[Warning: Violence towards women is depicted in this chapter. On that note, there's a lot of violence towards men as well.]
"Very well." The prince nodded at the two guards and they opened the doors to the newlywed's bedchamber. Then they bowed their heads and went back to stand beside the doors to the room. "Enter!" The prince roughly pushed Diana inside the room.
After both the prince and Roxane entered the room, she closed the doors to the massive suite. She turned back to the prince to find in her horror, he had started undressing.
"My prince, don't you think we should first celebrate?" Roxane smiled as she gestured towards a tray full of cheeses and breads. A bottle of wine stood above the rest on the table and Roxane quickly went to it and held it up to the prince.
"It would be a shame to let all of this go to waste." She needed to make somehow make time for the other two. How she was going to accomplish this, she did not know, but she was willing to try anything just as long as she kept the prince away from Diana.
"Hm, you're right Roxane. It would be a waste." He snatched up the bottle from her hands. In one swift notion, he opened the bottle and without hesitation, tipped back his head and started drinking as if it were water. Roxane quickly gestured towards Diana and she stood up from where she was flung to the floor by the prince.
Diana hastily walked to the opposite side of the room. She looked to Roxane with worry deeply etched into her emerald eyes.
Roxane attempted to reassure Diana with a small smile upon her red lips. Then she turned her attention back to the depraved prince. It seemed like she had spent hours with the prince, listening to his boring hunting tales, as she made sure to keep refilling his cup with drink. She filled his mouth with cheeses every so often, asking him questions upon questions about the various stories he kept relaying to her.
"That's enoughhh." The prince slurred his words, cutting off Roxane as she tried to yet again refill his cup with wine.
"It's time." He hiccupped and got up on his feet, stumbling as he did.
Then he went towards the bed, he started to unbutton his pants. Roxane got up from her seat, she had successfully kept the prince occupied for some time now, but she still hadn't seen any sign of either Kian or Thatcher.
Where were they?
She strode towards the prince, stopping him by placing a hand over his hands.
"My prince, there's no need to rush. We have all night don't we?" The prince shook off her hand, turning around to face her. His arms slid around her waist and pulled her tight against him. He rained sloppy wet kisses all down her neck as she forced herself to keep calm. He began groping Roxane, trying to slip off the dress she wore.
"Roxane!" Diana ran towards the two, and grabbed Prince Xavier's arm, trying to pry his arm from around Roxane's waist. "Get away from her!"
The prince grunted, halting his barrage of kisses to smack Diana, sending her to the floor. When Diana looked up, her face was reddened by the hit.
"Diana!"
Roxane tried to make her way to where Diana was, but she was held by the prince. Roxane looked back with anger set in her golden eyes, the prince laughed.
"Learn your place wench!" He seethed and tightened his one arm around Roxane, grabbing Roxane by the hair with his other.
"Don't look at me like that sl*t!" He yelled into Roxane's face. The prince hated the raw emotion of pure resentment emanating from Roxane's face. Her golden eyes seemed to be alight with something he had never seen before. How dare she?
The prince raised his hand up in the air and it made an audible sound when it made contact with the side of Roxane's face. She didn't wince. Her face didn't even move to the side at all.
Prince Xavier looked at his hand with a frown. He went to slap her again, but his hand stopped midair.
Roxane's hand stopped the prince's arm from coming crashing down at her. She really looked like she had murder on her mind.
"H-How dare you!" Xavier fumbled with his words, his face bright red from the alcohol he had consumed. He struggled to release his captive wrist, but was surprised by how Roxane's ironclad grip kept him from moving even an inch. How strong was this worthless woman?
Then his eyes widened when he saw Roxane snap his wrist with a flick of her own. His screams filled the room and only then, did Roxane release the man as he cradled his now broken wrist.
Where were his guards?
He let out a guttural sound from his throat, glaring at Roxane as she looked down at him as if he were but an insignificant thing. Laughing, he pictured how he was going to cut the woman's pretty little head right off. With his good hand, he slipped out his sword from its sheath and pointed it straight at Roxane. He swiped at her clumsily, but still managed to nick her across her cheek.
The pain was nothing to her though.
"Roxane be careful!" Diana said, her hands covered her mouth and she was shivering uncontrollably now.
"You stupid b*tch! I'm going to slit your damn throat!" The prince's dark eyes flashed menacingly, but Roxane was not scared at all.
He lunged at her then, but before he could do anything to her, the doors to the room busted open. Thatcher and Kian stood at the doorway.
"Roxane!" Both of the men looked pretty battered. They wore their cloaks, but something told Roxane that they had to fight through a lot of guards to make it into the room. Thatcher had brandished his bloody sword, while Kian held what looked like lightning sparks on top of his palm.
"You!" The prince choked out the word, glaring at his cousin.
Before anything more could be said, lightning flew across the room, hitting him square in the chest and he fell onto the floor.
"Kian!" Thatcher yelled and quickly went to check the prince for any sign of a pulse.
Wordlessly, Kian strode into the room, removing his cloak and placing it over Roxane's shoulders. Then he went over to where Diana was and held out his hand for her to take. Diana looked dazed but she gratefully took his hand, and he helped her off the floor.
"Are you two alright?" Thatcher, now having confirmed the prince was in fact, not dead, looked at the girls with worry in his eyes.
"For the most part." Roxane said, clutching on to Kian's cloak.
"Roxane!" Diana made her way over to her, touching her cheek. "Your cheek is bleeding!"
"This is nothing. I'm fine, Diana really, I am." She waved off Diana's worried cries, and then turned to Thatcher. "We need to get going. I can only guess the whole temple would have heard the fight by now."
Thatcher nodded to Kian, and the two took lead as they led the woman outside the room. Roxane tried to shield Diana's eyes from the bodies littered around the room as they exited, but Diana still managed to see a body before Roxane could put a hand over her eyes.
