The Legend of the Blue Eyes (34 page)

“You thought you’d get a jump on me?” Turner
asked. He slid his arms around her waist and nuzzled his face into
her hair. Thomas, moved by the display of affection, walked into
the diner. Turner held her hand as she slid to the ground. He began
to lead the way into the diner, but Arianna stopped him.

“Um, maybe a walk?” Arianna asked, sensing
Devin parking the car behind the diner. Devin walked into view, and
Arianna looked away.

“Sure,” Turner replied. “Bird brain, we are
going out for a walk.” Thomas stopped mid stride and turned back
around. Turner ignored Devin as well, but he already had his
approval.

Turner held Arianna’s hand as they began to
walk down the sidewalk. Thomas was half a block behind them as
extra security. Nothing needed to be said as they walked. Turner
could feel the tension rippling off of Arianna after dealing with
Devin. Arianna smiled up at Turner and laid her head on his
shoulder. He never questioned her judgment, regardless of whether
he agreed or disagreed with her. Arianna reached up to put her arm
around him. She paused and tried to sense the people around her
again. It was only slight, but she could smell the scent of both
baku and dearg-dul approaching from somewhere behind them. They
were being followed.

Becoming a Legend
(Book 2 of the Blue Eyes Trilogy) will be
released in June of 2013. Follow me on Goodreads and Twitter for
updates!

Also available now by B.
Kristin McMichael, the historical fantasy YA
novel
—To Stand Beside Her

Prologue

Kay slipped on the cold stone but kept
running, her shoes clicking lightly on the hard marble floors. It
was her first level-four assignment, and she had failed. When she
initially accepted it, she needed the money. Now it didn’t seem to
matter. Kay looked down each hallway for a door or hiding place.
The nobles’ quarter in the palace of Lior was unfamiliar
territory.

“Straight ahead,” the young man directed the
men following him. The young guard led the chase, fueled by his
embarrassment. He hadn’t noticed that the girl he had been
questioning was a courier until she became flustered by his
inquiry. The young lady with wavy light-brown hair and blue eyes
looked friendly enough at the time; she had blushed when he
searched her and her smile was nice to look at.

Kay heard the men getting closer behind her.
She needed a hiding place, but the large, bare hallways offered no
help. Turning right at the next intersection, she continued down
yet another unfamiliar hallway. Kay was lost.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” a
dark-haired, wide-built man said as Kay bumped into him.

“So sorry,” Kay replied. “I’m late to work.”
Kay had heard Leila, her best friend and the best courier in the
business, use that reply many times before.

“Stop that girl!” a young guard yelled from
the other end of the hallway.

Kay quickly moved to pass the dark-haired
man, but he easily clasped her wrists between his thick, masculine
fingers. Kay looked into his eyes and tried her best to put on a
flirtatious smile.

“Mister, you want me to be late for work?”
she asked innocently, batting her eyes. It always worked for
Leila.

The man’s grip didn’t
loosen. Leila was right again; this wasn’t the business for Kay.
Try as she might to mimic her best friend, nothing seemed to
work.
If only I were
Leila
, Kay thought, letting her mind
wander as she waited for the guards still running down the long
hallway to catch up. Leila was the best. Most of the neighboring
counties had begun calling Leila the Ghost Courier, and the
description was an exact fit. Leila could easily enter any heavily
guarded place and leave unnoticed with her assignment. Kay had
watched her many times in action. Leila truly was a
ghost.

“I’m so sorry,” the young guard said as he
bowed his head to the dark-haired man still tightly holding Kay’s
wrists. “Lord Macarius, please accept my apologies.” The boy didn’t
lift his head.

“What did she do?” Macarius asked.

“She was heading into the noble’s quarters,”
the boy explained, still bowing. The boy handed Macarius the papers
that he had confiscated from Kay.

“Lock her in the jail for now. King Nalick
will deal with her later,” Macarius replied.

