My eyes fluttered open and I was momentarily blinded by the blaring sun. Squeezing my eyes shut, I realized much too soon the situation I was in. I had been kidnapped by two men and there was a huge chance that I would lose my virtue and die pathetically. The back of my eyes burned as my body trembled in fear. There was bumping and constant moving all around me and it took me a second to realize that I was stuck inside of a wagon.

    Sitting upright, I noticed that I was bound by the hands and ankles, a loose cloth hanging around my neck—most likely the one that was used to bind my mouth before someone had loosened it. I glanced around me and instantly paled when I took not of the dozen or so men around the wagon-carriage. Dirty men that reminded me of bandits and some normal looking men with weapons, were walking casually as a horse pulled the carriage I was in.

    One of the men, a man with a row of yellowed teeth and deep brown eyes, nudged one of his comrades and jerked a thumb at me. "Look here, the Dragon's whore is awake."

    Instantly, a couple of the men glanced over at me, a few snickering while others looked mildly interested. A few were even shooting me lecherous looks.

    "She's as pretty as they say she is," another man said as he walked next to the carriage. He had a giant scar riddled across the side of his face, running through his mouth and twisting the side of his face. He leaned forward and grabbed my chin with rough hands, his dark eyes glowing with malice. He turned my face and grinned widely. "A beauty worth remembering, is what they said, didn't they? No wonder that damned Dragon chose her."

    My eyes were wide and my mouth was too dry to speak, my entire existence rattled to the bone at these dangerous men around me.

    "Feisty too, look here," the man said as he let go of my face. He pulled Meilin's dagger out from his belt and held it up, the black of the blade glimmering beautifully in the light. He tilted the blade and the others stared at it in awe. It was such a beautiful and dangerous looking dagger. "She was flailing this thing around trying to cut me last night. It's a beauty, isn't it? It'll catch a high price."

    I paled. That was Meilin's prized dagger, the one that was important to him. Even though I had gotten kidnapped, wouldn't it have been better if his dagger wasn't involved in this mess? I couldn't help but feel bad for not taking care of his cherished weapon.

    "Pretty little thing, Akio, but do you think that's the Dragon's dagger?" one of the men asked. "Doesn't he carry around a black blade?"

    The man that had been touching me, Akio, inspected the dagger before shrugging. "Doesn't matter, I'll be keeping it. If it is the Dragon's dagger," he grinned widely, his teeth bared, "then that's even better, considering I'm planning on taking everything he holds dear." He twisted around to look at me, his eyes glowing with malicious intent as he reached forward and grabbed my hair, tugging at it and smiling wider when I yelped in pain. "Including the Dragon's little whore."

    He held my long hair in his hand and pulled me until I was leaning against the carriage, almost about to topple off of it if he yanked me any harder. He brought his face close to mine and a smile twisted his already scarred face. "You see this scar here, little miss?" He let go of me and ran a finger down his scar. "The damned Dragon gave it to me at the Battle of Blood, the last battle during the war. He didn't even look at me as he did it, calmly shoving me aside for dead and moving onto the next soldier. He's a monster."

    I swallowed. The Battle of Blood was the last battle of the war and it was said that Meilin, along with his generals and commanders, took down the army mercilessly and it wasn't until the second time the enemy surrendered that Meilin accepted their defeat and marched forward to claim the throne.

    "Can you believe it? My father and his father before him had served in the military for decades, and naturally I did too. I spent two decades in the military, serving and doing the Emperor good, but then that damn Dragon comes in and takes everything away from me. My position was taken away from me and I was kicked to the side like nothing."

    It was true that Meilin had relieved many men of their duties once the war was over. He didn't want soldiers that he had once defeated. Most likely those soldiers weren't going to be on his side, so he disposed of them and set up his own soldiers with their rankings. It was a move that any usurper would do, but it obviously left many bitter people behind.

    "But that doesn't matter, since we're going to kill him and drag him off that throne," Akio continued. "We'll go to the north and kill him."

