My eyes slid to Chivalry, who reared back as the guard approached him. My heart thundered in my chest, realizing he was cutting off our escape while disguising it as a need to reach the palace sooner. I wasn’t stupid enough to fall for it, but arguing wouldn’t stop it from happening.
I walked toward Chivalry, ignoring the guards who tried to push me away. Holding out my hand for my horse, I exhaled as he calmed and sidestepped toward me. As I clucked my tongue, he soothingly placed his muzzle into my palm. He rubbed it against me, neighing his displeasure while I exhaled again slowly.
“You’ll be okay, sweet boy. I will meet you there and feed you the best oats in the world. Be my good boy, and I’ll come to see you as soon as we arrive,” I cooed, leaning my head against his neck. “Keep the others calm and tell them we are safe and on our path.”
“You speak to the animal as if he understands, crazy woman,” the guard snorted, and I smirked, watching Chivalry shake his mane and prance around.
“They’re much smarter creatures than you think they are,” I returned icily, leveling the guard with a chilling look. “Should anything happen to my boy, I will return to take yours,” I warned, lowering my icy stare to his dick. “And I’ll do it while you’re still alive. See that Chivalry is treated well, as he is very important to me.” The guard laughed coldly, glaring at me as I turned, walking past Torrin, who narrowed his eyes.
I stood with my group, waiting for the men to take us into their territory. Amo’s owl, Scout, left her shoulder and flew around us, squawking his displeasure as Amo waved him off. My heart hammered in my chest as I felt Torrin standing behind me, and my eyes slid to Amo as the men moved in around us. Inhaling, I sucked my lip between my teeth, closing my eyes as my heart echoed in my ears, pounding like thunder.
“They need to be wearing cloaks,” Torrin announced, and I watched as the girls were covered in them by the men behind them. “Here, woman,” he growled when I failed to turn away from the look in the men’s eyes.
I felt the cloak on my shoulders, and with it, magic wafted through me. My body grew pliant, and my mind turned numb. Torrin picked me up and moved toward a waiting wagon. They brought the others and deposited beside me in the same ale-scented wagon. I growled, staring up into Torrin’s eyes while he glared down at me.
“Can’t have you remembering the way back, now can we?” he asked, smirking as I moaned. “Sleep. You’re going to need your rest.”
My eyes grew heavy as Torrin touched my cheek with his fingertips. He smiled coldly, his eyes appearing black as I blinked, fighting sleep. He lowered his mouth, whispering against my lips.
“Stop fighting it, little warrior. It’s spelled with your potions. After all, your people use it on each other more than they do us.” Us?
I rocked in the wagon, hearing my team moan around me as they, too, fought the pull of sleep. Mugwort and lavender. He’d used our tonics to render us paralyzed and unable to stay awake. Lips touched mine, and teeth nipped playfully as he growled huskily against them.
“You’ll wake up where you’re supposed to be,” he stated, standing back before nodding to someone.
The wagon started forward with a jerk, and I stared up at the sky, watching the wall as we passed beyond it into the lands of the Kingdom of Night. Only they weren’t dark. Light illuminated the skies, but the glow came from the ground. My heart stopped as I realized why he’d put us to sleep before going past the wall.
They lined the entire inside of the wall with moonstones. It was built with the remains of the moon-touched people, and they had attached thousands of stones to the wall. Tears burned my eyes, pricking them angrily. I closed them, succumbing to the potion, I’d brewed myself.
Someone jolted me awake and then yanked me from the wagon. My heart flipped in my stomach as I fought off the hands that held me. I couldn’t hear, couldn’t feel anything other than weightlessness that told me I was being carried and rushed into some type of dwelling.
“Stop fighting me, woman,” Torrin snapped, and then it hit me.
An icy chill rent the air as moaning exploded in the distance. Wraiths. I pushed down the fear, still paralyzed by the potion and unable to move. My eyes took in the shadowy walls of the structure, noting they were made of stone. On them were pictures that looked as if a small child had drawn them. My team was brought in behind us, and then Torrin began issuing orders while he lifted me, carrying me over his shoulder like a bag of flour.
