Summary: Camila is taken away from the only home she’s ever known and thrust into a new life full of disappointment and no freedom. One day, a knight makes their way to her mother’s court, pledging allegiance not to the queen, but to her. Has she seen them somewhere before?
Chapter 2: Life In Chains
Camila hates him. Hates the man pulling on her arms, with his smartass smirk and his uppity view on the world. As if Austin is the best thing that is ever going to happen to her.
Tears stream down her cheeks, tree bark brown eyes wide as she takes in the sight before her. The castle she’s lived in since before she can remember is in ruins. Pillaged and plundered by bumbling idiots who care for nothing but themselves.
All of those precious books and manuscripts, gone in minutes.
She brushes a dirt and ash covered hand through her knotted hair, tears staining her bedraggled face, making her look almost as insane as they think she is. But she isn’t insane, they are. For taking her away from her home, from her love.
Luna’s roars echo in her ears and her heart clenches.
She is lifted up against her will onto the prince’s horse. The strange animal feels unfamiliar between her thighs. She is used to soft yet rough scales, a leather pad the only thing between her soft supple skin and the skin of her draconic savior. So the soft fur of the creature makes her almost cringe because it isn’t right.
This isn’t where she is meant to be.
“Why have you done this?” she hisses when Austin hoists himself up behind her, crowding her in and making her extremely uncomfortable. She squirms, but it only makes the man smile because he thinks she’s getting comfortable.
“Because your mother has requested I bring you home.” She bites her lip, holding back the growl and all of the draconic curses her beloved has taught her over the years. “I saved you, Princess, therefore, I shall have my reward.”
She opens her mouth to scream at him, but is cut off when she hears the painful roar of her only friend. Her heart clenches. “Stop!” She clutches the Austin’s shirt with her nails. “Please, don’t hurt her!”
“That creature,” Austin spits the word out as if it is vile, “kidnapped you as a child and brought you here. You have been its slave for far too long, my princess.”
Her whole body shakes with fear and rage as she holds back the need to punch him until he’s bleeding and broken. ’No!’ she want to shout. ‘Luna saved me from people like you! She brought me out of the dark and taught me things you’ll never believe.’ But she keeps to herself, hoping that her beloved has escaped, that Luna’s roars of pain are not for herself.
“I hate you,” she snarls at him. “I hate your leader and all of the people who have brought me from this place.”
He chuckles, as if something she’s said is funny, but she’s completely serious. “Your humor amuses me, Princess. I am looking forward to hearing more of it when we get to court.”
She refuses to say anything to anyone on her way back to the palace. Even going so far as to refuse drink and good food that the cook of the campaign makes every evening. Sometimes, the prince forces her to drink and eat, so that she will be in good health when they get back to the palace.
Austin tells her all of the things she should be looking forward to when she gets home. Like balls and jewelry and princes vying for her hand in marriage. They sound distasteful and her lips curl up into a sneer at the thought of another trying to touch her heart the way Luna did. The prince puffs out his chest, looking like a satyr about to bleat their heart out. “But,” Austin tells her, “as I have saved you, I will most likely become your husband… and the king in the future.”
“You will never have me!” she screams at him. “You will never have my heart!”
“You cared for that beast?” he spits the question at her, as if she is disgusting for caring for the dragon.
“More than I will ever care for you!” she shouts back, her eyes red from crying but there is fire there as well. She may not breath fire like Luna, but she feels as if it might be possible if she’s this mad.
“I saved you. Therefore, you will be mine!”
’I didn’t need to be saved!’
“Why must I wear this again?” she snarls. Her hair is pinned up tightly, making it feel like her face is being stretched out.
“Because this is what a proper young lady wears, miss,” the young girl by her side answers. Her name is Normani, but she is known as Mani throughout the castle. Camila thinks she is beautiful, but the girl won’t hear it. Tells her that because of her darker skin, she is seen as lower than even those who work in the kitchens. The princess doesn’t understand why her family thinks they are above anyone else when they are all the same inside. She’s read many anatomy books Luna had in her library and…
The thought of her dragon makes her face twist into a grimace. Camila has been told that the dragon disappeared as soon as Camila left the vicinity, under the cover of darkness, but Luna hasn’t come for her yet.
Maybe Luna thinks she is happier where she is; that she actually likes court life and being a princess and having to kiss up to every noble that comes her way when she would rather hex them into oblivion.
Every day, before her mother can find her, she runs to the garden. There’s a secret place behind the farthest wall where she can lay around and look at the sky. Sometimes, one of the numerous gardeners give her tools and different seeds to plant. Unlike her mother or any of the other court folk, she finds more favor with the servants than with the rich and powerful. A nice old gardener named Ally usually helps her tend to her garden especially when she cannot because her mother has stolen her away for some horrible fitting.
This court life makes her want to scream until she has no energy left to fight. So, she flees to the garden her only safe haven. However, she allows Mani to bathe, feed and dress her before she runs. She does not wish for harm to come to her maid while she is out among the flowers. She walks among the flowerbeds barefoot, using the royal fountains to clean her feet and ankles every once in a while.
She sings the songs of the dragons, of the nymphs and the cloven-hoofed satyrs. She sings of magic and myth and times before the humans pushed the creatures from their land. From her friends, she’s learned that the place the creatures call home is also called the Moors by the humans, who only seek the magic within it for themselves.
So lost in thought, Camila loses track of time and finds herself surrounded by guards. They all wear the livery of her mother, a white diamond surrounded by a black circle. She finds Mani’s female lover Dinah Jane within the crowd of guards, but all she gets is a nod and a small smile. Her eyes, however, speak of humor and mirth at finding Camila it this situation; she doesn’t understand what the woman finds so funny because this seems to be a daily occurrence, Camila running from her mother.
Normani has told Camila many times how women weren’t able to be part of the guard, so Dinah had to cut her beautiful hair and bind her breasts to pass as a man. Camila had only found out because she found them kissing behind the stables one day on her exploration of the castle grounds, Dinah out of her armor and in a plain shirt that did nothing to hide her womanly curves.
Camila doesn’t understand the strangeness of the human world. Where one is judged by their skin color. Where woman were seen as weak and couldn’t fight for their kingdom just as men did. If Camila was stuck here and took over the throne, she knew there were going to be many changes under her rule.
So, this is the second part. Only one more to go. Will Luna ever come for Camila? You can also find out on Wattpad at blackleatherboots139!
