It was a creation with one purpose, one goal only: to kill. The prince struck the creature several times, but it showed absolutely no reaction to the slices in its already torn up skin. It didn’t feel pain. At least, not from any regular mortal weapon.
The pair became a blur with their impossible speed in the dark, and she struggled to keep track. She couldn’t find a way to intervene though she held the only weapon that could offer victory. Nik had his back to her, and she saw he was faltering.
An idea suddenly sprang to mind. Another impulsive, reckless, completely insane idea. She didn’t have time to think it over as it would be Nik’s life if she didn’t act soon.
Angling her sword, she sliced quick and fast, hissing at the sting that trailed like fire up her forearm. Faythe felt the warmth of her own blood soaking through her sleeve, and instantly, the creature’s eyes twisted to lock onto it. It threw Nik roughly to the side without a second’s warning and then darted for her, impossibly fast.
The prince was on his feet in a flash despite the hard blow against the wall.
Just before the thing reached her, Faythe’s eyes locked on Nik’s, which were filled with horror as death approached her, too quick for him to intervene this time. She tossed her blade to him as the mutant fae grabbed her and sunk its rotting teeth into her neck.
The pain was excruciating. But this was her only option. She wouldn’t have been quick enough to make a killing strike before it stepped out of her sword’s path.
Flames tore through the veins in her neck, spreading to paralyze her while the creature drank her blood. Then it was gone. Lumarias protruded from its abdomen as it gurgled, and black blood spurted from its mouth. The scorching pain in Faythe’s neck raged like fire deep under her skin, and she couldn’t hear sound anymore as her ears filled with a loud thrum. Her vision lost focus, vague as she caught the final blow Nik dealt, and the creature’s head went tumbling from its shoulders.
Faythe fell to her knees, feeling sleep numb the throbbing pain and lift her away from the foul stench of the thing’s black blood. She thought she heard her name but couldn’t be sure as agony drowned out all her senses. She swayed and fell into the form that pulled her from the ground, holding tight when her legs failed to withstand any weight. Nik, she realized, as his close scent filled her nostrils. She forgot where she was for a moment as the comforting smell stole her away to better memories.
She was floating and melted into the warmth of the body that carried her. Her head fell back, and the glimmer of emerald was the last thing she saw before darkness claimed her.
Chapter 33
Faythe
Faythe stirred, feeling hideously dizzy before she even opened her eyes. She could hear voices, but they were distorted as if she were underwater. She took a sharp breath in panic, relieved to feel the cool air rush down her dry throat. It cleared her head but stabbed her chest. Then, in stark contrast, she registered sickly heat and felt suffocated by the blankets that weighed her down.
With a jolt, she snapped her eyes open in a surge of anxiety, blinking rapidly as the new light stung her eyes and caused her head to pound.
“Not too fast.”
Her eyes met those of Tauria beside her when they came into focus, and Faythe stared at her, blank with bewilderment as she tried to rack her memory for information.
Then it all came flooding back at once.
The cave, the fae-mutant, the young boy. Oh, Gods!
Nik was the other presence in the room, and he made quick strides over to her side as she adjusted to her surroundings. Faythe was in her chambers. Horror overcame her as she looked to the prince and said, “The thing down there, is it—?”
“Dead,” he answered before she could choke out the word.
Her mind reeled as memories of the horrific ordeal flooded back to her. “What the rutting damn was it?” She could barely whisper as her throat was too painfully dry. It made her wonder just how long it had been since she passed out from the creature’s bite. Her body ached awfully, but she found the strength to sit up. Tauria helped and brought a cool glass to Faythe’s palm. She took it gratefully, greedily throwing back the water. It brought clarity to her head and vision as well as soothed her aching throat.
“We don’t know yet,” was all Nik could offer, and she saw he was just as disturbed by what they encountered in the caves below his home. It came second to his look of fear and concern as he looked down at her though, and Faythe figured she must look as hideous as she felt.
“How long have I been out?” she croaked.
