Chapter 13 Breaking
brEAKING
Kairos led me deeper into the woods.
Mist carved through the vegetation ahead of us, ghostly tendrils snapping branches to clear our path. One brushed my skin, and I shuddered. They moved with such casual violence. They could easily wrap around my throat and squeeze.
The vines binding my wrists rubbed raw with every step. If I had a weapon, I’d end this on my terms rather than discover what “claiming” meant. Where was he taking me?
The forest changed as we walked. Darker. Wilder. Trees twisted into impossible shapes. Flowers bloomed the size of wagon wheels. Rich loam replaced moss beneath our feet, and water cut across in bubbling streams that we leapt over, stone to stone.
So many trees. Massive ones, lush and green where they should have been bare, not a trace of snow on their branches despite the winter we’d left behind. The light filtering through them was different—softer, golden, like late spring.
The forest whispered with sounds.
Lights danced between the trees. I thought they were fireflies, but when one landed on a fern near my face, I saw a tiny beast with butterfly wings and spindly legs. They bobbed in front of me, humming.
This warmth felt wrong. Skalgard had trained my body for summers that never quite lost their chill. Here, the air was heavy with the scent of growing things.
Kairos sloshed through a creek.
The vine stretched taut, dragging me. My boot stuck, and I pitched forward, down into the mud. I threw my hands out, sludge oozing between my fingers. My hem tore wider as I struggled to my knees, filth caking me from palm to thigh.
The sob clawing up my throat turned into a broken laugh. Two days ago, I was serving dinner in a lord’s house. Now I was tied like an animal, at the whim of a ruthless male. And Rheya…gods, where was she?
Water splashed.
Kairos knelt beside me. “You’re bleeding.”
I forced myself upright. “I’m fine.”
His hand caught my jaw. Heat bled through his fingertips, dulling the sting until it vanished. Even my pain belonged to him.
“Can you keep going?”
I pulled away from him. “Yes.”
His gaze lingered on the dirt smeared across my legs. Kairos sighed, then guided me off the path, leading us into a hollow. A tangle of roots formed a natural wall, and the earth dipped into a shallow bowl of moss.
He reworked the vine around a tree and secured it above me, looping it through a branch.
“We’re stopping here for the night.”
“What? Why?”
He tugged the knot. “You’re slowing down.”
The idea of sleeping out here made my skin prickle.
“I just need a moment,” I said quickly. “I’ve worked without food before.”
“Starvation isn’t strength.”
“Don’t waste your pity on me. I’ll be home before long.”
He looked at me coldly. “Yes. I’m sure your prince is riding hard through the woods right now.”
My teeth clenched. “Stop.”
I hated him. I hated his gravelly voice, the way he moved through this cursed forest. I hated that I needed him, that I couldn’t outrun him, outfight him, out-anything him.
“I should’ve let you rot in chains,” I said bitterly.
“Hate me if you want, human. I’m used to it.”
Kairos released the vine and turned, vanishing in a white cloud.
I tested the tension in my bindings. No give. They cut deep if I strained too much. Still, I pulled.
I hissed at the sharp pain.
Even if I could run, how would I survive this realm without him? Which one was it? Definitely not Skaldir. The Dream Realm to the east—Lunir? Caelir? Or had we gone south to Sanguir?
Sanguir. A land of endless war. Their cities were sprawling encampments in mist-shrouded forests.
A twig snapped.
I flinched.
Another snap. Closer this time. Slow, deliberate steps. Not a beast crashing through the underbrush, something that knew how to stalk. Then a shape emerged from the brush, tall and cloaked in shadow.
I pressed against the tree, my breathing shallow.
Kairos stepped through, cradling berries and two freckled bird eggs. He crouched and set them down on a flat stone.
I lowered myself beside him, careful to keep space between us.
He cracked an egg and drank it, then held the next to my lips.
“Open.”
I glared at him. “It’s raw.”
Sighing, he cupped the egg in his hands. A faint glow lit in his palm. The shell darkened, and hairline cracks spread. Steam hissed.
He was cooking it.
The red light faded. He peeled the shell, revealing a perfectly hard-boiled egg. He gave it to me, and I gobbled it down before my attention drifted toward the berries. Dark and fat, nearly bursting.
“Eat,” he grunted.
I stared at the berries like they were bait in a trap. With stiff fingers, I fumbled one into my hand and shoved it into my mouth. Sweet juice burst over my tongue. I ate another, savoring the delicious taste.
Kairos watched.
“What?” I snapped.
“Just making sure you don’t choke.”
Insufferable brute.
My hands dropped to my skirt. I tried to scrub the sludge off, but it only smeared.
“This used to be my best dress. Pearls, embroidery. Rheya said I looked like a heroine in a ballad. Now it’s a rag.”
He glanced at the torn hem. “Be glad you’re not a heroine in a ballad. They always die in the end.”
Heat crept up my neck. “Where are you taking me?”
“To my town, where I’ll reunite with my sister.”
My shoulders eased slightly. Sister. Did he love her the way I loved mine? Maybe that was the only thing we had in common, and maybe it was the only reason I wasn’t dead.
“I need to get home,” he growled. “Vaeris will raze every village until I’m found. They’ll hunt for you as well.”
I sighed. “I wonder what he’s doing.”
“Licking his wounds and crafting a speech to win over the court.”
Unease stabbed through me. Vaeris would paint himself as the savior of a shattered realm. He’d mourn the loss of his father with the appropriate amount of tears, all while consolidating his power.
