Chapter 55
Fifty-Five
SENAN
You were holding me hostage .
Those five words freeze the blood in my veins. I couldn’t hear everything Allette said to Bell, but I heard enough. He had been the reason my love hadn’t returned to me. My own personal guard had played us all for fools. All those times he’d claimed to have a wife and a child on the way, he’d been referring to my girl.
And now he has his blade aimed at her heart, a sneer of derision twisting his lips into something dark and dangerous. In my panic, I gave away the only advantage I had and announced my presence like a fucking fool.
I slide my pack off my back, tossing it onto the worn floorboards so it doesn’t weight me down. “Your quarrel isn’t with her. It’s with me.”
Bell’s sword drops for a split second, long enough for him to fist Allette’s hair and drag her against him. The blade presses against her throat, stifling her cry. “I no longer take orders from you, sire .”
Even with a sword at her neck, Allette claws Bell’s forearm where he pins her to his chest.
I take a halting step into the room, holding my empty hands toward him so he can see I have no weapons of my own. “Do you really want to hurt the woman we love?”
Something flickers across his eyes, but it’s gone just as quickly. “I’d rather see her dead than with you .”
“You mean you’d rather hide behind her because you’re afraid I’ll beat you.”
A feral growl rips from his throat. He throws Allette aside. Her head cracks off the wall, and she slumps to the floor. I shoot forward, calling fire to my palms and ducking beneath his swinging sword, but the chest on the floor trips me up, and the blade grazes my side. Pain rips through me as I catch the hem of his cloak and light the material ablaze. He lets out a yelp but draws on his wind element to extinguish the flames.
I use his distraction to throw two punches, one to his chin and one to his gut. Neither do a blessed thing because the man is made of fucking iron and his silver leathers are impenetrable. His fist slams into my face. The crunch of my bones forces me back and back. My boot catches on the corner of the bed, and I go down hard. I blink against the pain, but by the time I glance back up, Eason’s fist is flying toward me. Every time I try to stand, he hits me, over and over, until I can no longer rise.
I have to get up. To save Allette. But Eason Bell is one of the king’s most fearsome guards, and for as long as I’ve known him, he has never lost a fight. I have no hope of winning.
He is going to kill me.
His hand comes around my throat, lifting me as if I weigh no more than a child. I see my bloodied face reflected in his blown-out pupils. My blood splattered across his bearded jaw.
His face can’t be the last thing I see before I die.
I manage to turn my head toward Allette. Only she isn’t there.
“You have stolen her from me for the last time,” Bell snarls, his teeth bared.
Stolen her from him ?
He stole her from me. For years, he has watched me search for her— mourn her —without saying a fucking word. All that time, he was living with my mate. Loving her. Watching me drown myself night after night. Watching me slowly waste away to nothing while he lived the life I’d planned for the two of us.
His fist draws back, and I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for pain that never comes.
A gurgled curse breaks from Bell’s lips, and he looks down between us to where a sliver of blood-soaked blade peeks from under his arm. Allette stands at his side, the hilt of his sword clasped between her hands, blood trickling from a cut at her temple.
Bell’s hold on my throat loosens. I manage to get my feet beneath me before he crumples to the floor in a pool of his own blood. His sword clatters onto the wood.
Allette launches forward, throwing her arms around me. “You are a terrible fighter.”
My huffed laugh makes my face ache. “Not my fault. I’m used to fighting nine-year-old boys.”
“Is he dead?” she asks, her whisper warm against my neck.
“I don’t want to stay and find out.” I clutch her icy fingers with trembling hands, looking straight into her eyes. “We need to get to the stable.” It is only a matter of time before the castle learns of my escape through the servants’ entrance—if they haven’t already.
Turns out, having Jeston back at the castle saved us both. Thank the stars I caught Bell before he stole my girl away once more.
Allette pulls at my shirt where it sticks to my blood-soaked side. “How will we get to Stratiss? You can’t fly in this state.”
Although it still burns like hell, my magic has started to heal the pain in my face and the twisted gash across my abdomen. I’ll probably end up splitting the thing open again the moment I lift her, but that is a problem for later.
I slip a hand to the nape of her neck, drawing our foreheads together. “With you in my arms, I can do anything.” We’ll go as far as we can before I need to rest, then start again under the cover of darkness.
She nods.
But first… “I must get my pack.” It has everything we need to survive. Money, clothes, the antidote.
Allette stumbles to the door and hefts my pack onto her back. When I start to protest, she tells me to shut up. I suppose she is right. I really shouldn’t be carrying any extra weight to give my magic the best chance at healing me. Together, we make it down the stairs and back onto the streets.
Shouts erupt from overhead, and silver flashes from the clouds hanging above us. Allette grips my hand as more shouts echo. Closer. Louder.
“We’ll never make it Stratiss.” Even if we were both in perfect condition, there are too many guards around, and they’re all too fast.
She nods in agreement. “Then we’ll have to go through the portal.”
She is right. It’s the only way out.
With fire burning my side and pain rushing through my veins, I run. Through the alleys, ducking into doorways and behind barrels and carts every time a shadow sweeps through the clouds above.
Footsteps pound. Faster, louder.
Silver flashes in my peripherals, but I manage to drag Allette into a doorway right before a royal guard sprints past. A cough climbs my throat, but I swallow it down before it gives away our position. The Black Hole is only a few blocks away and the portal only a handful of streets beyond that. We’re almost there.
The ache in my chest and pain in my side bring tears to my eyes, but I have to keep going.
For her.
For me.
For us.
Finally, finally the alley spits us into the small square where the dark, enchanted water of the portal calls us toward sweet freedom.
The sound of our boots thunders, slamming against the cobblestones.
All we have to do is make it to that portal. We’re almost there. Only a few more steps.
Only a few more?—
Allette stills.
A handful of guards emerge from between the shadowed buildings. More guards land behind us with resounding finality. The only way out is up, but I have no hope of flying faster than any of them on my best day, let alone wounded and carrying Allette.
A shadow circles overhead, and then a dark figure dressed head to toe in black lands on the portal’s low ledge.
When I see the gold crown on his head, I know the end has come.
The king has found us.