The Queen's Forbidden Love

Chapter 4

Claudia's POV:

As I sat there, waking up throughout the night off and on, I saw a few supernaturals walking passed us. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep through the night. I knew that I would have to make sure I deter the creatures from walking into the barrier and questioning what was there that they couldn't see. To keep them from trying to figure out what it was and discovering us.

The creature I was more than glad that never got close to us was the troll. If he had found us, he would be more than strong enough to break the barrier. This barrier isn't meant to protect you from anything of that strength. Its main job is to keep you hidden. Trolls aren't ones you see often, mostly in areas with thick wooded areas. We are close to Pennsylvania, near the mountains and heavy wooded areas. I'm not surprised to see one lurking about. They're loner creatures which means he was probably the only one in the area. He's a little close to the road and open area across the street but he never did leave the cover of the trees.

I saw one werewolf but he was just patrolling his territory. It's a good thing he didn't pass by when that Troll did or there would have been a pack fight. It would have taken the entire pack to take down that troll. The Alpha could take one down if they are lucky but I doubt he would've risked his life knowing that his pack could handle it. If that had happened, we would've had to try to leave unnoticed or we would have been caught up in the fight as well. The only reason why the pack didn't know we were here was because of the barrier blocking our scent.

I just leaned against the tree and closed my eyes for most of the night. I did drift off to sleep occasionally but was easily awoken by the sounds of the night. I needed to keep Bella safe and was more than glad to see the sun start to come up. We weren't too far from the edge of the trees so when the sun started to shine, I could see it on the road and the fields on the other side.

I reached over and lightly shook Bella to wake her. She started to mumble and groan as she came to. The fire had gone out almost an hour ago and even though I was starting to feel a little cooler, the heat inside the barrier stayed for quite some time after it was out.

"I would ask for more minutes to sleep but I think I would rather get out of here," She yawned as she sat up and reached for her bags.

"Once we get out in the sun we will be safer. Just about all of the creatures will stay out of the sun to limit exposure," I informed her as I put one of my bags over my shoulder and held the other with my hand.

"You ready? I will be taking the barrier down, which means we will be fully visible to anything out there and will need to quickly get into the sun to stay protected." I asked her and she looked around.

"Is there anything out there?" She asked and I shook my head.

"Nothing close at the moment," I responded to her and she slowly nodded her head, obviously a little worried about what all would be lurking about.

Once we were ready to head out, I lowered the barrier. The cooled air from outside quickly took over the area in the barrier the moment it started to open. I quickly rubbed my hands over my arms to help warm them. It may be Spring in the area but it is still quite cold at night. The farther into the mountains we get, the colder it will get and possibly even still have some snow.

I pull out my phone from my purse and check for a signal. It's weak, but hopefully, it will be enough to get a call out. We walked out of the trees and onto the road where the sun was hitting us, warming us. I stood there and searched for the closest taxi service or rent-a-car service that would be willing to deliver us a car.

"There's one taxi place that will come out this far to pick us up. After I told them our situation, he was willing to make an exception, with an added cost of course." I told her after I got off the phone.

"So, what do we do while we wait?" She asked me.

"Well, we could probably work on a few things," I told her with a shrug of my shoulders.

We walked over to a grassy area off of the road, not too far from where my car was sitting in the field and we took out some of the books. We worked on more Latin since that is what most of the spells are written in and probably the most important of all the languages for Bella to learn. Then, we decided to work on controlling the elements.

"You need to concentrate. Everything around us has, sort of like a frequency, a form of energy, or like sound waves you can tap into. You just have to find it and once you do, you can manipulate it." I explained to her again as she held her hand an inch from the dirt.

"I can't," She said in frustration as she pulled her hand away and sat back.

"I need my crystals to amplify my power," She told me again and I just shook my head.

"No, you don't. All witches can do this. Once you figure it out, the power you will get when you include the crystal will be even more powerful than what you've done before," I explained to her but she just shook her head.

"This is why I don't understand why they had me be the one for the job. The most important job in my family history was to save the world from a greedy vampire king and enchantress and they had me do it. I can't even move the little particles of dirt without a crystal." She complained to me as she started to give up.

"You're more powerful than you give yourself credit for," I started to tell her and she just shook her head.

"Yes, you are. You just spent your life working with gems and crystals and nothing else. Letting them do the work for you. Now, you need to set that aside and find the power from within," I told her.

"Okay," She said with a sigh as she repositioned herself, took a deep breath, and held her hand over the dirt.

She closed her eyes to concentrate. The dirt under her hand wasn't doing anything and I was starting to feel as if I was losing her. As in, she was going to fully give up and decide that she no longer wanted to practice magic...ever. This is common with witches that are new to the craft. It's very easy to give up.

I carefully placed my hand over hers, without touching her, and used my own power, without her knowing, to pull some of the dirt off the ground and into her hand. As soon as it touched her hand, I pulled my hand away, causing the dirt to fall before she could open her eyes and see what I was doing.

"I did it?" She asked with a huge smile on her face.