    "To the North?" I whispered, my eyes widening as I realized that they were part of the rebelling group of people in the Northern regions that wanted Meilin off the throne.

    Akio grinned. "So the whore can talk, huh?"

    "Such a sweet sounding voice," another man said with a chuckle as he came to walk near me. "Talk again, woman."

    I silenced myself and visibly shook, unable to hide my fear. What would these men do to me? I knew they would rape me, but would they also disfigure me and exact their revenge on Meilin that way? Would they kill me? Would they torture me?

    The only small kindle of hope I kept was that these group of men would bump into Meilin's men in the North and that I would be rescued, but that idea sounded hopeless and futile, since it was too farfetched. There was no way that I would be saved.

    "When will we be able to have the woman?" another man said, glancing over at Akio. "I'm itching to have the Dragon's whore. Imagine what she'll be like."

    Akio smiled at me suggestively, his grin getting wider when he saw the fear playing on my face. "Maybe when—"

    "That's enough," a tall, light haired young man said. His skin was a deep tan color and he had light brown hair, both those features instantly targeting him out as a foreigner. His eyes were a deep shade of green and he was glaring down at Akio with venomous eyes. Although he looked at least five years younger than me, and a good twenty years younger than everyone else, he seemed to have the most dangerous aura about him. "We don't have time to waste on her like this."

    Akio glowered at the young foreigner. "Shut up, Atreus."

    He was foreign and he had an accent, one that I couldn't pinpoint the origin of. I hadn't seen many foreigners before, but his deep skin tone told me he was either from Arile, the kingdom of gold and sand, or Sanguis, the kingdom of blood and violence. Those were the only two places that typically had golden skinned to tan people.

    However, as much as I wanted to marvel about the foreigner, I couldn't, considering he was a part of the party that had kidnapped me.

    "You're not the leader of our group," Akio sneered, waving Meilin's dagger around. "You have no right to order me around."

    "You're right, I don't," the foreigner, Atreus, said with a shrug. His eyes were glimmering with distaste and he was looking down at Akio in a domineering way. He took a step forward and placed a hand on the hilt of his sword. "But the both of us knows who'll win in a sword fight."

    Akio's face reddened with anger but he strapped the dagger back on his belt and turned away. "You just want the whore to yourself, don't you?"

    "So what if I do?" Atreus said. "She's pretty and it'll be interesting to have a taste of what the Dragon has, but we don't have time for that. We have to go the North as quick as possible, and coddling between the whore's thighs is just wasting time."

    The men muttered something under their breath but continued forward anyway, leaving me alone for a while and focusing on hurrying. Although Atreus saved me from Akio this time, it was only because they were short on time. Like he had said, I was positive that he would take me when he wanted to. After all, these ruffians were together in the revolts and they would most likely all ravage me once they were safe. The thought brought a chill to my bones.

    It wasn't until night fell that I began to feel the most discomfort. I was starving, I had to relieve myself, and my entire body was stiff from being in the same position for a long amount of time. My scalp hurt from Akio pulling at my hair earlier, and my bound hands were starting to ache as well.

    "We'll rest here," the man with yellowed teeth announced as they stopped in the woods. Slowly but surely, everyone started settling for camp.    

    I was left mostly alone as the men set a fire and started conversing with each other. I could feel some of the men's' eyes on me but I quickly ignored them, engulfing myself in my own dark thoughts. Escaping completely unscathed was out of the question, and I doubted I would be able to escape in the first place. I didn't know how to fight, I couldn't run far, and I wasn't even wearing shoes! Hoping and depending on someone else to save me was futile since there was no one that would come to my rescue.

    Just as I was thinking that, the foreigner, Atreus, came to sit against the tree by the wagon I was situated on. He had bread in his hands and he was eating it slowly, his gaze sweeping throughout the camp and his mouth set in a firm frown. There was something about him that told me he was deadly, and for some reason, I desperately wished Meilin was here to save me. Although I was terrified of Meilin, I knew that he would be more terrifying against those men. Maybe—just maybe—Meilin would save me if he was here.

