"Your majesty," Nyla walked up to the queen. The queen put down her glass of whatever expensive alcoholic drink they had and turned to Nyla smiling.

"Thank the gods your here," The queen turned back to the party surrounding her, "I think I'm going to retire. Thank you all for coming."

And with that the queen made her leave with her guard, Nyla at the head.

When they make it to her room, Nyla walks in first, checking to make sure the room is safe to enter. Once she gives the all clear, the queen enters. Nyla goes to make her leave when the queen grabs her arm.

"Where are you going?" The queen pulled Nyla into her arms.

"Hera," Nyla muttered, "You know I can't stay."

Hera kissed her softly on the lips, "Just a little bit?"

"I'm sorry," Nyla wrapped her arms around Hera, "I have to see to Antony to make sure he's okay. He's showing signs of being qui mortiferum. I need to be there in case anything happens."

"Your right, I'm sorry." Hera untangled herself from Nyla's hold. "Have you seen Cyrus recently?"

Nyla scoffed, "No, and I don't want to."

"Come one. He's not that bad."

"Whatever you say. I still think it's a bad idea for you to marry him."

"I know you do, but I need an heir. Anthea needs an heir. You know that."

"Yes, I do." Nyla sighed, "I just wish you had chosen someone else. Well, I'll leave you to retire. I'll come to wake you in the morning for tea with Anaya."

Hera pouted, "Are you sure you can't stay the night?"

"I would if I could. You know that."

And with that Nyla left the queens chambers and made her way to her quarters.

Walking inside, she shed her armor and coat and prepared for bed. She made herself a small meal of soup and a slice of bread and made her way to bed. She stopped at the door of another room before that though. Opening the door just so a sliver of light fell into the room, landing right on the face of a little boy, her little boy.

He'd been sleeping so much more lately. She knew what it meant. Everyone knew what it meant. Hopefully, no one would find out about Ant. So far the only person she'd trusted to tell was Hera. But it couldn't go beyond the two of them. That much Nyla was sure of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nyla jolted awake to the sound of banging on her door. Nyla got out of her bed, now wide awake. The first place she rushed to was Antony's room. When she was sure he was still there and unharmed she rushed to her door. Opening it, she was face to face with Cyrus, flanked by three guards.

Nyla's hand shot to her hip, where her sword would usually be, but it wasn't there. Of course, it wasn't there. She had just woken up.

"What's wrong?"

"Hera-" Cyrus choked, "Hera-she's dead."

"What?"

"Yes, someone set fire to the west wing of the castle. Someone might be coming after you. We think it would be best to take you," Cyrus looked into the hall, "And anyone else you think would need protection."

Nyla blanched. What did Cyrus mean by anyone else? No one knew about Antony. Nyla couldn't risk it, not with who his father is.

"Yes, yes. Let go get my things. I'll meet you at the gate."

"It's too dangerous. We'll stay here outside your room. Wouldn't want to risk it now, would we?" There was another meaning behind Cyrus' words, but Nyla didn't want to stick around to find out what that is.

"Okay, Give me a few minutes. I need to get dressed."

"Of course." Cyrus smiled and it made Nyla's skin itch.

She closed the door and immediately ran into Antony's room and picked him up. He was out cold.

"Hey." She shook him, "Sweetheart I need you to wake up."

"Wha," Antony's voice was groggy, "Whas going on?"

"Listen, sweetheart, I need you to go and grab your emergency bag, okay? Then I want you to go wait by the window in the bathroom. Do you understand?"

Antony nodded, rubbing his eyes. He was still disoriented and confused.

"Alright go."

With that Nyla ran into her room and grabbed the first pair of boots she found and a long coat to cover her sleepwear and her sword. With that, she ran into the kitchen and grabbed some water and some food. She had a feeling she would be far from people for a while.

A bang on the front door startled her.

"Are you almost done in there?" Cyrus asked.

"Yeah, I just need to find my necklace."

"This is an emergency, can't you just leave it?"

"I can't just leave it," Nyla's voice 'choked', "It was my grandmothers, a family heirloom."

"Alright, a few more minutes," Nyla could imagine Cyrus looking down at his watch, tapping his foot, impatience growing.

Nyla needed to buy some time, a few minutes wasn't enough. She needed a headstart.

Nyla walked to the door and leaned against it, focusing all her energy on the bodies on the other side. She imagined Cyrus' throat closing around him, the oxygen blocked from entering his lungs. There were choking noises on the side of the room before she hears three distinct plops. They had passed out.

She grabbed the bag and ran down the hall to the bathroom. She had just bought ten maybe fifteen minutes before Cyrus and his goons wake up and realize what happened.