I couldn't let her give up. She's been trying to connect with the soil for weeks and hasn't been able to. It's the easiest one to manipulate since it most often isn't moving like air or water. I had to give her a little bit of encouragement that she could see so I just smiled and nodded my head just as the taxi pulled up next to us on the road.

"Are you Claudia McCavit?" The driver asked and I nodded.

'Yes. Thank you, " I told him as we walked over, put our bags in the trunk of the car, and got in.

---

After a day in the hotel, resting and relaxing, fighting with the insurance with my car, and doing what I could to not get a ticket or go to court, we were finally back on the road with a rental car. We didn't have much farther to go to our final destination for the next few months. I had decided to rent a cabin just on the edge of town. It was just high enough in the hills to have a walk-out basement and overlook the town below. It was close enough that we could easily walk to it if we wanted to from the backyard.

I had decided on this route because at the last minute before leaving my home in Florida, I would just decide on one of the few men in this area to be the chosen one. I'm not really in the mood to do a lot of searching or dealing with the hormonal idiots when my scent gets close to them. This isn't my choice at this time in my life and because of that, I have no interest in finding one that I could love. Depending on how well we hit it off, I might just decide to stay here for the duration of the pregnancy and childhood. That is if the man doesn't already have a family, which most generally they do. They are raised already with the knowledge of everything and know from a young age that they are not meant to be a father to the child of the royal witch. I never knew my father, just where he was born and raised, and my mother never knew hers. It's just the way this life is and we are raised to just accept it.

Maybe I will get lucky and the man I find won't already be taken or with a family and he can be mine. It's happened before, with previous queens but not very often. Usually, the queens find their love with someone else either during or after the raising of the next royal witch. The only issue with loving a human is, I will live much longer than they will. Even at the age of almost 150, I will still live longer than the men currently in the world. It makes a person not want to love for the knowing of what the future holds.

"So, this is the cabin?" Bella asked me as we pulled into the drive.

"It looks like it," I told her with a smile as I looked at her before putting the car in park.

It was a small cabin but it was more than enough room for the two of us. It's only one story with an open balcony to the basement below. The windows travel the full height of the basement and the first floor. Giving a beautiful view of the trees and town. Only two bedrooms with the kitchen opening up to the small living space. A spiral staircase takes you from the ground floor to the basement below.

"It's cute," She commented as we walked in and looked around.

"I figured it would be more than enough for us for a few months," I responded as I walked into the bedrooms and set my bag down.

Both of the bedrooms were basically the same size so it didn't matter who got which one.

"Since we obviously haven't been to the store to supply this fridge..." Bella started to say as she opened the cabinets and then the fridge.

"Let me guess, you're hoping to go out?" I asked her as I walked out of the bedroom.

"Well, it does make sense," She commented with a shrug of her shoulders as she shut the fridge door and turned around.

"I guess, the sooner I find one the quicker I can get this over with," I told her, giving her a huge smile on her face.

---

"I think the makeup is fine. I can hardly see the bruising on your forehead or the little cuts on your face," Bella commented as she walked into the bathroom while I was doing my makeup to help cover the fact that I rolled my car.

"I guess. It's about the best I will get it." I told her as she leaned on the doorframe.

"Why not use a mirage to cover them?" She asked.

"I guess I could but I don't think it's necessary," I told her as I took one more look at myself in the mirror before walking out of the room.

It was a nice night for the time of year so we decided to make the short walk off of the balcony and down the many steps to the street. It won't be much of a walk from here to town.

"So, you're certain there are a few of the men in this town?" She asked and I nodded.

"Yes, this town had the most out of the state. Four to be exact." I told her.

"Four. Hmm, that's not very many to choose from," She commented, causing me to chuckle.

"No, not really but I will choose from one of them. I'm already ready to get back to my life in Florida." I responded.

"You work too much," She informed me and all I could do was nod my head in agreement because she was right.

"That means we need to try to have a little bit of fun before we go back. So no finding the first one and hopping in bed with him. Let's find them all and have a little fun with them first." She told me with a smile and I just looked at her.

"I have no intentions of just bedding the first one I find," I told her as I laughed.

"No probably not. Otherwise, you would have just jumped the one in the last bar or the ones back in Florida," She laughed.

We continued to walk the short distance to town. We talked casually as we walked the streets, looking around and seeing where some of the shops were.

"According to my phone, there should be a bar just around the block. Maybe we will get lucky and find one in there," I told her and she just nodded as we walked.

"Would you be able to sense them from outside, before we walked in?" She asked and I shook my head.

"No, we do need to be a little closer to each other than that. At least 100 feet and we can't sense through walls." I explained to her as we walked into the building.

As soon as I walked in, I knew that one of the men was not in there. However, I did notice a different scent when I walked in. I knew Bella could smell it too the moment she slowly and carefully nudged me with her arm.

"Claudia, um, what kind of bar is this?" She softly asked but knew that several ears in the room could hear us.

"The kind you think it is," I answered her as we looked around and saw several of the creatures of the night, blending in the best that they could.