His hand landed on my ass, or I assumed that was what patted my backside as the prickling sensation of my spine awakening, irritated. My legs burned and itched with the life flowing back into them as they woke with the sensation of fire ants biting them. I wiggled my rear, and Torrin’s hand landed on it harder.
“We’re surrounded by wraiths, Lexia. Stop moving and stop fighting me. We’re in an abandoned home, which means there are no wards or moonstones to prevent them from entering.”
Well, that was stupid of him.
“I’d have taken you into the village, but they’re rather—unwelcoming to your kind. Now, be a good girl and hold still. No noise, or we’ll be tossing some of you to them so that the rest of us can escape unscathed.”
I bristled, wanting to slit his throat and ride his mouth at the same time. I was seriously kicking his ass the moment I could move, and no longer surrounded by the one creature that could actually kill us. Torrin placed me on a bed in the attic, and I watched him from the moldy thing while the women were brought up behind me. The men placed moonstones at the attic entrance and then crawled back to sit beside us.
Torrin’s hand slid into the cloak I still wore, tracing circles on my skin, peering down to smirk at me. I studied his thick lashes and the way his icy gaze was swirling with something sinister. I’d miscalculated his strength and intelligence. That was a huge problem. Torrin’s hand slid into my shirt, rolling my nipple between his fingers before something crashed downstairs. No one moved or made a sound as the dragging of blades echoed through the lower floor of the house where we’d hidden.
Neighing started below, and the horrifying sound of horses being consumed filled the air. Normally, wraiths didn’t feast on animals, preferring two-legged creatures to four. Torrin’s cheek pulsed as anger and regret burned in his stare. My heart released a soft thump, grateful that Chivalry hadn’t been down with the horses. My eyes closed, shutting out the sound of slurping as the wraiths sucked the marrow from the horses’ bones.
We were fucked, and not in the fun, delicious way I’d hoped to be. I had a feeling we were walking into a hornet’s nest and about to be thrown into something dark and twisted, which meant I wasn’t any closer to finding my brother or the library.
Torrin leaned over my body, staring at the door as his men built a wall in front of us. The temperature began dropping, and scraping sounded before something exploded, and the entire house shook violently. I stared up at Torrin in abject horror as the floor beneath me crumbled.
“Fuck,” he snapped, grabbing me to envelop me with his heavy frame. No sooner had he rolled me, trading positions, the floor caved in, and everyone went sailing toward the ground, which was covered with wraiths.
Chapter Thirteen
There were times when you knew how bad things are about to get. And then there were those rare times when you realized exactly how fucked you were about to be. I knew it would be terrible as we dropped toward the ground with the house crashing down with us.
When we’d landed, Torrin took the hit against the ground and then rolled me beneath him to protect me from falling debris. Once the house had finished crumbling around us, Torrin left me on my back before he withdrew his blade, igniting the weapon with his magic. His men moved into action, fighting the wraiths that swarmed us immediately, drawn by the scent of our blood.
I stared up into the darkness, my body filling with terror from the nearness of the monsters surrounding us. My eyes were frozen open as frost covered my thick lashes, and air
refused to fill my lungs, creating a ragged breath that stuck in my throat. Something slammed against my side, and I jolted. The soulless, silver eyes of a wraith met mine before he lowered, sinking his teeth into my arm. Pain sliced through me, but I couldn’t cry out to alert Torrin.
I was going to die, and that realization sucked.
Something slammed into the wraith, making the pain lessen a fraction. Torrin peered down at me, sending his blade back between the creature’s torso and body. Then something shattered close to us, sending shards of glass raining down on me, or worse, shards of the wraith. I watched it move to the side where my eyes couldn’t follow. Pain shot through my thigh before a loud slurping noise filled the air. More pain sliced into my side but stopped as the blood turned to sludge within my veins.