Kay turned to the stout
man, Macarius, who was now smiling as he strolled away. He knew the
truth behind the papers.
Leila is going to
kill me
, Kay thought. She had taken the
assignment against Leila’s warning. Leila was always right. Deep
down, Kay knew that she was not really meant to be a
courier.

When they arrived at the jail, the guard
ushered Kay to the cell. Would Leila find her before the king tried
her? Kay had heard the horror stories from the locals that King
Nalick was a harsh man known to arrange for severe punishments. Kay
moved to a bed in the corner of the room and stood on it to look
out the tiny window. The sun was still rising, but Leila would
begin to worry soon. Kay stepped off the bed and moved to the
corner. Leila wasn’t completely healed from her last trip. Both
Leila and Kay’s employer, Roger, would be upset. Sighing, Kay
huddled in the corner to wait. There was nothing else she could do.
Kay was caught.

Chapter 1

Benét Leila quietly sipped her tea at a
table on the patio of Veila’s Tea Shop. The quiet, demure character
Leila portrayed was in stark contrast to her actual personality.
Carefully, and in the most ladylike manner, she attempted to
scratch her head. The black wig covering her naturally golden red
hair and the scarf placed skillfully over it were beginning to
prove bothersome. Maybe it was the persistent heat of the city that
Leila wasn’t accustomed to, or maybe it was the bad feeling she had
because her best friend Kay was over an hour late. It was not like
Kay to be late for their meeting to go home to Kay’s son. Leila
sighed. They were losing their best chance to leave the city. Soon,
the empty streets would be filled, and they would miss their
opportunity to blend in and be lost from any of the trackers.

As the noon bell struck, people began to
slowly leave their shops and trickle down the street. Shortly
thereafter, the streets would bustle with citizens. Every day as
the sun reached its peak above the city, the city of Lexia would
temporarily halt as all the residents proceeded home for their
midday meal. Leila sat quietly, impervious to the noise around her,
sipping her tea as she waited impatiently. Out of the corner of one
eye, she noticed the tea shop owner closing the shop doors.

“Just drop your money in the slot at the
door before you leave, honey,” the wrinkled old lady said to Leila
as she locked the door and slowly shuffled down the street into the
forming crowd.

Leila’s eyes followed the old lady down the
street. Leila sat alone on the patio of the tea shop, but across
the street stood a young man, trying his best to stay hidden. His
dark blond hair was noticeable as he was a full head above the
people passing him by. Lexia was a city full of olive skinned,
black haired residents, and this man was obviously not a native.
Despite his attempts to go unnoticed, the man followed Leila. New
trackers were easy to spot.

One
, she thought to herself.
No,
two
, she corrected.

Two doors down, a man was being
unceremoniously pushed out of an adjoining shop as the owner tried
to close for lunch. Leila had broken a cardinal rule: one must not
stay in one place too long. She needed to keep moving.

“Great,” she whispered under her breath. Not
only was Kay over an hour late, now she had to lose the tails
before she could go looking for her. Luckily for her, it wasn’t her
first trip into Lexia. The pay was always better when an assignment
included a trip to Lexia. Over the years, she had been there so
many times that it was beginning to feel like a second home.

Leila stood and methodically stretched. She
had waited long enough; it was time to move on and find out what
was keeping Kay. Leila walked over and slid two coins into the slot
in the middle of the shop door before eyeing each of the men
trailing her.

This should be
easy
, she thought,
newbies.

Leila knew the city better than any local.
If Leila moved quickly, she could use the stragglers as cover on
her way back to the inn. Darting between streets, she took care to
blend in with the crowds. Before long, she had lost both of the
trackers.

That didn’t take
much
, she smirked at the thought of each
man as she left him.

It was always fun to teach the new trackers
a lesson; Leila wasn’t worth their time. Leila was an expert
courier. She had been hand chosen six years earlier at the age of
twelve; now at eighteen years of age, she was the best courier of
any neighboring country. No one, man or woman, could keep up with
her. Leila was a ghost to many and a legend to everyone else.
Through her training, she had perfected the use of multiple
identities so that she could travel from city to city, fulfilling
even the most demanding assignments.

