Royal Affliction (The Anti-Princess Saga) by Jennifer Marsh Page A

asked.
    I knelt next to Clifton in the warm sand.  “I will get you out of this.”
    “I know that you’ll try, but somehow I don’t think that your father is going to like me.”
    “When he sees what I see he will accept you.”
    “That’s if he lets me live long enough for me to explain myself.”
    I sighed, thinking of no more helpful words.  I just sat there, stroking his hair and trying my best to comfort him without words.
    The sudden noise of footsteps in the distance caused me to spring to my feet, prepared to defend my man.  I caught a glimpse of something purple coming at me and dropped my guard at once.  “Violet!” I shouted and saw her smile.
    “Friend?” Clifton asked.
    “Best friend,” I answered through a huge smile and I felt him relax a little.  Well, relax as much as he could with being held prisoner by the ground anyway.
    Violet’s name matched her well.  Her skin was a very pale shade of lavender.  Her hair was a darker, more plum color and it was long, much longer than I’d remembered it.  It was loose, falling down to her lower back and swaying with her long, striding steps.  Her eyes were two-toned, sky blue on the outside with a rim of lilac around her pupil.  She was all Zolera; even though you wouldn’t know it by looking at her.  Her purple tint didn’t match that of the traditional Zolera blue.  Most of the Zolera witches were like that: different.  My father had always said that it showed that they were more .
    She hit me hard and threw her arms around me in a hug so tight I could barely breathe.  “How are you?”
    “I’m fine,” I lied.  “How have you been?”
    She let go of me abruptly, looking as if I had struck her.  “There is terrible magic upon you.  It is feeding on your essence, sucking the very life from within you.”
    Her words frightened me a little though I tried to ignore it as I lifted my pant leg, exposing the silver jewelry strapped to my ankle.
    She clasped a hand over her mouth, stifling a squeal, and took a step back.  “The Ring of Eccus?  How did you get that?”
    “You know this thing?”
    “I do.  It belonged to the Yaro but it has been missing for some time.  We have had Yaro visitors from time to time to check in with the castles if there have been any updates in its status.  They used it to gain the strength and life from others.”
    The Yaro were fire demons that inhabited the Eastern territory of Kortis.  They were evil, power hungry beings that were always trying to become more than what they were.  I could easily believe that they would use this ring on lesser creatures to gain their strength.  But it wasn’t a Yaro who attacked me.
    “A Boru put it on her,” Clifton said and I jumped, momentarily forgetting he was there.
    She judged the head and hands protruding from the sand.  “Who is this?”
    “This is Clifton, my Zezka.  He is half-Boru and half-Zolera.”  My words came out calm, but inside I was screaming.  “Can you release him?”
    She eyed Clifton with interest and apparent conflict.  “I can, but I will need your father’s permission first.”
    “Please?” I begged.  I was hoping to have Clifton free from the ground before my father showed up.  I didn’t like the idea of him being caged in and unable to defend himself.  Not that it would be much use for him to be able to fight.
    “You wish me dead?”  She was reminding me of the consequences of direct disobedience from my father when you were not his child.  I’d been away too long.
    “We will wait for my father.”
    “Why did you bring him here?”  She trusted me.   If I loved this cross-species then she accepted him without question.  She was afraid for him more than me, and I loved her for that.
    I didn’t have a chance to answer before the clanking of what sounded like an army was fast approaching.  I glanced right to see just that.
    My father, King Dobbin, was in full fury and marching at us with purpose.   His