The iciness in the air promised rest as the wraiths fed upon my body painlessly. Strangely enough, I felt at peace, knowing the end was near. Blinding light shot through the rubble of the house, and I sensed my sluggishly beating heart tighten with the pain of the loss. The wraiths howled, screeching against the light that momentarily blinded them.
Consciousness began to slip away, and I smiled inside as nothingness entered my vision. Something liquid gushed from my side, and a sliver of pain pierced my breast before swords were slamming into the wraiths feasting on me.
“Bloody hell, get them up!” Torrin shouted, but the sound was muted.
Everything was muted.
The pain I’d had.
The fear I’d felt.
The fact that we were dying.
The peace was—nice.
I’d expected to feel it all, but nothing came. There was just calmness in accepting what was happening and that I held no control over it anymore.
Hands grabbed my arms, and I was dragged away with wraiths still feasting on my body. Torrin dropped me, sending his blade through them as more light exploded around us. I was picked up, and then Torrin rushed me away from the howling wraiths as more light ignited, a telltale sign that another one of my sisters had died. He cradled me carefully, staring into my frozen eyes while he issued sharp commands, and then he rushed toward a house that had a light glowing from within the dwelling.
Inside, he shouted for a healer, but no one answered. His eyes looked around in a panic, cussing violently while he moved me to the fireplace, abandoning me next to it. Igniting the flames, Torrin withdrew his blade, turning to rush back into the fighting.
My eyes thawed first, and I turned my head to stare into Amo’s sightless, cloudy green eyes. I crawled and fought to make my body work. I struggled to get to my best friend, who had white lines running down her face. Screaming in frustration, I forced my body to move, shielding hers with mine while tears slipped from my eyes.
Like me, Amo was covered in bites from the wraiths, which meant poison was slowly killing us even though we’d escaped. My tears slid over her frozen face, and then something pinched me. I lifted to frown at her pink fingers.
“Don’t die, please,” I whispered through my cracked lips that oozed blood from being frozen shut and then jarred open with my words.
Lifting my gaze, I took in Tabitha and a few others, who were all slowly thawing out deeper within the house. A hissing noise sounded behind me. Turning, I discovered a wraith slowly inching toward us. The others were still too frozen to respond, and the worst part was, so was I. I watched it slowly dragging its feet across the floor toward us.
It dropped to the floor when it reached me, sinking its teeth into my thigh. Something silver flashed before my eyes, and I lifted them to find Torrin dropping to his knees to place his hand over the bite mark on my side. My head turned, staring at the wraith that lay lifeless on the floor beside me, in two pieces.
“Go find a healer, now!” Torrin demanded, and the sound of feet padding across the floor filled the home. “Get the moonstones and place them around the house,” he growled, and his eyes locked with mine. “Although they’re dead, they can still serve to keep you alive. You’re a fucking leader; act like it.”
I hated he was right, but knowing I’d lost more of my team stung my eyes with unshed tears. My heart tightened as my throat clenched, threatening to seal. Torrin witnessed me fight the need to get up and go to them, even knowing I was badly wounded.
“Stop fucking moving,” he warned vehemently. “You’re bleeding out. The wound in your stomach is deep and gushing your life essence onto the floor of a brothel. This isn’t how you die, Alexandria. You lost five women, which means the others need you to survive. Without you, they’re dead at the end of my blade. Do you understand me? I will fucking kill them if you die.”
“Fuck you,” I shivered, and he smiled.
“That’s my girl. You get pissed. Do whatever it takes to fight. You hear me?” He pushed down on my side, and I gasped, turning over to spew what little food I’d eaten as the pain became too much to bear. “I need the antidote now!”
A commotion started at the door, and then the room flooded with people. Torrin stepped back as a woman moved forward, grabbing my chin before something horrid tasting was forced down my throat. I gagged and then groaned as she held her hand over my mouth.
“You drink it, child. You hold it down, or you are dead, do you hear me?” she demanded, her sharp chocolate-colored eyes holding mine. “She’s going to bleed out.”
