Penny’s breath hitched. She stumbled back. “Wh— what are you doing here?” she asked wondering as to how could this woman enter the workshop despite security posted right outside. “How did you get past the security?”
Zoe’s claws lengthened and so did her fangs. “It was easy. The blast that occurred on the outside was big enough to attract their attention. Rest was easy. In case you forgot that I am a sorceress and I can add glamour to my appearance.” She started floating slowly towards her. Her crimson skirt flowed in waves behind her. She wasn’t loaded with gold this time. The only gold thing on her was her bustier. She was devoid of her makeup and she looked terrible without it. Her eyes were not as large as they seemed. Her nose and the skin beside it were dusted with brown freckles.
&ldq
Ludwig placed her on the soft mattress and then kneeled beside her on the floor. “I am so sorry, Penny,” he said as he stroked her hair. She was looking so pale that he thought she would faint. He removed her shoes and loosened the buttons of her pants. He got up from his place to get a glass of water for her. Penny gulped it all in one go. Once she settled back on the pillow, he tucked her with the blanket. He was so angry at what happened that he wanted to go and find Zoe on his own, and then kill her with his hands. “Calm down,” he said sensing her fear, her terror and her restlessness.“She wanted to kill me using her sorcery…”“I’ll kill her for that,” he muttered. “But calm down Penny!” he said, as his instinct to protect her, to comfort her nearly overrode his need to ki
There was blood splattered everywhere—against the truck, against the floor, against the door of the truck, its seat and then on the floor of the brothel. It flowed in narrow rivulets and pooled beneath her or in the grooves of the floor. Penny opened her bruised eyes and through her blurred vision saw Maxim standing over her, gazing her greedily. The place stank of blood and puke and wet ground. After dealing with Paul, Maxim had asked his men to pick her up. A giant man scooped her off the ground in that state and hauled her over his shoulder. She was too weak to resist. Her hands were tied in the front and so were her feet. “No…” she whimpered as she looked at Paul for one last time. A woman in a pink shirt with daisies all over, caught her gaze. She walked and stood right next to Paul. Penny tried her best to lift her head higher to see who she was. The man who had hauled her on his shoulders gave a slap on her buttocks and
Penny would have never imagined what it was to be on a beach. Ludwig took her on a secluded beach in the south of France. The lovely beach located on the French Riviera was an exclusive little cove not much frequented by the locals. And that is what Ludwig wanted—complete privacy. In fact he had rented all the lodges and little villas over there for the next few days so that no one could get the bookings done during the time he spent with his wife, so that no one else sees his skimpily clad little mortal other than him. He had bought a large number of bikinis and beachwear for her, each more ludicrous and skimpier than the first.When they reached the villa they were staying at, Penny wondered as to where that extra large suitcase had come from. She was aghast at the sheer number of bikinis it had. “Why do I need so many of these?” she asked as she pressed her hand to her chest.&nbs
Penny’s brain stuttered. For a moment she couldn’t believe who she was seeing. She stared at the girl in front of her who was wearing black cut-offs and pink shirt. She was laughing at the assistant who was pouring wine in a glass. “Gosh, I would love to see that wine pouring on that thing you are hiding inside.” She pointed at his pants. The assistant said something to her in French, which Penny didn’t understand. She continued to stare at Kate.“What is it Penny?” asked Ludwig, as he followed her gaze and then saw the girl who was giggling uselessly and passing lewd comments. He could feel that her heart rate had increased and it made him uneasy. “Calm down girl,” he said as he curled his hand around her shoulders.Suddenly Kate looked up at Penny and she stilled. Her face blanched as if she ha
For a moment Kate’s mind stuttered at Ludwig’s questions, but if she didn’t make up a story, she was sure that things would spiral down pretty sharply. “That’s because we pleaded with the police a lot, but no one was interested in coming with us. We even gave them the clue that you were over there, but they didn’t come with us.”“You liar!” Penny growled. She was about to lunge at Kate, when Ludwig held her tightly at her waist and prevented her from doing so. Although he was seething from the inside, on the outside he appeared calm as a night sky just before the storm.He swirled the wine in his glass and in a very cold voice said, “In that case now that you have met her after such a long time, I didn’t particularly see you welcoming. How so?” He pressed the glass to his lips.
