His hand tightened around mine, his ears twitching.
“Luka?”
A single exhale escaped him.
And then, just as sudden as he had disappeared down the mountainside, just as sudden as I had fallen, just as sudden as our plans had fallen apart outside of the cabin—he jerked in front of me, his body blocking mine entirely, and a sound filled the air.
A gunshot.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Red.
There was so much red.
I don’t know when I dropped to my knees or when Luka ended up in my lap, just that blood was quickly soaking through the leg of his pants and turning the grey linen to black beneath my hands, and that no matter what I did, I could not get it to stop. I could not stop the sobs that tore through me, would not stop them, not as long as he kept bleeding with no end in sight, his hand braced against the side of my face, the words he had wanted to speak caught on the edge of his tongue. I thought that there was nothing else, other than his soft gasping breaths and the way that his eyes did not leave mine, but I was wrong.
I heard the gun click again.
No. No, no, no. Not him, not Luka. I placed as much of myself on him as I could, knowing that if he were to go, I would likely go with him. I wasn’t willing to live a life without him, not if that meant him dying in my arms.
But the gunman did not fire immediately, no. Instead, he began to talk, his voice low and cruel, relishing in what he had done.
“How did I know that if I fired at her, I would hit you?” The deep, familiar voice said, loading another bullet into his chamber as Luka moved his leg to the side, the first bullet clattering out onto the ground. N. H. Nikolas Harding. “You know, it’s a little ironic, I’ve been working on my aim because I heard a few people saying that I was useless otherwise. They called me a fish. I bet you wish you hadn’t said that now.”
Out of all the people to be holding the gun, I could not think of someone who I wished for less. A random guard, that would have been more bearable. But him? “Nikolas, please—” I begged, flinching as Luka hissed on my lap.
“I’m afraid there will be no pleading, Wren,” Nikolas said, shaking his head to himself as he calmly cocked his gun, a pistol meant for closer distances. He was so close to us that I could see the golden leaf details of his gun, the ones that indicated his rank amongst the guard. A part of me wondered if he had planned it, if so, did he choose that exact gun for the occasion? “It’s an order from the King to bring you back, and unfortunately poor Luka here resisted.”
“You can’t lie,” I snapped, still staring at Luka, still struggling to know what to do. “He’s done nothing, he’s not even had the chance to resist. It would hurt you to lie.” There had to be something, anything to stop the bleeding. I cursed the stupid clothes I wore, more difficult to tear than fine dresses or ballgowns. If I could stop the bleeding, then maybe he could heal.
“It’s not a lie though, is it?” Nikolas said. “Not when you were trying to run away.” He chuckled to himself, his shoulders straightening as he raised the gun. “How much do you think I’ll get, Wren? They set some men up for life, what do you think the King will give me for killing him? The Unseelie who stole his property and tried to turn her against him? I think I might finally be a hero.”
“You’re a fucking monster,” I growled, grabbing the hem of my leggings and ripping upwards, exposing a more than appropriate amount of skin before hastily shoving the material against Luka’s wound. His eyes rolled back ever so slightly, and I found myself flattening my body a little further over him to protect him from further harm. I just had to stop the bleeding. If I stopped the bleeding, there was a chance. If I stopped the bleeding… I didn’t know what we would do, I didn’t know what I would do; but I wasn’t leaving without him. “Kinsley, you need to stay awake.”
“Oh please,” Nikolas growled, lining up his shot. “Don’t throw yourself over him. He wouldn’t let you protect him. We both know that.”
“You’re still useless…” Luka bit down as he reached to the cloth, pressing it against the wound. “What will killing me do for you?”
“I think it’s a little obvious,” Nikolas said. “It’ll get Wren home. Bring her back where she belongs. Maybe shock some sense into her. There are more places you can shoot to kill, you know? I have all the time in the world to watch him bleed out.”
“I will shock more than sense into you,” I spat. “I will hate you every day for the rest of my life, so put down the gun, Nikolas, you are doing yourself no favors.” Just a few minutes, that was all I needed. In a few minutes, Luka would be healed enough to move. He could walk, he could breathe. He could put his magic to good use.