The prince’s face fell, and she braced herself. “Three days.”
She blanched. Her hand reached to her neck and found it bandaged. Over her shoulder, she felt the dressings on her back under her loose shirt. She shuddered as the feeling of the creature’s foul mouth on her neck pulsed through the spot where its teeth pierced her flesh.
“Gods, Faythe…” Nik paused, looking as if he couldn’t bring himself to finish what he wanted to say. Tauria cast him a look of understanding. “We didn’t know if you were going to pull through. The thing must have injected you with some kind of venom—it took you out almost immediately, and being human, your body couldn’t fight it faster than it spread.”
Faythe only stared wide-eyed at Nik as he relayed the events. She had been obliviously near to her end and felt a wave of dizziness pass as she asked, “Then how am I alive?” as the prince’s grim look told her she should be a corpse instead.
“Yucolites,” Tauria answered simply.
Faythe blinked. She had come to love the tiny orbs of light magick that once saved the life of her friend, Jakon. But she knew they came with a price.
“It was Nik’s quick, brilliant thinking, actually,” Tauria added.
Faythe could tell he knew what fear lay in her mind at the mention of the yucolites.
“I really hope we find the damned ruin. I don’t fancy spending eternity with you in those woods in the Afterlife,” he said with a smirk.
She relaxed at knowing there wasn’t some other impossible task the Spirit of Life demanded to save her life this time. Then her face fell.
“You mean you didn’t find it in the cave?” It was the only reason she’d risked her life in the first place. Now, it all felt like squandered energy and a wasted visit to death’s door.
Tauria shook her head. “I think it’s down there somewhere. But we weren’t about to leave you to that thing, and we didn’t know if there might be others.”
Nik cut the tension. “You’ll need another few days to rest. I managed to get you out of the last meeting without too much suspicion.” He turned slightly, indicating his intention to leave, but didn’t remove his hand from Tauria’s in silent invitation for her to go with him.
The ward looked reluctant. Faythe gave her a weak smile and a nod to confirm she was okay and didn’t need coddling. In fact, she would be grateful for the solitude to wrap her mind around the terrifying ordeal and could already feel the comings of sleep despite her three-day rest. Whatever the thing in the cave was, it was unnaturally powerful and absolutely lethal. She could only pray to the Spirits there would be no more from where that creature came.
Tauria slid out the door Nik held open, but he stopped and turned to Faythe. “You try anything like that again, and I’ll kill you myself.” The ghost of a smile caressed his lips in his attempt at humor, but worry and relief drowned it out.
Faythe picked it up for him as it was the best communication she knew with Nik. “Don’t worry, Prince. I don’t plan to challenge dark immortal beings again anytime soon.” She nestled back down into the sinking sheets.
He chuckled a little and gave her one last longing look as if she might still die in front of him any moment. Then he quietly left.
Tauria
Tauria headed straight for her rooms, perfectly aware of the prince trailing behind her even though they passed the hallway that led to his quarters. He didn’t speak, and she didn’t care to ask why
he followed. She opened her door and was about to close it behind herself when a powerful hand connected with the wood to prevent her from doing so. She scowled at Nik, meeting his eye for the first time since they left Faythe.
“Can we talk?” he said quietly.
Her heart cracked at the pain laced in his voice that she very seldom heard. The last time was when he lost his mother. He needed her then, and it was clear he needed her now. She couldn’t turn her back on him no matter what friction lay between them.
She nodded once, stepping into her rooms and letting him follow her in. She went straight for the fire, which blazed eternally in harmless blue flames to take the chill off the winter night.
“You know, I wish it were me instead of her—”
“Don’t say that.” The prince cut her off in a low, dark tone.