Penny’s anger was uncontrollable. Her face contorted and she was red. While coming back to the villa, not even once had she stopped and had bicycled hard to stay in front of him or away from him. She didn’t want to talk to him, she didn’t want to see his face and all she felt like now was to slap him hard. When they reached the villa, she threw her bicycle on the pavement and strode inside.“Penny!” Ludwig called her from behind. “Stop. Listen to me!”But she didn’t stop and rushed to the bedroom. She banged the doors close behind her, hoping that he would get the hint and doesn’t come in or she would simply burst at him. She went and stood in front of the bed. In order to vent her frustration out, she screamed out loud.Ludwig blasted ope
Kate gripped Penny’s upper arm again and pulled her along savagely towards the forests. They continued to walk till they reached a thicket of trees, and Kate shoved her to the ground. Penny stumbled forward and fell. She regained her balance and then looked at them. Her breath became ragged when she saw her holding the knife.She tried to reason it with them, “This is a bad idea. Look, just leave me and I will never ever come in your way. Ludwig is my husband. If he will come to know what you’ve done, he is going to hunt you down and kill you. In fact he already knows who you two are. So trust me, you won’t find a place on this earth, if he comes to know what you have done.”Kate’s eyes widened. “You are such trash. You dare to speak lies to us. Who the hell is going to marry a whore like you?” Kate la
Ludwig brought his shaky fingers to touch her skin. He stroked her back gently as if trying to believe what his eyes saw. Penny had healed completely. There wasn’t even the slightest line of the scar over there. Thankfully the knife was small and had stuck in her flesh. The doctor in emergency had torn her shirt from the back and sewed the wound with two stitches.Magic of the Necklace of Dorza had started working. Ludwig was stunned. “Penny, you have healed. There’s no scar here.”Penny stilled. How could this be? She whipped her head to see Ludwig who was still gazing at her back. On instinct she took her hand to her back and felt the skin. It was pretty smooth. Then she looked at him with wide eyes.“We need to get out of the hospital now!” said Ludwig.
The Royal Labor RoomCastle AlnorFive weeks laterPenny had felt the first constriction seven hours back. They were sleeping and Penny was very uncomfortable. She was sleeping on her back and wanted to turn towards Ludwig, but her tummy was so huge that turning to any side was an issue. Understanding her predicament, Ludwig turned to her and draped her in his arms. She nestled her face in his neck and went off to sleep. She woke up with a pain on the sides of her tummy. Clenching her teeth, she muffled her groan so that Ludwig wouldn’t wake up. He had been working non-stop with his kingdom’s vicegerents since the new year was approaching and they had assessed the economy and trade for levying taxes and allocating budgets. It was only after midnight that the man got to sleep.So she simply pressed her face in his neck
Ludwig looked at Tova and then at Penny. He held her hand and squeezed it lightly. “We have to let him go Penny…” They saw him getting up and going to the railing of the terrace where he leaned over and gazed into the night and beyond. Soft, chilly breeze carried the scent of roses.Ludwig turned his attention to Penny. He placed his hand to her heart and she gasped. Her heart was beating. What might have looked like a lewd gesture to the world was nothing but a constant reminder for him that she survived that day. She fought the battles and she was alive, not dead. Her beating heart was the proof that she didn’t lay there lifeless. Because that day Tova had said that she might die. He shuddered at the thought.He remembered how after bringing Nestefel, how very pale she looked. Ludwig was surprised that she was lying there with her eye
Desperate to get her back, he squeezed her tightly in her arms, too tightly. She whimpered.“Penny!” he sounded excited even at her whimper. That meant she responded to him. He wanted to embrace her tightly again in his arms, but he stopped himself because he knew that he would crush her. “My baby…” she called her back. “I can’t— I can’t—” he swallowed his saliva but he choked on his words. I can’t live without you—he meant to say.Darkness again.“It is the fourth day and she is still not awake!” Ludwig was shouting at Tova. “What kind of a healer are you?”Tova popped his ear and scowled at him. Not answering him, he looked at his thick journal
The tendrils of gray smoke whirled ferociously around her and they extended like whips. Penny walked towards Haley. A storm of ice and wind and debris swirled making it impossible for anyone to stand near her. She was consumed with so much hatred for the witch that she didn’t where it began—from the fact that she showed Zoe dreams of gaining Goddess-hood or from the fact that she made Zoe a tool for her means. And Zoe—she became a menace in their lives. Her ambitions surpassed her logic. She couldn’t think of anything beyond herself and the toxicity she threw towards her or at Ludwig was fed by this witch. Haley was the root of the menace, she was the root of all evil.The smoky tendrils lashed out.“Penny!” Brishor shouted when he saw her. “You must control!”