“No,” said Nikolas, his finger braced on the trigger, “I think killing him will do me all the favors I need.” A smile slid across his features, slow and almost sensual as if he could already taste victory. “It’s time to put an end to this obnoxious little love story, and set things back to how they’re meant to be; wouldn’t you agree?”
No, I wouldn’t. I would never agree, not to this. Not to this ending.
There was too much there. Too much need, too much want. Years of waiting for him to return, even if I couldn’t admit it to myself. Years of wanting to see his face one last time, and now there it was, eyes closed with sweat coating his forehead. “Please stay awake Luka, I’m begging you.”
“Wren,” my name was on his lips again, even when all other words failed him. I gave a shudder as my thumb traced along them, parting them gently, not willing to say his name back to him. Not if that meant goodbye. We just needed a few minutes longer.
“Ah,” said another voice in the silence. “But that would be so dreadfully sad, wouldn’t it?” The gun did not go off.
A spark of flame came to life at the edges of Adam’s fingertips, illuminating the forest around him as those two extended fingers pointed forward, placed close to Nikolas’s ear as Adam gave a vicious smirk, his white teeth glistening in the light.
Nikolas’s shoulders fell, his face growing white. “You’re meant to be looking for her as well,” he said. “You’re supposed to be trying to bring her back to the King.”
“Yes, well, you’ll find that, being neither Seelie nor Unseelie, I am capable of lying,” Adam said. “And I choose to do it quite frequently.”
Nikolas growled, caught in between looking at us and Adam, his hand still firmly on the trigger. “You’re supposed to be a hero, Harlow. I trusted you. You were my friend, I looked up to you even.”
“And it’s a shame you did that,” said Adam, not so much as faltering, “because I’m really not the role model type, you’ll find.” The flame in his hand grew, engulfing it entirely. “Put down the gun, Nikolas.”
“Why?” Nikolas dared to ask, his eyes drifting over to us as I knelt over Luka’s leg, finishing the final knot on my makeshift bandage to tide him over. “I could settle this all right here—We could settle this, Adam. We could be heroes, you and me. The King would be so pleased with us, don’t you want that? You told me before that you would die to please the King.” Nikolas had no idea how much Adam wanted that.
Nikolas had no idea that Adam was in love with Theo.
“It’s about having fucking dignity, Nikolas,” Adam snapped. “A little respect. Are you not capable of understanding this? Are you really going to sink so low as to kill him? To drag her back to the King? For what, so you can moon at her for the rest of your life? Move on.” He shook his head, proclaiming, “this isn’t heroics, Nikolas, this is cowardice.”
Nikolas’s face fell and then, just as suddenly as it did, it steeled once more. “What would you know about heroics anyway? You were born to be the King’s companion, given every opportunity in life because you are his plaything.”
“Believe me when I say, this is heroics, Nikolas,” said Adam. “This is me not letting you ruin your life for a petty grudge, you should be thanking me. Now, put. The. Gun. Down.” His flames licked dangerously clos
er, “or I’ll make you do it.”
“I don’t think you’ll be making anyone do anything.” Oh, for god’s sake—
Suddenly, the forest was alight, the little orange balls we’d seen before all gathered and a familiar head of blonde hair became visible. All around, the King’s men appeared, each light only illuminating him further, bouncing off of his golden curls and into the forest. His tense, angered form standing so close to Adam that the man could have turned around and brushed noses with him. Of course, he wasn’t the one who spoke. No, he was looking at Adam like he was an anomaly, like he was someone who’d knocked the world off its axis.
No, only one person spoke, and it wasn’t him.
“Stop.” Camden’s voice was heavy with compulsion, freezing nearly every cell in Adam’s body, the flames on his fingers being the only thing on him still moving. “I always knew you were a traitor, Adam,” she hummed, stepping out of the trees. A lantern in her hand illuminated her as she moved to stand beside Theo, who could only gape at the situation. That smug, predatorial grin was back on her face. “There you are, Wren,” she purred as Luka began to stir in my lap once more, his breath evening.