“That can’t happen,” Torrin argued. “The king needs her alive. Do whatever the hell you have to do to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Look at her body. It’s ravaged in poisonous bites. She is gushing blood all over the floor, and it isn’t something even I can prevent if her Moon Goddess seeks to take her from this world, Torrin.”
“Don’t let her die,” he commanded like she was a warrior on a battlefield instead of a healer he could order around. Torrin’s knuckles brushed over my cheek. “Stay with me, Lexia. The fierce assassin doesn’t die from a wraith bite. You’re stronger than that, understood?”
“You’re not a god, Torrin,” I whispered through chattering teeth.
“Not yet, no,” he replied, his lips tipping up into a roguish smile.
“That’s rather cocky,” I muttered, watching his eyes sparkling with mirth.
The healer snorted, pushing against my side, which caused nausea to roll through my stomach, churning it until it burned the back of my throat. I gagged at the taste while Torrin pulled me into his lap as the woman continued to examine us, shaking her head before she started tending the wounds.
“If she’s arguing with the likes of you, she may yet survive.”
Torrin smirked, pushing hair away from my face while she applied a moss-like covering over the bite marks. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that no moon-touched person had ever lived through the bite of a wraith, but I also didn’t want to die alone.
Another vial was pushed against my lips and tipped up. I drank it, staring up into Torrin’s icy gaze as the tonic sent heat rushing through me, colliding with the iciness that filled my limbs. I really didn’t want to die here, but it wasn’t looking as if we’d get a choice in the matter. Torrin would probably collect my stones and rub his stupid balls with them if I died.
That meant I had to fight. I had a mission to finish, an entire race depending on the cure for moon sickness. I was a warrior, one of only a handful of assassins with the skillset to accomplish this goal. No, Torrin was right, which pissed me off. This wasn’t how I died. I’d fight, and I’d see this through. I had to survive because Landon was somewhere in this kingdom, and I intended to find him and save him from the sickness, no matter the cost.
Chapter Fourteen
My eyes were heavy, and my body felt fragile and weak as I came to from the nightmares plaguing my dreams. I pushed up from the bed, searching through the shadows of the room. Struggling to get upright, or at least into a sitting position, took effort. The door opened, and Torrin entered, moving toward me as I tried to stand but fell into his arms.
&
nbsp; “You’re not healed enough to be up and moving yet, woman,” he growled, settling me back into bed.
“I need to see who lived,” I demanded, and he winced. “They’re my family!”
“You lost seven, Alexandria. I’m sorry, but they couldn’t be saved. Most died before we could get them away from the wraiths. Amo survived, though,” he offered, and I turned away from him as pain sliced through me violently with the losses.
“We shouldn’t even be here,” I whispered, sucking my lip between my teeth and biting it to null the pain inside of me until I tasted blood.
“But you are. You intended to come into our kingdom one way or another. You knew there would be losses,” he stated, pushing the hair away from my face. “You didn’t scar, not badly anyway.”
“Do you think I care if I scarred?” I snorted, turning angry eyes on him. “Seven people lost their lives because you drugged us, Torrin.”
“So it’s my fault?” he scoffed.
He stood, pacing beside the bed before he stopped and stared down at me, with anger humming palpably through the room. I turned onto my side, forcing my body to the edge of the bed to sit up. Dropping my head into my hands, I shuddered. My stomach churned, and my heart thumped against my ribcage. My head spun with guilt, and my eyes lifted to hold his.
“It’s your fault we’re here. It’s also my fault because, as their leader, I failed to assess and see the possibility of this outcome. I miscalculated and didn’t count on treachery before reaching the kingdom.”
“So what now, Lexia? You go into seven years of self-suffering because you couldn’t control the situation? That’s not how this works. You were captured, held prisoner, and drugged. You want to blame someone, blame me.”
“Just shut up,” I groaned, hating the pang of self-loathing and grief that rocked through me.
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