      Watching the man for a moment, I couldn't help but wonder if he was going to kill me or if it was going to be Akio. They both were scary, but Akio held a more personal, lecherous, and vengeful hold on me, while Atreus looked like he would kill me if I slowed him down.

    Right as I was staring at him, he caught my gaze, his hard eyes taking me in. I flinched under his scrutiny and averted my gaze.

    "Do you need something?" he asked gruffly.

    "I—" I hesitated before swallowing. "I need to . . . relieve—" Embarrassed, I turned away from him.

    He was silent for a moment before he stood up, stuffing the bread in his satchel before making his way towards the wagon. He stopped short a foot away from me and placed a hand on the ledge of the wagon, his eyes boring into mine. He examined me for a split second before reaching over cutting off the bindings on my hands and feet, before grabbing my hand and tugging me out of the wagon.

    "What are you doing with the whore?" a man asked curiously, his attention and the group's attention set on me.

    "She needs to take a piss," he said nonchalantly.

    He then yanked me away from the camp until we were in the woods. He kept pulling me along until we were at decent distant away from the other men. The entire time I was sick to my stomach, dark thoughts swirling around and a dryness to my mouth. When we were far away enough, he let go of my hand and waved at the trees.

    "Hurry up," he said.

    Embarrassed that he was so near, I went over to a tree and using as much cover as I possibly could, relieved myself. It was also then that I noticed that I was on my menstruation cycle. I stared down at my legs and paled, the dress loosely around me as I tried to keep the cloth away from the blood running down my leg. Some parts of the white fabric was already touched with the blood.

    "E-Excuse me," I stammered, glancing over my shoulder at Atreus, who was looking away from me, which surprised me since he didn't look like the type of value my privacy. "I'm in need of . . . cloth."

    I felt stupid for even asking the question. Atreus had no reason to help me so why was I even asking him? He would most likely not care if I got raped at any point, so why would he care that I was on my cycle?

    "Cloth, for what?" he asked.

    Since I was turned away from him and he could only see my back, he couldn't see that I was holding the front of the kimono away from my legs. "M-My cycle has started," I said meekly.

    He was silent for a moment and when I looked at him again, he looked slightly uncertain, like he didn't know what to do. He fumbled in his satchel before he produced a somewhat long handkerchief. "Will this do?"

    "Yes," I said, cautiously watching as he neared me and hesitantly handed the cloth to me, before turning around and keeping his distance. Quickly, I wiped the blood and placed it in my undergarments, my shoulders dropping at the horribleness of my situation. I was messy, frightened, and I wasn't even sure if I was going to live long enough to see Meilin again.

    "Empress, here," Atreus suddenly said, thrusting a piece of bread at me.

    I stared at him, dumbfounded. Why did he call me 'empress' and why was he suddenly acting so . . . obedient? Respectful?

    Upon seeing my thunderstruck expression, he straightened out his shirt and gave me a level stare. "My Master is Master Drakkon; I am serving as his spy and never in a million years did I think that his bride would be targeted. I would apologize a hundred times over but we're short on time."

    I blinked. "You're with Meilin?"

    "Yes; I infiltrated the rebelling factions and have been reporting back to His Majesty, but I never expected them to capture you. Unfortunately, since this was not a part of the plan, I'll have to abandon my mission and escort you back to Master Drakkon." He handed me the bread and looked over his shoulder. "You'll have to bear with those barbarians a bit longer, since I'm unable to kill all fifteen of them at once. My plan is to take you as close to the North as possible and then when the time is right, lure these people into Master's army."

    The relief I felt was tremendous.

    "If the plan goes wrong," he said simply. "I'll kill them all and take you to Master Drakkon. Knowing Master, he'll be furious if I allowed anyone to survive."