He froze as her voice hit the air, his eyes snapping open.
“Adam,” Theo swallowed hoarsely, his eyes still on the man. Adam couldn’t even respond.
“He has disappointed us all,” Camden said, her hand reaching up to touch the King’s shoulder. “He has used you.”
“The King is the one who used him,” I barked, not even taking a second to think about it.
The King’s face hardened, jerking away from Adam’s to look at me, a singular exhale escaping him as his eyes met mine.
“You were all he knew,” I rambled. “He was a kid, and you were all he knew, you were there—you made him think you cared about him! You used him!” Adam. Just looking at him made my heart drop, a desperate need to save him like he did Luka and I overwhelming me, but I didn’t know how. All I could do was justify him. “It’s not right, what you did wasn’t right. You didn’t give him a choice, you made him want to please you, want you to like him—He didn’t have a choice.”
The King’s eyes narrowed, brushing aside my comments as if they were nothing. Or maybe he didn’t, because his next words were targeted. “Luka,” he said, and his voice was commanding in a way I could not place. In my lap, Luka grew stiff once more, his eyes glassy.
“Stop.” My hands tightened on Luka’s shoulders. “Don’t talk to him.”
“This is your fault, Kinsley,” the King continued. “You have disobeyed me for the last time.”
It felt like my blood stopped flowing, I stared down at him, his eyes dull and empty. “Luka,” I said his name, it practically tumbled out of me. “Luka, stop,” his chest was moving in a strange way, his shoulders bobbing up and down with every breath, his eyes moving so far away.
“Beg her,” Theo’s voice was harsh and authoritative. I struggled to tear my eyes away from Luka, staring at his heavy-set brow and the heavy frown painted across his face, as if he truly didn’t wish to be doing what he was. “Beg her ever so nicely and make her take it,” in my arms, Luka sat up, his glassy eyes looking at me but not really seeing me.
His whole body was still.
“Beg her,” Theo repeated. “Make her say yes.” To what? What did he want? What did he do to Luka?
He was still bleeding, and I practically lunged for his leg as he tried to pull away. I had to keep the cloth against him, at least until it was healed.
“I can’t,” Luka said, his voice empty. “I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?” Theo growled. “Do it now. Mark her.”
A mark.
A fae mark.
Theo had already used his on Adam, he couldn’t mark anyone else. He could only have one. He had to have someone else mark me, his own insurance plan. He had to have Luka do it, because I wouldn’t agree to anyone else. If he had Luka do it, then he would always be able to find me, even if we were apart. If he had Luka do it, then he could use Luka to stop me in my tracks.
“I…” Luka stumbled his breath becoming more erratic. “I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t do it?” Theo demanded. “Are you really that useless?”
“I can do it,” Nikolas began.
“It won’t matter if it’s you,” Theo yelled. “She won’t let it happen. Now get off your knees, Kinsley, and do it!” His hand slapped against Luka’s face, sending him backwards with a sickening crunch, still, Luka made no move to rectify the situation.
“I’ll take the mark from Nikolas,” I said, immediately crawling to Luka, attempting to place my hand over his bleeding nose. “If you just stop, I will take the mark from Nikolas—Please. Please just let Luka go.”
“It won’t work,” Theo said furiously, turning on his heel back to Camden. “I told you that this stupid crown is growing weaker,” Theo snarled, grabbing the base of his crown. “It’s the Unseelie, and he’s one of them. We need to move fast.”
On the ground, Luka began to stir again, coming back to reality. Before he could so much as react, I reached over him, closing my eyes and jerking his nose back into position. He made a small gargling sound in response, his hands reaching up far too slowly to stop me. That was one thing taken care of, out of a hundred.
“Guards, seize the shrill little shrew and grab her unruly sister from the outpost, incapacitate the big oaf if you have to. We’re going back up that mountain.” His words were slow and unhurried, yet the guards’ hands were quickly upon me. “Grab the pointy eared bastard as well, if she’s not making enough noise, we’ll force her to. We’re going to lure out her forest friend tonight even if it kills this Unseelie. He’d do me more use by dying than in the months I’ve spent trying to get him under my influence.”
