Chapter 42
ARIEL
T he familiar roar of a battle cry sounded just before Hemming’s massive beast exploded from his cell. He moved so impossibly fast that he was little more than a blur of black headed toward me. One moment, he was there; the next, he was high above me, mouth wide, ready to attack the dragon. I knew the moment he struck, because the dragon let out a terrifying sound all its own, and I craned my head to see, terrified by what I might find. That Hemming would be hurt.
But that worry was unnecessary.
A headless corpse of golden scales slammed to the ground in the center of the arena as the sandy floor greedily soaked up its blood.
Relief flooded my body, and my head dropped to the soft sand once again. It felt cool against my cheek. Comfortable. My eyes slowly drifted closed as a wave of darkness surrounded me. Then a low roll of thunder pulled me from sleep’s grasp, and I looked up to find that wall of darkness still there. Pale grey eyes stared back at me from deep within it.
“Hemmy,” I whispered again as I tried to reach my arm up to touch his face. He merely snorted in response; then his attention snapped to someone approaching. The sound I’d mistaken for thunder rumbled once again through a frame far larger than I remembered, and he crouched down low to shield my body from whoever dared to come near.
“Allow me to take her,” Shayfer said in a placating tone. I lifted my head to see him advancing slowly, chains dangling from his wrists into the sand as his hands lifted in supplication. His sad eyes darted from Hemming to me and back. The beast stomped the ground near my head in warning, squaring himself against the perceived threat. “You cannot carry her,” he continued as he edged closer. “Either Eldrien or I must do it.”
At the mention of Eldrien’s name, Hemming growled.
I watched as Shayfer crouched down, eyeing Hemming tightly. “I need you to back away so that I can reach her. I promise I will be gentle.”
Hemming didn’t move for what seemed like an eternity. When he finally did, he stepped forward, trapping Shayfer’s iron chains under one massive paw, then hooked his giant claw beneath a manacle. It sliced through the metal to free one wrist before repeating the process on the other. The beast then retreated a pace or two, relinquishing just enough ground to allow the light from above to shine upon me and Shayfer’s face to fill my view.
“Hello, Ariel dear,” he said, forcing a smile. “I wasn’t sure I’d get the chance to say that again.” But his smile couldn’t eclipse the worry in his brow or the tension in his body as his eyes skimmed over mine. “Shall we get you out of here?” At those words, Hemming darted forward again, stopping nose to nose with the fae spy. “Get us out of here,” he quickly amended. “ All of us. I would never try to take her away from you, Hemming. Never .”
“No more splitting up,” I added weakly. “Remember?”
I looked on as Shayfer slipped out of his emerald green coat and draped it over me. Had I not watched him do it, I’d never have known it was there. No warmth from it penetrated my senses. No pressure from its weight registered at all. I felt nothing but the fear rising in my belly as I looked past Shayfer to see Vesstan striding across the blood-soaked arena.
“My, my…what a surprising turn of events,” Vesstan called as he approached. “Your little entourage is really quite full of surprises.” His eyes turned to Shayfer and narrowed. “You wouldn’t be planning an escape, now would you? You might want to rethink that plan, at least until I have had a chance to attend to your precious Ariel’s injuries.”
“So you can just cause more?” he asked, the words like venom on his tongue.
Vesstan smiled with malicious delight as he stopped a safe distance away. “Perhaps. But I’m sure you can see that she will not survive for long in her current state. And even if you were somehow able to escape this island, do you know a healer who can repair her broken body? One you might still have access to?” His words were cold and callous and taunting, but the threat in them landed all the same, judging by the way Shayfer’s body immediately stiffened. “I shall take that as a ‘no,’ then.”
Shayfer looked back at Hemming lurking only inches away and addressed the beast as though he were the man. “I am loath to admit this, but he’s right.”
“What are you saying?” Eldrien asked softly from behind him.
“I am saying that if Vesstan is willing to heal her, then we should see it done.”
Hemming’s chest vibrated again with his obvious distaste for this plan, but he didn’t object as Shayfer reached toward me carefully, scooping his hands beneath my body. I could not feel his touch until my shoulder pressed gently to his chest and my cheek tucked in against his neck.
“So?” Vesstan called to him. “What is your decision?”
“Heal her,” Shayfer bit out as though it pained him.
Vesstan’s smile was wide enough for the entire arena to plainly see. “A wise choice. But it will come at a cost.”
“I assumed as much, but that does not change my answer.”
The capricious god waved a dismissive hand toward the gate the soldiers had entered through earlier. “Take her to her room. Hopefully she’ll last long enough for you to make it there.”
Without another word, he walked away from us toward where Thallen waited on the perimeter of the arena. Shayfer adjusted his grip on me, then walked past the dead dragon to the tunnel I’d entered through, Eldrien right behind him. Hemming’s beast stepped into the fae’s path and lowered his head until we were nearly eye to eye.
I tried to reach my arm out to touch him, but without the fear of imminent death numbing me, the pain was too unbearable. As if he understood, he brushed his muzzle against my shoulder, then pressed his massive forehead to it.
“I’ll be all right,” I whispered to him.
“We need to go now,” Shayfer warned, trepidation in his tone as he attempted to sidestep the beast. Though it looked like it pained him, Hemming allowed him to pass. As Shayfer hurried me through the gate that had blocked my escape, the weight of my injuries dragged me down, unconsciousness threatening. But before it took me, I looked over Shayfer’s shoulder to find the grey-eyed beast lurking behind us.
I said a silent prayer that he wouldn’t do anything foolish before the darkness of the tunnel and slumber sucked me in.