After changing clothes and packing her bags,
Leila followed the map in her head to the gate nearest to the
palace jail. Kay was too late by now. She had to have been caught.
Leila surveyed the area and saw that only one guard was on patrol.
She could easily sneak by, but if she was caught inside, it would
draw unwanted attention to her. The guard paced between the gate
and the gatehouse.

What is the best way to get
into jail?
she thought to
herself.

“Excuse me,” Leila said, as politely as
possible. “I heard from my uncle’s neighbor’s best friend that my
sister was thrown in jail for some silly misunderstanding,” she
lied to the young confused guard. Clearly he wasn’t accustomed to
being addressed by people on the street. Unaffected by his stunned
silence, she continued her lie, “she’s about this tall,” she
indicated with her hand to the height of her shoulder, “and she has
long brown hair. She’s traveling with my grandmother and me and
stopped by to find an old friend of our grandmother’s. From what we
were told, some mean guard misunderstood her and threw her in jail
without a single question and now we’re distraught on how to get
her out. I left grandmother back at the inn and told her not to
worry. But now I think I might be in over my head. I’ve walked
around these gates for hours, and it doesn’t seem like there’s any
way to get in to help her out. We’re not from around here, and I’m
afraid we will run out of money paying for the inn before we can
find out how to clear up this misunderstanding.”

“I’m s-s-sorry,” he sputtered out. The young
guard was having trouble talking to such a beautiful woman. “If
there’s any way I can help,” he quickly stammered.

“You can help me?” Leila acted as graciously
as she could while hiding her smirk. “That would be great; I don’t
know how I can thank you. Grandmother will be so happy.” Leila
hugged the stunned guard.

“T-T-This . . . This . . . This way,” he
stuttered. The guard began unlocking the gate, but before he could
finish his statement, the young, blond haired tracker from earlier
trapped Leila’s arms behind her. Leila had let down her guard, and
the tracker had seized the moment. The young guard bowed his head
in shock. “S-S-Sorry Anatolio,” he apologized to the young man that
held Leila’s arms behind her.

“You’re better than I made you out to be,”
Leila said to the young man.

Her capturer, Anatolio,
began to walk her through the gates and made no reply. It had been
years since someone had caught her off guard, and Leila was
enjoying the entertainment. Leila had lost him so easily in the
streets that she assumed he would not find her again so
soon.
He must have been waiting here for
me
, she thought.

Leila moved her arms a bit to see how tight
the young man was holding onto her. Anatolio adjusted his grip and
held on tighter as he began to push her through the doors to the
palace compound. Leila wasn’t foolish enough to run from him since
he would lead her right to Kay. Leila slowed their pace a little,
giving her time to look around and assess the corridors they were
passing through. She had been inside the palace over a dozen times
and knew where almost everything was, but it was always good to
double check for any new problems she might encounter. Anatolio led
her through a new section of the palace.

“Nice,” she commented, viewing the possible
exits and layout of the palace.

“Newly redone?” Leila asked, but got no
response from her silent captor. “The quiet, serious type I see.”
He still didn’t reply.

“So I know where you’re not leading me,”
Leila said as she turned slightly to see his face in an effort to
read his reaction. “We are not on our way to either the king or the
jail.” The man’s expression didn’t change.

“Is this the tour you give
all the ladies you kidnap?” Leila asked, still trying to get a
reaction. Anatolio just continued to push her through door after
door.
Since we are not headed towards Kay,
this would be the best time to leave him
,
she thought, but her curiosity of where he was leading her made her
continue.

Pushed through a doorway, Leila heard the
door lock click shut behind her and Anatolio released his grip.
From all the twists and turns to get here, they were close to being
right in the middle of the palace. Leila walked a few steps forward
to evaluate the room she was in now, but to her surprise she was no
longer in a room; rather she had been led to a garden.