What about Rheya?
The bargain I’d forced on Vaeris would keep her safe. But could he find a loophole to free himself? He was clever. If anyone could manipulate a deal, it was him.
Rheya will be alright. He won’t hurt her.
I needed to worry more about myself. “So…you want to go home? Then why chain me like a dog?”
“Because if I don’t, someone else will. There’s a spring up ahead,” he said, brushing dirt from his palms. “You could scrub the muck off. If you like.”
My eyes narrowed. “Alone?”
“Of course not.”
Gods, I wanted to get clean, but not with him watching.
My cheeks flushed. “Only if you turn around.”
He smiled—cold but amused. “Fine.”
“Fine,” I echoed. “Untie me.”
He hesitated, then unwound the vine from my wrists. His thumb traced the deep marks it made on my skin. Red light flashed, and the lines vanished.
I didn’t thank him.
I just prayed he wouldn’t follow me into the spring.
“We’re almost there. Keep close.”
Kairos had stayed within elbow’s reach during the walk, but now he seemed alert.
A glowing creature perched on his shoulder, balancing on the leather strap of his sword harness.
“What is that?” I blurted.
“Sprite.”
“Children of light.” I gasped, reaching out to its purple body. “Are they dangerous?”
The sprite tilted its miniature head at me.
He gently nudged it off and it drifted away, joining the others. “Not unless you disturb their hives. Then they’ll swarm you with bites.”
Another zipped by. It circled me, then darted off, leaving a faint pink trail in the mist. The tiny creatures danced around us.
“Are you worried about other animals?”
“There are worse things in these woods.” Kairos stepped over a creek. “Wraiths. Spirits. Runes that make you forget where you are.”
“Traps? Or defenses?”
“Both. If we’re separated, get off the ground. Some trees are old enough to repel runes. Dryads might help.”
“How do you know that?”
He shrugged. “Experience.”
He moved like someone who’d fought his whole life—graceful, brutal, always half a breath from violence. Maybe he was a mercenary. Fae like him passed through Skalgard sometimes. They traded their services for armor, weapons, and whatever provisions they needed. Or they bartered in flesh.
Kairos stopped, and I bumped into him.
The forest had quieted. No bird calls, nothing. I inhaled, straining to hear what made him freeze. His hand drifted to his sword hilt, and I followed his gaze to the trees.
Just darkness and—
A branch cracked.
A shadow burst from the undergrowth, snarling.
Kairos shoved me back as he swung his blade at the blur.
The creature twisted mid-leap, spitting.
It landed in a crouch—massive, feline, but wrong.
Black fur rippled over muscles too large for any normal cat, and ridges of exposed bone ran along its spine.
Its yellow eyes tracked Kairos with an eerie intelligence.
The cat lunged. Kairos vaulted upward, but his ascent was too smooth. His silhouette looked impossible. Were those wings?
His boots hit earth with barely a whisper.
The cat’s head whipped toward him. Kairos was already moving, using a tree trunk to launch himself as claws raked where he’d been. The creature snarled, pursuing him up into the branches with terrifying agility.
The cat gave chase, gouging furrows in the bark that smoked. The acrid stench burned my nostrils. Branches snapped like bones, showering leaves and splinters as the canopy swayed under the violence of their pursuit.
Move. My legs refused to budge.
Kairos landed on a high limb.
The cat crouched, then vanished.
The air rippled. Then the trunk exploded in a shower of wood as the creature reappeared mid-strike, shattering the branch under Kairos’s feet.
Kairos dropped in a controlled roll, his broadsword singing.
The cat’s hiss made my teeth ache, like grinding metal. It winked out again.
The hair on my neck prickled. The air charged—
Yellow eyes flashed into existence, inches from my face. Hot breath reeking of rot. Teeth longer than my fingers. Its jaws opened—
Something yanked it backward. Kairos had its tail, spinning the beast with its own momentum. Relief punched through me, and my knees gave out. The creature yowled, earsplitting, as his blade plunged into its flank.
The shriek that followed wasn’t from this world. The pitch went straight through me, rattling my skull. I clapped my ears, but the sound only burrowed deeper. The cat thrashed, flickering solid and transparent. Its claws raked between Kairos’s armor plates, spraying the ground with blood.
Kairos grunted and wrenched the blade. The cat shuddered once. Twice. Then it collapsed, the light in its eyes guttering out.
It’s over. We’re alive.
But my hands wouldn’t stop shaking, and the trees seemed to tilt. I’d almost been eaten by a beast that shouldn’t exist.
What kind of forest was this?
Kairos staggered back. He fell to a knee, pressing on the claw marks. Blood soaked through his fingers.
Run.
This was my chance—he was injured, distracted. I could disappear into the trees, and he’d never catch me, not with that wound.
His hand trembled. Crimson streaked down his leg, pooling in the grooves of his armor as he tried to stanch the bleeding.
Go. Before he recovers.
Rheya would’ve run. She’d have been halfway to the portal by now, smart enough to seize the opportunity. My mind screamed the same thing—move, you fool—but my legs locked.
I’d never been able to watch something suffer. Twenty-five years in Skalgard, and I’d never learned to walk away from pain.
Not even his.
Each ragged breath he took seemed to pull at some stupid part of me that couldn’t reconcile the monster who’d stolen my life with the fae bleeding out because he’d saved it.
My feet moved. Not toward the trees.
Toward him.