"Which way are we going?" Roxane said while her hands were on Diana's face.
"The south side of the temple. There's a way out if we use the old part of the temple." Kian explained to her. "We need to run though. The prince's people are making their way to us and it'll be only a matter of time before they reach us."
Then they began running through the hallways, all the while Roxane could hear her heart beating rapidly as she heard the heavy footfalls of dozens of the prince's men chasing after them.
Kian turned several times around to shoot fire from his fingertips. She dared not turn around as she heard the pain filled screams from behind them.
As soon as they rounded the corner, Kian motioned over to Thatcher, and as if he knew it was coming, Thatcher's sword met another. The swords bounced off each other and it caught the other man off guard. It was enough time for Thatcher to slash at his chest and the man fell to the ground, dead.
"We can't go through this way." Kian shook his head. "There's too many of them gathered there. It was like they were tipped off of another way out of the temple.
"The High Priest." Roxane said, the image of the old man flashed through her mind, and she swore if she ever saw the priest again she would make him pay.
"We're going to have to go another way. Do any of you know a place we could blast through?"
"The atrium!" Diana spoke up then. "It's also in the old part of the temple, but most of its structure is unstable."
Kian nodded and Thatcher said. "Great. We'll head there then."
Roxane took lead then. She ran, taking Diana's hand in hers as she took them pass the various halls. The sounds of the prince's men were getting closer now and she was certain the High Priest was behind their movements.
They ran towards the end of the hallway they were in, and it opened up into the old atrium of the temple. The room was big, bigger than the new entrance was now.
Kian stared above their heads into high ceiling above.
"It's unstable alright. The ceiling more so than the walls. We'll need to find a way to the roof."
Unfortunately for them, it was only a manner of seconds before the prince's men made it into the atrium, it was apparent that they didn't have time to find a way to the second story.
Roxane gritted her teeth, she quickly removed Kian's cloak and draped it over Diana's small body. Diana seemed to know what she was planning on doing and she gripped onto her hand.
"Roxane, no!" She pleaded.
"We don't have time. I'll make it out, I promise you." She gave a quick squeeze to Diana's hands before releasing them. "Meet me at the place we always used to sneak out to, do you remember?" Diana nodded her silver head.
"What are you going to do?" Thatcher said, ready to stop her from walking towards her sure death.
"I'll only say this once. Both of you grab Diana and escape as soon as I open up the way for you all."
"What?" Before he could fully wrap around the idea of her somehow finding a way to open up the way for them, she ran away, and towards the sound of the incoming footsteps. The men began entering the room and she heard the anguished cry of her friend calling out her name behind her.
Roxane felt her heart soar, and when she let out a scream, she instead heard the roar of an animal that would make any person stop dead in their tracks. She blinked, and saw the men all in front of her yell out profanities, being now faced by a full grown dragon. Their fear was warranted, as Roxane, who was just a woman until now, turned into a terrifyingly fearsome red and black dragon. The sight of her dragon form was welcomed by her as it had been a while since she had last transformed.
She lifted up her tail, her red mixed with black scales flashed by her, as she swiped at the men before they could regain their composure and started attacking her. She knocked quite a few of the men, and the sounds of crunching bodies filled her ears. She growled as a spear narrowly missed her head.
She charged at the man, and opening her maw she bit down, taking his body and sending him flying to the side. Roxane tried to shake the sound of the men's screams as she cleared her mind. She had almost forgotten the purpose for transforming.
Roxane turned her tail with a flick, bashing into the side of the temple. It easily gave away from just a single whip of her tail, and the stone came tumbling down, revealing a giant hole in the wall. Just beyond, laid the massive expanse of the mountain and it's cover of trees.
She roared towards the three to leave just as an arrow flew straight into her, thankfully, it is deflected by her thick scales, which are much harder on top of her body. Roxane spun around again, sending another wave of men flying, their bodies snapping straightaway upon impact.
"Hurry, get in formation, before the beast breathes fire!" They scrambled to get into their formation, their shields went up as soon as they did, but Roxane wasn't about to breathe fire. She couldn't anyway.
Instead, she extended out her glorious wings. The tips of them touched the ceiling, making some parts of it rain down on their heads. Her red and black colored wings waved out, producing a gust of wind as they did, and making the men brace themselves for was about to occur next.
Roxane lifted up into the sky, the already decrepit ceiling gave away all too easily as her body crashed through it. The rest of the ceiling gave out and went down, instantly burying the prince's men in the rubble. She roared fiercely as she gave a single flap of her wings, and then she took off into the night sky.
She soon reached the spot where she told Diana to meet her, and when her hind legs touched the ground, she transformed back into her womanly body.
Roxane stood there naked and shivering in the cold for some time before she began to hear the sounds of people moving towards her in the forest, crashing through the brambles and all sorts of vegetation to get to her.
"Roxane!" Diana was the first one to break free of the tree line, running towards the edge of the lake. In one quick motion she threw Kian's cloak around her body, trying to shield Roxane's feminine figure before the other two could see her.
Roxane gathered the cloak around her tightly and moved down to wipe her mouth with the water from the lake.
When she got back up, her golden eyes met the eyes of both of the men as they stood at the edge of the forest, regarding her in a new light. She looked almost feral to them as her wavy hair was madly all around her face, her face had traces of blood on it, and her eyes, her eyes had the same unnerving intensity to them.
"Goodness gracious." Thatcher breathed out and collapsed on the floor, taking his forehead in his hand as he still held on tightly to his sword in the other.
Kian just continued to stare at her with the same emotionless stare, and she so desperately wished in that moment she could read the mind of the wizard. Hopefully she would find he did not differently of her. That she was still the same woman he called pretty only a few hours ago.