Antony was sitting on the toilet with a bag in his lap, waiting patiently for Nyla to tell him what to do.

Nyla opened the window over the bathtub and looked down. She was thanking herself for wanting to be on the second floor. Very good tactical advantage.

"Get on my back." She leaned in front of the toilet and Antony grabbed on, "I need you to hold on tight. I'm going to run and I don't want you to fall."

Nyla climbs out of the window and grabs onto the sill, counting in her head before jumping on to the ground.

"Fuck." Pain shot up her leg and she dropped to her knees. The wet grass felt refreshing against her skin.

"Mommy-"

"Shhh," Nyla interrupted her son getting up from the ground, "You need to be quiet, don't want to wake anyone up, do you?"

"No," Antony whispered.

Nyla walked into the bush around the castle, there was light casting onto the greenery. She turned around and her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach. Half the castle was up in flames. The only reason it didn't touch Nyla was that she lived in a house separate from the castle.

She knew that it was on fire, but seeing it in person made it feel a lot more real. She turned and headed for the woods outside the castle. She didn't have time to mourn over her lover's death.

"Where are we going?' Antony asked. They'd been walking for hours now, the sun was peaking out across the trees. Antony had fallen asleep after Nyla wrapped a cloth around him to make sure he didn't fall.

"A friends." Nyla hopped over a log, "We should be there soon." Or so Nyla hoped. She hadn't brought a compass or map in the hurry to get away from Cyrus. She was relying purely on the memory of where the cabin was. It didn't help that it was in the middle of nowhere.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nyla was wrong, it was not anywhere close. It'd been hours since she'd told Antony they were close. The sun had gone down and she guessed it was around the middle of the night. She was starting to lose hope. What if she had gone the wrong way and has been walking away from where she needed to be. Antony had fallen asleep-thank god. He'd been complaining on and off for hours. They had run out of food and water before the sun went down.

Nyla was about to give up and head in a different direction when the sound of a twig snapped not too far from where she was. She stopped and slowly turned around, scanning her surroundings. Had Cyrus already caught up with her? She'd covered her tracks. It should have taken much longer to catch up to her. She rested her hand on her sword and went to take it out.

"Uhuh, not os fast," A man walked out of the wood, "Drop the sword. Drop it."

Nyla did so, tossing it away from her body towards the man. He grabbed it, putting it in his scabbard.

"Who are you?"

"No one important. I'm just passing through."

"In the middle of the woods," He laughed, "Give me a break. Tell me who you are or," He put his sword on her throat, "You won't make it to tomorrow."

"Charles, calm down," A woman walked out from behind him. He frowned, bringing down his sword.

"Thea," Nyla sighed in relief.

Thea smiled reassuringly, "Why don't we go inside, so you tell me why you showed up all of a sudden."

"That'd be great."

They walked down the path that Nyla was walking down and turned off about ten feet from where Charles stopped Nyla. Well, at least she was going in the right direction.

Once inside Nyla untied Antony and put him in a bedroom down the hall. When she came back to the kitchen there was a cup of tea waiting for her. When she sat down she felt the throbbing in her legs and hips, her exhaustion finally catching up to her.

"Since when did you have a kid?" Was the first thing Thea asked.

"Since about five years ago."

Thea frowned, "Have we really not talked in that long? Coulda swore I just saw you yesterday. Anyway," She sat down across from Nyla, Charles was still standing by the stove, "How's Hera?"

"That's actually what I'm here to talk to you about. Hera's dead, and I think Cyrus did it."

Thea hand went to her mouth, "What? How? Why? I mean-I mean" She was speechless, "Why would Cyrus want Hera dead?"

"I haven't got the slightest idea, But you can bet your ass I wasn't going to stick around to find out."

Nyla thought for a moment. She'd known Thea since they were kids, surely she could trust her.

"That's not true. Can we talk alone?" Nyla looked at Charles.

"Anything you say to me you can say to him. I trust him, and so can you."

Nyla took a sip of her tea, "Okay." She took a deep breath, "I think he's after Antony."

"Why? What would he want with a five-year-old child?" Charles asked.

"I think he's," Nyla hesitated, "Special."

"You mean like special special?"

"Yeah."

"But he's only five," Charles butt in, "He's too young to show any signs."

"It's his father," Nyla said, "I didn't know at the time, but you know the odds. I couldn't risk anyone finding out. The only one who knew he existed was Hera. But I think Cyrus might know. So I left."

"Well if Cyrus is looking for Antony, he's not safe here."

"I know, but I don't know where I can hide him. Anywhere I go Cyrus can find me."

"Not everywhere," Thea said. Charles looked at her. He doesn't seem to like where she's going.

"What do you mean?"

"You're not gonna like it, that's for sure."