She turned her head to look at him. His eyes were lit with coldness against the cobalt flames. “I would have healed quicker. Perhaps I could have outrun it faster—”
Again, her words were halted as Nik took a step toward her. “If anything happened to you down there…” His face softened, and the pain returned to it. He averted his gaze to the fire, slipping his hands into his pockets as he paced over to her. “There was a split second when Faythe disappeared and that monster along with her that I had a choice.” The contours of his face were made all the more prominent in the flickering light, and his jaw twitched as he ground his teeth together. “Faythe was in immediate danger of her life, but there was no guaranteeing that creature was the only one of its kind down there. She means a great deal to me—she always will—and losing her would have broken me in a whole new way.”
Tauria almost looked away from Nik as he poured his feelings for the human right out in front of her. Then the emerald of his eyes connected with something inside of her.
“But in that moment, I chose you, Tauria. For everything you’ve done for me, everything you are to me. I wanted desperately to aid Faythe, but I couldn’t until I knew you were safe. I couldn’t leave you. If I lost you, I don’t think I would survive it. I wouldn’t want to survive it.”
She felt her heart stop. Never in her century of being close with Nik had she seen such a vulnerability within him. It broke her as much as it lifted her. She didn’t know how to respond. As much as she wanted to be elated by his declaration, she didn’t know what it meant.
She asked in barely a whisper, “What do you want from me, Nik?”
“I don’t expect anything—”
“That’s not what I asked. What do you want?”
“I want you to be safe.”
Tauria took a step toward him. “I am safe. With you, I couldn’t be safer.”
Nik shook his head. “You’re wrong.”
She ground her teeth, feeling frustration rile her up at his contrasting words. The prince’s face was pained. A plea lay in his features for her not to press the matter further. She couldn’t understand him even after all this time of Nik pulling her in only to push her away when she came too close to breaking past his steel barrier. It hurt right down to the depths of her being. It hurt that he kept his deepest feelings reserved.
Tauria held those sparkling emeralds that soothed her pain as much as they caused it. She couldn’t push with him, or she risked losing him completely. Swallowing her disappointment, she straightened, her face falling into her mastered mask of cool indifference.
“I poured my heart out to you once, decades ago, and you left me alone in bed by morning as if I were just another one of your courtesans. I won’t make that mistake again.” She knew it was a low blow to open an old wound they had long since moved past, but it seemed relevant to remind the prince it was he who never saw anything romantic between them. He opened his mouth to counter, but she continued before he could. “Gods above, I couldn’t bear anything happening to you either, Nik, but you don’t get to put me down for seeking out the company of another when you’ve paraded your lovers around here and I’ve said nothing.” She tried to keep her tone calm, but she couldn’t help the bite in her voice after weeks of pent-up anger since their conversation about the Olmstone prince.
He flinched, and she could see he was deliberating whether to back down or match her indignation. Nik eventually sighed, and his expression softened.
“I don’t want there to be any more bad feelings between us,” he said. She hated the sinking disappointment, realizing it wasn’t the response she was hoping for. “I’m sorry. It was none of my business, and I won’t get in the way of you wanting to pursue other relationships again.”
He may as well have torn her heart out instead, but Tauria didn’t let it show. After all this time, she thought she would have hardened herself against the pain of the prince’s rejection. But it hurt as much as the first time he made it clear he wanted nothing from her in that way.
Still, she treasured his friendship, and to protect that, she smiled with all the warmth she could muster to accompany her next words.
“Then there is nothing more to be said.”
Chapter 34
Faythe
After another five days’ bed rest and a visit from a healer who was paid highly for their silence, Faythe almost felt normal again. The after-fever from the creature’s venom was a deathlike experience in itself. She had barely left her bed and hardly stayed conscious for more than the time it took to be force-fed by Nik or Tauria. It was embarrassing to say the least, and she was more than glad when she found the strength to get up and dressed that morning. Her muscles still ached, but it was bearable.
She sat by the fire—perfectly ordinary glowing amber embers as she requested. Flames that could burn; a warmth that was real. Yet she was drawn to it for far more than that, transfixed by the dance of fire and ash as if it could take flight at any moment and free itself from the confines of its stone pit.