I let out a furious shriek as they scooped Luka off the ground, a guard on either side of him.
“Music to my ears,” Theo purred sarcastically. “And don’t forget,” he spat, “my second.” The flame in Adam’s hand flickered ominously. “Oh, and Wren? I wouldn’t try to shock anyone. Ever since I learned of your little powers, we’ve started to use leather gloves.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Your parents would be ashamed of you,” said Adam.
“Considering the fact that you’ve never met my parents,” Theo said behind him, looking away as the guard tightened his grip, “I would say you couldn’t exactly know that.”
Behind the two, the rest of us walked in a line, a plethora of King’s guards at our sides. Even Lindy, who had put up quite a fight and tried to bite her guards, was dragged along. Each one of us had our hands tightly secured behind us. The only ones outside of the guards, walking unrestrained were Nikolas, Theo, Camden, and Mylene—who was forced to move when I made it my personal goal to inflect as much damage on the back of her legs as possible. Behind me, I could hear Luka’s hollow breaths, blood still running from his nose and leg as they dragged him along with little regard for his injuries. He did not dare speak.
“Give me another cry, Wren,” Theo said from in front. “Make it convincing, so we don’t have to make it real.”
If the guards so much as faltered in their holds, I would have made him whimper.
“You’re pathetic,” Winry spat at the King from far behind me. “A useless, greedy tyrant.”
“Your opinion doesn’t really matter, does it now?” Theo said. “Because I am still king. Now, Wren, a good yell. Let’s hear it before they have to sock Kinsley in the gut again. I’m sure he’ll be thankful for it.”
“We gave you our hospitality,” Kristin tried to reason with Theo for the umpteenth time, trying to stop him from hurting Luka.
“And now I am giving you mine by not throwing you off a cliff on the way up,” Theo said. “Wren, a cry of some sort,” he snapped.
“Fine,” I said, stumbling along between my two guards. “Enjoy it while you can.”
He did, I was sure of it.
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Still, as much noise as we made, no Unseelie came. It was lucky that Theo did not wish for the torches to go out, too afraid of what he might see. That at least kept the majority of them away.
“He wants you, I can tell,” Theo said. “But when will he stop biding his time? We have prepared you so nicely, surely he wants you to come back. Gancanagh aren’t known for stopping once they have a victim. Not when it’s a girl as powerful as you.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to see you,” I said. “I know I’m tired of your face.”
“Punch the Unseelie for me,” Theo dismissed, the guards behind me gladly complied.
I stumbled, clenching my eyes shut almost as tightly as my hands.
“It’s relieving,” said Camden as she passed me by, “she’s finally stopped screaming his name. We should have begun beating him long ago, if only because it spurns such wonderful reactions from her.” Camden leaned in, her face close to my ear as she demanded, “another sob, I know you have it in you.” I more than had it in me, but I bit it back.
I would have paid good money for her to go anywhere near my hands.
“You’re a shameful thing, you know that, Theo?” Adam said in response to the taunt, choosing to address the only one of the two who might have cared. “All of this for a pair of legs and a mouth so vile that it’s poisoned the whole country. I’m embarrassed to have been your friend.” Adam was the only one who could really lob insults, the King wouldn’t bother hurting him. Whether that was out of nostalgia or pity, I could not tell.
“Don’t talk about your future queen like that,” Theo said, not even looking at the man. Sure enough, a ring sparkled on her hand.
“My future queen?” Adam howled. “Congratulations my friend, but I’m afraid there will be no country left for you to rule if she’s to be crowned.” I fought the urge to nod. “You should really just kill me, because I don’t think I can suffer through that ceremony.”
“You’ll stay alive until you have a son to serve as a proper replacement,” Camden informed him. “Then your mark will be removed, and you will be left to die.” I forgot how sympathetic she was.
Quill and Cobweb (The Chronicles of Whynne Book 2) Page 20
