of her, taking the dagger with me and putting it in my boots.

I walked to my soldiers and made sure everyone was ready to fight, then this girl, again.

"Hey! Let me go with you!" Paedyn said, jabbing a hand at my chest.

"Darling, you do know your husband will kill me if you die, right?" I sighed, exhausted with this feisty girl.

"Then don't let me die." She shrugged, acting naively.

"No, you're not gonna go with us."

"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"No."
"Yes." I finally said, defeated. She smirked and took my helm. This girl, I swear. . .

"Thank you so much, let us go." She said, joining my soldiers.

We departed, I made sure she mounted on my horse with me, she's safer this way.

Me and Paedyn fought against the bandits, her body moving gracefully, I don't know how it seems like that, considering we are at war.

I am a ruthless killer here, a force to be reckoned with.

We fight alongside each other, as usual, we come back to our camp with less soldiers than usual.

I don't know how the bandits seem to have more and more allies, because for all I know, Dor and Tando are enemies with them, Izram doesn't even know about this.

"Paedyn! Duck!" I screamed as I threw a dagger, not Paedyn's.

She ducked under, it missed her by an inch but got a bandit's head.

She looked at me, stunned, but I ignored her, too busy fighting.

"Azer! You're about to die!" A bandit said, lunging at me, full force with a knife.

I didn't speak, I shoved a knife through his heart. His mouth gaped open and he dropped to the floor like a fly. One of hundreds that did.

                              ~~~

"Paedyn?" My voice came out hoarse from screaming. The gash on my chest bleeds heavily, my boots battered, my throat drier than The Scorches but the adrenaline in me surged me forward.

I rushed to get to her body motionless and bleeding heavily. A pool of blood lies around her head, the gaping wound a heavy crown of disgusting red on it.

"No, Paedyn, Paedyn!" I screamed, holding her body in my arms, her once silver crowned head tainted red with sticky liquid.

Not honey.