“Don’t do that,” Archer was slowly getting irritated by Adalia’s guilty expression each time they crossed paths with Xander. It made him feel like she didn’t think what they were doing was right. However, to him it felt perfect.“Do what?” She squeezed back tears.“I don’t like it when you make that expression,” he pressed his palms against her cheeks. “Like what we are doing is wrong?”She pulled his hands down. “What we are doing isn’t wrong. But what I did was. I shouldn’t have told him I would marry him without being sure first.”“Are you sure now?”“Yes,” she kissed into both his palms.He felt a whoosh of tense air exhale from his lungs. “It’s going to be fine.”***Once they were far enough from the North Kingdom, Xander turned his horse and geared it towards the forest. He was going to hide and watch

He felt his body being pulled, but he didn’t know where to. He felt like he was in a daze and not completely in touch with his body. Archer opened his eyes and the sudden bright light was blinding, but all he could see were green leaves.His eyes weren’t doing him that much good, so Archer relied on his ears. He couldn’t hear any voice that he recognized. But what made him even more scared was that he couldn’t hear Adalia’s voice. The last thing he heard was her begging him to breathe and at the time he couldn’t. But now he seemed to be able to. He didn’t understand. Was he dead?It would explain the bright lights, the leafy green trees around him. But this couldn’t be heaven, his heaven was with Adalia. Archer tried to sit up but a hand forced him down. He saw something like a cloth cover his face. He tried to fight against it, but the darkness claimed him once more.***Adalia stood at her bedroom window. She hadn

“Lola, where is this?” he wasn’t sure what kind of answers she could offer him but he needed something.“Its home,” she chirped.“Of course it is,” he mumbled. “What else did you expect her to say? That it is the rebel headquarters.”At the corner of his eye he could see the same raven hair he always had in his thoughts and dreams. He stopped thinking, stopped breathing, and stopped time itself from intruding between one heart beat and the next. It was impossible. She was here; the love of his life was her. Without thinking he went for her, hobbling until he got to her. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. “Ada- I’m sorry.”The hair was the same like hers and from the back she could pass off as Adalia. But her face wasn’t as glorious, wasn’t as perfect as the love of his life. Her lips were full but not red. Her skin wasn’t as white as snow but brown, she was beautif

Archer fell back on his straw bed. He was getting dizzy from everything he had just found out. The soldier in him told him it was right to remain behind, wait to heal, find out more information before leaving. But the romantic in him wanted to burst through the South gates and protect Adalia. He couldn’t imagine who the mastermind behind all of this was, Conan or Xander; those were the only senior commanders he knew. His fists punched into his make shift bed as he let out a loud growl of frustration. He had never felt this useless in his life.After a labored supper he went to bed. Archer was back in the forest where Novia and Randi’s carriage had been ambushed. He had just gotten there with Adalia. He remembered sending her into the forest to look for his sister, then getting into the fight. Archer looked around as the fight came to life in his mind, he could see everyone there, Doran, Conan, Lionell and Gabrielle but there was one person he didn’t see. The f

“We will see about that,” Xander echoed in a low deliberate voice. “You have a strong will but so do wild horses, but they are broken and trained.”***Archer was struggling to lift his left hand for more than a minute. He needed it to hold his bow up. Frustrated he broke the wooden bow over his knee and tossed the pieces into the tree.“That is the fifth one in ten minutes,” Samson pointed out. “We might live in a forest, but I am afraid we will run out of trees before you can reel in your temper.”Archer kicked up the dust. “I can’t do this.”“Can’t is a word that a prince should not know,” he picked up his bow and handed it to Archer. “I love this bow. If you break it, I will shatter your other wing.”Archer handed it back to him. “I like having a functioning limb. You better take this back.”“Archer, this can’t be solved by a