How terrible was this? Six months it had taken to develop nice, crisp vision with a plethora of colors, and here before my eyes boring, dull brown dominated my blurred sight. The disappointment came as bad as the throbbing headache, queasy stomach, ragged breathing, and body that burned with heat even as I shook from a frigid chill.

What the hell, Felicity?!

The brown eventually worked into shaky focus as the wooden walls and roof of a smaller room in a house. A log cabin, perhaps? In any case, it wasn’t the palace. The headache pounded harder when I closed my eyes despite doing so helping me gather my thoughts. I’d been...kidnapped? I mean, I expected something at some point due to me being the crown prince’s daughter. An abduction, assault, or assassination attempt came with the territory. I never imagined it’d happen this early in my life though. At least Felicity wasn’t an assassin, or else I’d be left for dead in my crib.

“All these years of planning, and you only get us one?” The door muffled the voice of the man standing on the other side.

“I’ll hear none of your damn complaining,” Felicity snapped back. “One was always the original plan, if a girl was born in the first place. Who would have ever expected quadruplets? Also, don’t forget that I’m the one who spent three years working as a fucking maid waiting for whenever the prince put his seed to use. I had to earn their trust and cast off any suspicions. Heather would have been ours as well had that pissing Alderon and his idiots not attacked the southern fort and throw the palace into chaos! Our one good chance at stealing both due to the change in guard schedules was ruined before it began. Unless you wanted me to wait a year when the brats would be harder to wrangle, the youngest was the best we could do.”

“Fine, calm down,” the man huffed. “I get it. Lord Kallister will be happy enough you got him the one he truly desired. The problem now will be getting across the gulf while the borders are being more strictly watched.”

Getting quick answers about Felicity’s actions and their relation to the insurrection appeased me. Unfortunately, hearing of a purchaser and the threat of being smuggled out of the country sent a harsh shiver down my spine.

“That’s your problem, Haskel,” Felicity spoke smugly, opening the door and coming inside. “I did my part. You do yours.”

“You know you’re going to have to be the one to take her across now that we lost Harriet.”

“What? No way! You do it!”

“She’s as pale as a cloud, and I’m dark like a Sepal panther. No one’s going to believe she’s mine. The dock workers will be too suspicious of an infant with an unrelated man.”

As the two stepped forward, I saw indeed that Haskel had clear and taut skin as black as the night sky. I would have called him gorgeous were he not such a bastard.

“I’m being hunted for taking her, remember? It’s not as if she and I look alike either,” Felicity frowned.

“We’re going to have to dye her hair regardless to have a chance of success. We’ll make it black like yours, and no one should question anything unless you come under heavy scrutiny. And don’t worry about anyone recognizing you. There are ways to get around that.”

“I’m getting paid more then.”

“We’ll talk about it once we actually get paid,” Haskel waved her off. He shifted and finally gave me his full attention. With an unimpressed stare, he picked me up under the arms. “So much trouble for a prettier than average baby. Her Blessing is going to be useless unless trained, and Lord Kallister is not going to be able to do that.”

“I doubt he cares about her abilities. They would make it easier for her to escape. These creeps just like the bragging rights they can have over their other creep friends by possessing those with the highest pedigree.”

“You talk poorly of our clients so easily when you’re hardly innocent yourself,” Haskel pointed out.

“I sell people. I don’t lust after children.”

Shit. I mean, it was rather obvious what kind of person was probably buying me, but I would have liked to deny it a little longer. Hopefully, these slavers were far over their heads stealing a royal daughter with the military already being mobilized and prepped to protect their country. It would do me no good to panic. I could cause my captors some problems too having an adult mind when they believed me an unknowing infant. Case in point...

“How much of the drug did you give her? She shouldn’t be this pale.” Haskel brought me closer for inspection.

“I panicked, alright?” Felicity folded her arms.

“Well, if she—”

At that, I stopped fighting against the nausea of my stomach. I gladly threw up right on Haskel, drenching his throat and chest.