Harper looked with widened eyes at the figure as she felt the small blade at her throat. The dim light from the window shrouded the person in dark until they came closer and closer, until she could make out the face.
"Look at you, acting all innocent. Like a sweet little lamb...only I would know the kind of tramp you are!"
It was her!
The woman who had escorted Harper to the medicine camp, to Maerva, now loomed over her. Her face twisted in an expression of disgust.
"You...you filth! People like you think that you can just come and fawn over the princes, and they would kneel before you. You attention WHORE!" Spit flew from her face as she pressed the dagger deeper in her neck.
A thin line of blood ran down her neck as Harper put her hand up, hesitant to touch the woman lest she go more crazy.
"And they might even fall for you, they are very honorable. Especially prince Sorien. He once saved my life you know, we have something really special."
Her eyes glazed with an imagined moment, lighting up. Harper grew more terrified by this display, especially when she focused back onto her.
"You slut, you would exploit their goodness and leave them rotting. I will not have you do that. I WILL NOT HAVE YOU DO THAT!"
Saying this, she raised the knife and brought it down sharply. But Harper had been prepared.
She caught the arm midair, and the knife came to a stop right before her throat. The woman pressed, but Harper pressed harder.
Soon, the two were wrestling for control of the knife.
The two tumbled from the mattress onto the ground as they fought to overpower the other.
"Ah!"
Harper found a small pitcher of water on the ground next to the thin mattress, than she picked up to slam down against the wrist of the woman which held the knife.
The woman cried, more enraged than in pain, as she violently thrashed her legs. Her mouth let out strange snarls as she looked hatefully at Harper.
Harper would have been more terrified if she was not currently preoccupied with trying to get the woman to let go of the knife.
She succeeded. But the woman suddenly leaned forward and wrapped her hands around Harper's throat, pushing her on her back on the ground and climbing on top of her.
It was Harper's turn to thrash as the pitcher fell from her hands, and she coughed, trying to get in air. It was useless. The woman's hands were like vices that blocked her airpassage completely.
Her eyes were rolling in the back of her head, and the woman's face blurred in her vision, the edged darkening already.
No. NO!!
She tried throwing the woman off, pulling at her hair, scratching her face. It was no use. Even with blood dripping down her forehead, she was too strongly in her emotions that none of it seemed to register.
Soon, Harper's hands fell away beside her, her legs slowly losing their power as she finally, finally lost the fight.
It looked like this would be the end, when suddenly a bright red light, scalding, spread from her chest. The woman on top of her cried in pain as she reareb back as if burned.
It had actually burned Harper, but she was too relieved to breath in air again to complain much about it. She coughed, pulling herself back as she tried to get away from the screaming woman on the floor.
Harper quickly got to her feet as she ran out of the tent, the flap closing behind her.
"That was indeed something."
A voice spoke from behind her. She jumped startled.
Twisting around, she saw Kael leaning against the tree beside her tent, his leg leaning against the trunk as he sharpened his sword. He didn't look at her while he spoke, but it was very obvious.
He knew what had happened. Is that why no one had come, even with the screams?
"What the hell?" Her fear quickly gave way to anger as she fumed at the man. "Did you do that?!"
He only spared her a raised brow as he continued with his work.
"Oh, you mean Dilcina? No. Well...not completely. I may have suggested something...or did I?"
She huffed, turning to face him fully.
"Is this a game for you?! A stupid little game? Did you send her in?!" She yelled at him, getting near with wide steps, ignoring the weapon he had.
She had faced a mad woman tonight, a mad woman trying to kill her. She could handle this 𝘣𝘰𝘺.
"She could have kiiled me, you arrogant little turd!"
Harper refused to think back on how the her from before would never have confronted any person, let alone an armed man.
All she wanted was to give him a piece of her mind.
The boy, the prince, finally looked at her as he put his sword down and brought his leg down from the trunk. Now raised at his original height, he towered over Harper. She swallowed, intimidated, but refused to step back.
Raising her head higher, she looked him in the eye.
Kael had the nerve to smirk as he leaned in her face, titling his head.
"Mmm. I can have your head for this, you know. Talking to a Prince like that. Tsk, tsk." He raised his finger and tilted her chin up towards him, leaning down to her neck.
She froze. What on Earth was happening?!
On reaching her neck, he hmmed, his lips very near her skin and she could feel the tiny puffs of air from his nose.
She shivered, her eyes closing involuntarily. This was all so very new to her, this sensation. She felt a pull she couldn't rightly describe.
"So it is true then." He leaned back, letting go of her chin.
Harper opened her eyes, holding herself together before she too leaned into his retreating form.
She looked into his eyes, ignoring the charged energy between them as she bit out, "What."
He smirked as his grey eyes roamed her face. That jerk! He had known what he was doing.
"I had not wanted to believe it at first. After all, it was not very sound. Absurd almost. But the smell...there is no denying."
"Spit it out. Tell me what stupid thing it was that made you try to kill me?!"
He looked at her intently, his gaze boring into hers.
"You are not from this world, Harper Koil."
Her heart stopped.