The gray tendrils coiled around her and whirled and whirled until she became invisible behind them. She thought she was being lifted and then suddenly she was falling… falling. She screamed. “Ludwig!”“NOOO!”Penny heard Haley shrieking with fury as she lunged at her. She could feel a tug at her dress. Was she dreaming? Where was the swirl taking her? Did she do right to ask to take her away? She didn’t even know the destination. She didn’t have the time to tell it to take her to Renada. The need to escape overpowered her rationality. As the darkness cleared, cold winds gusted around and slapped her cheeks and her body. She landed softly on something so cold that her body shuddered. When the tendril receded, she looked around. She whirled around on her hands and knees and saw that she was on ice—a vas
Penny sagged down the door. His head was in a tizzy. What just happened? She couldn’t wrap her mind around the events that took place. Haley told her that she was going to take her to Ludwig, instead she found herself in a bloody dark chamber. Terror added to her already hyper emotions. Bile rose in her throat.At first Penny couldn’t see properly in the darkness, but she adjusted her vision and realized that she was in a small cell, which was barely ten by ten feet. There wasn’t a single window in it. She was sitting over a hard concrete floor that was cold and damp. Her body shuddered. She played all the memories in her mind, which were concerned with Haley. She closed her eyes and kept thinking again and again as to where did the woman lack, or where was it that she left a loophole in making her think that she was a potent danger. And to her surprise, there wasn’t a thing w
“It’s getting late!” said one of the witches who was sitting right beside the first portal. “I have already given you fifteen minutes extra and I need to wrap this up!” She was too impatient to close the portal.The guard standing near the portal grunted at her. “You have taken a lot of money for this portal. It won’t harm you if you keep it open for another fifteen minutes. Can’t you see more soldiers are coming?”“Hey! Don’t talk to me like that. The deal was done and it was agreed that the portal would remain open for the money. Your king isn’t doing a charity, nor am I asking!” she said and got up from the log of wood she was perched on. Angrily, she walked into the portal and it shrank as soon as she left. The guard looked at her with fury and threw his spear at her b
Over the next four hours, Brishor had called his warriors whom he split into two. Ha’daz was ready with his soldiers on the northern side.The portals which Tova had bought from the witches of the black market, were supposed to stay open for four days. Lykae soldiers were employed on both the sides to make sure that no one except the army walked through them. Even the witches who had created the portals were standing over there, guarding them and keeping a watch on all.Knowing that Brishor’s dragons would take care of Maxim and his rogues, Ludwig concentrated on Keplin. His target was Zoe. If she fell, then Keplin would also weaken.“Why don’t you use the weapons I have crafted, Ludwig? I have been able to craft half of your order and it is waiting in the inventory,”
“Haley is a witch. She can open portals, Ludwig. And she is a good friend. I am sure she will help us,” said Penny with urgency in her voice. Over the days Haley had been extremely sweet and supportive to her. She had traveled in various realms and gathered cute things for Penny and her baby. Her gestures were warm.Ludwig narrowed his eyes. He looked away and scratched his chin. “I don’t think we need her help at the moment Penny. You just focus on getting Brishor here.”“I will do that,” she said. “But who has attacked us? And why? Is it Keplin?” Suddenly her skin was lined with goose bumps and she thought air whooshed out of her lungs. What if Zoe was also with Keplin?Ludwig didn’t want to give her the details. “Don’t worry