Her deep thought was broken by a knocking at her door. She breathed deeply as she tore her eyes away from the mesmerizing waltz of fire. Her voice croaked as she called for the person to enter, having little energy to move to the door. Faythe didn’t turn to see who it was, figuring it was likely Tauria or her handmaidens. Nik was ruled out as he rarely paused long enough after knocking before welcoming himself in.
“You look terrible.”
She whipped her head around with a wince of pain to see Caius looking down at her. He held a smile, but his face fell in concern as he beheld the state of her. Faythe tried to stand, but the young guard motioned for her to stay seated and occupied the chair opposite.
“I’ve been better,” she admitted.
His conflicted frown dropped her stomach, thinking perhaps he had news about her two friends. It had been long enough now for them to have returned to High Farrow. Just as the suspense grew too much for her to bare, Caius spoke.
“I went with Jakon and Marlowe to Galmire.”
Faythe’s eyebrows rose in surprise. She had never asked it of the fae guard and wouldn’t have thought to, as it was a great risk should the king ever find out one of his own was party to the fugitives’ escape. “Are they safe?” she asked quickly. She wanted the details, every last one, but wouldn’t be able to take in anything else until it was confirmed.
Caius nodded, and she slumped back in relief, but he kept a grim look. An unease settled, and her pulse quickened as she waited for him to delve into the journey.
“Jakon and Marlowe are back in Farrowhold. They’re safe,” he began. “But I fear we’ve perhaps led those innocents to a worse fate if we don’t do something.” The guard looked pale, and it stirred a dark dread in Faythe.
“What do you mean?”
He leaned forward to brace his forearms on his knees, shaking his head as if he didn’t know how to explain himself. “People are going missing in Galmire. The town is hardly half the population it used to be.” He frowned into the fire as he tried to recall what he knew and make sense of it. “It gets worse. Those who do turn up…their bodies are left sloppily, always by the edge of
town, and they say they’re often drained of blood.” His eyes met hers again, and Faythe fell utterly cold.
Her mind raced and even started to throb as she replayed his words. Blood. It was the one thing the creature down in the cave wanted most—had even gotten itself killed by dropping its attention in such a frenzy at the sight of it.
Her blood—human blood.
She didn’t want to believe the pieces that fell almost too perfectly into place. She couldn’t ignore the possibility, but she stored it in the back of her mind to look into later.
“Thank you, Caius. You didn’t have to risk yourself to go with them.” Her gratitude to him was endless.
The selfless guard smiled. “I wanted to.”
Week’s end marked a month and a half since the kings’ meetings with Olmstone and Rhyenelle. Faythe tried not to keep count of the days, but in anticipation of what Reylan would do with the information he took from her—what the King of Rhyenelle would do in retaliation—she was on edge that any day now, one might move to strike first.
So far, it was quiet in all kingdoms. Nik had been keeping close watch on his father’s movements and even dared to spy on private affairs he was not invited to in the secret passage overlooking the council chamber. Nothing alerted him to any plans to carry out the king’s desire to conquer Rhyenelle. It was a relief, but Faythe knew better than to let hope settle that perhaps both kings had decided against such a brutal, ruthless act, knowing they could be treading water in the calm before the storm.
Walking through the gardens with the king’s ward, she almost felt guilty as their footprints disturbed the peaceful sheet of purest white. The first snowfall of the season had brought the clouds to the ground, and she marveled over the thick, glittering crystal blanket. Innocent snowflakes flurried down in a beautiful cascade after the tantrum of ice and wind the previous night. Faythe deliberately left the hood of her cloak down to feel the cold nip her cheeks. The child in her longed to roll the icy sheets into compact spheres and make a snow creature. Even beyond childhood, it was something she and Jakon had found laughter and joy in. She smiled at her memories, which seemed so distant, the serenely quiet and colorless surroundings almost taking her away from the troubles that plagued her mind. Her once carefree, mundane life was now packed with horror and uncertainty in a court of nightmares.
A Queen Comes to Power: An Heir Comes to Rise Book 2 Page 28
