The journey to Azseldo Kingdom was a long one, especially when the use of magic wasn’t involved, but even though Shuyu, the King of Azseldo Kingdom, could get to his Kingdom within hours with magic, he chose to travel by carriage and the reason was obvious: to spend as much time with his future bride, Yanira Castleheart, but to his displeasure, his future bride was paying little attention to him as she read the book she took from her belongings.

            “Yanira?”

            Yanra peeked form her book and answered, “Yes?”

            “It will take a long while to reach my kingdom, so how about talking with your future husband during this journey?”

            Yanira scooted a little farther from Shuyu with an uneasy look and stated, in a soft voice, “I don’t mean to be rude, but this is my first time so far away from my own kingdom, so I just want to be comfortable, so please leave me at peace.” With those words, Yanira hid her face with her book.

            Shuyu frowned and the next thing Yanira knew, he book was yanked from her hand and tossed to the opposite seating of the carriage. Yanira was frozen at the sudden action and glanced at Shuyu, who showed a smile, but Yanira could tell that this smile was not one of happiness, but of frustration.

            Shuyu leaned toward her forcing her back to the door of the carriage.

            “Yanira, I am asking this as your future husband, please hold a conversation with me,” muttered Shuyu his gaze never leaving Yanira’s form. At his gaze, Yanira felt like she was a cornered sheep with a wolf towering over her. Yanira could only manage a nod to prevent herself from shaking in fear.

            “Then please tell me about your family.”

            Shuyu nodded at her words and then sat on his chair, but still remained close to Yanira to the point their hips touched.

            “My father has long since passed from the black illness and my mother is bed ridden with grief. She still has yet to recover.”

            “Any siblings?”

            “Why yes, I have a younger brother. He is a little older than you, but I insist you don’t approach him.”

            “Why?”

            “You might not be familiar with this word since your father was quite faithful to your mother, but my brother is a Bastard child, a child born between my deceased father and his commoner mistress.”

            Shuyu suddenly ran his fingers through Yanira’s short red hair and added, “I would hate for such a word to leave your lips so promise never to say it.”

            Yanira nodded, but then asked, “You sound like you hate him, so is he within the castle walls still?”

            “Of course, since he is of Royal Blood, even though half of it is tainted blood. As a person with Royal Blood he is required to at least work in the court when he is of age, but until that time, he is forbidden to show his face to my subjects and that includes you. I would hate for you to see such a hateful child.”

            Yanira clenched the skirt of her dress feeling the discomfort of this conversation. She sensed no love in Shuyu’s words toward his own family. It was more like he held nothing, but hate for them. Just this conversation alone made her nervous to speak again, but the look in Shuyu’s eyes made it clear that he still wanted to speak with her.

            Yanira struggled to speak, but she couldn’t find a topic to speak of, but then Shuyu suddenly picked up her book and flipped it open with his thumb.

            “What were you reading, Yanira?”

            “That book is part of my study material as a priestess. It teaches other incantations that a Priestess can speak to invoke the power of nature’s forces like commanding the wind to change into a blade to cut down trees and there’s also a chapter that discusses how to cast a fire spell that can change form with just your thoughts.”

            Yanira felt passionate as she discussed her teachings from within the book, but stopped in her explanations, when Shuyu shut the book and smiled at Yanira, but that smile made her feel nervous all over again.

            “You talk quite a bit about your training as a priestess, but if I remember right, Priestesses give their all to nature, correct?”

            “That’s not entirely true, Priestesses can still…”

            The sound of ripping cut Yanira’s words short. Shuyu held a torn page of the book in his hand as he dumped the rest of the book on the ground.

            “As my future bride, you no longer need to learn the way of a Priestess, so this book is not needed,” stated Shuyu. He was ready to tear the rest of the page in his hand, but Yanira grabbed the page and held it to her chest with her form shaking.

            “That maybe so, but this is a book given to me by my teacher so please don’t destroy it,” stated Yanira in a shaken voice. Shuyu stared at her shaking form and then wrapped his arms around Yanira resting his chin on top of her head.

            “I apologize for scaring you, but I just want to monopolize you, my sweet Yanira,” whispered Shuyu. Yanira still shook in his embrace holding the page tightly to her chest.

            The carriage suddenly slid to a stop making Shuyu frown and peek out the carriage window, still holding Yanira in his embrace.

            “What’s going on?” demanded Shuyu.

            Kaysan glanced at Shuyu from his horse with seriousness in his eyes.

            “There is a fallen tree in the path.”

            Shuyu sighed and then patted Yanira’s head saying, “Remain in here, while I help Kaysan and Raul.” Yanira nodded still clutching the page to her chest.

            The moment Shuyu was out of the carriage and out of sight, Yanira gave out a sigh of relief and then glanced at the crumbled page in her hands. Yanira recognized the symbol of soul mates on the page and felt a small tear escape her eye.

            I want to go back.

            Yanira placed the page in her skirt pocket and then bent down to pick up the fallen book, but then she heard the door to the carriage swing open and felt a tug on the back of her dress, lifting her up from the carriage and taking her to the outside.

            Yanira yelped as she was held over the shoulder of unknown person like a sack of potatoes and then she felt the rush of air causing her to shut her eyes momentarily.

            “YANIRA!”

            Yanira opened her eyes and saw that she was getting farther from the carriage like how a bird gets farther from the ground and in her line of sight, she also saw Shuyu with a panicked expression as he reached out to her.

            What’s happening?

            Those were her last thoughts, before Shuyu was no longer in sight, but as she traveled by the sky, she was able to take notice of the wolf ears upon her kidnapper’s head.