Chapter 31 James #2
They set off through the camp toward the horses. Some soldiers barely seemed to see them, but others had not wholly lost their wits and attacked. He and Ahnna cut them down, fighting back-to-back as they worked toward the lines of horses.
“Get Dippy and Maven!” she shouted, not seeming to be hindered at all by the broken arm hanging at her side. “I’ll hold them off!”
It felt wrong leaving her to fight, but untying the horses required two hands, so James flung himself first at Maven and then at Dippy.
Both animals were agitated and skittish, but he got their bits in their mouths, not bothering with saddles.
Catching hold of Ahnna’s hips right after she stabbed a soldier in the chest, he lifted her onto Dippy’s back. “I’ll lead him. You hold on!”
He cut the lines of the other horses and then vaulted onto Maven’s back, heading down the trail at a gallop with Dippy’s reins in his hand. The other panicked horses followed, and it was a chaos of animals fighting for space on the trail until their faster mounts pulled ahead.
Only for a familiar figure to step into their path.
“A marvelous turn of events!” he shrieked. “A fight to the glorious end!”
Carlo tipped his face into the moonlight, and James sucked in a breath as horror pooled in his stomach. The Beast had pulled out one of his own eyes, and it now dangled bloody and mangled against his cheek.
Carlo held his arms up to the sky and laughed wildly, not even seeming to see the horses galloping toward him.
James lifted his sword and dug in his heels, the primal desire to kill surging through his veins. He was going to take off this monster’s head and rid the world of his villainy for good.
Carlo lowered his face, his remaining eye glittering as he leveled a finger at James. “Let the chase commence!”
Then he sprinted into the trees and into the darkness.
James gathered his reins, readying to veer Maven off the path in pursuit, but Ahnna shouted, “James, no! You’ll never find him in the dark! We need to run!”
There was logic to her words, but the thought of letting Carlo go went against every instinct in his body.
As if sensing his thoughts, Ahnna shouted, “I will not wait for you,” and then she leaned over Dippy’s neck and urged the racehorse for more speed.
As fierce as his desire to kill Carlo was, James wanted Ahnna more. So with a curse, he galloped after her.
Moonlight illuminated the thin layer of snow on the trail, but it was still reckless to ride this fast on the bad terrain.
Ahnna didn’t seem to care. She balanced easily on Dippy’s bare back, sword and reins held in her left hand and her right arm held to her stomach.
Her long hair blew out behind her in the icy wind, and her skin seemed to glow in the moonlight.
The most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
He urged Maven alongside her. “You might have hinted that you planned this and spared me all those beatings.”
“I needed you to keep them distracted, especially Carlo. Besides, why would I have wanted to spare you from suffering? It was a pleasure to watch.”
James knew that he had no right to pursue her forgiveness. That he should aid her escape and then let her go her own way. But her wild and relentless tenacity in the face of all adversity was alluring in ways he could not explain, even to himself. Ahnna was untamable. Unclaimable.
Yet even with death readying to hunt at their heels, he wanted to make Ahnna his again.
“We don’t have the supplies we need to backtrack down another trail into Harendell,” he said, shoving away the thought. “Our only chance is to head into Amarid and up through the Lowlands. We can go to Cardiff and seek the aid of my uncle.”
“There is no we.” Ahnna’s eyes remained fixed on the trail. “Go where you will. I’m heading to the coast and then back to Ithicana.”
“Carlo will know that’s your goal,” James protested. “You won’t be able to fool him twice, Ahnna. If Carlo catches you, Katarina will put you in a hole so dark you’ll never see the light of day. Better to go north and get help from Cardiff.”
“Even if I was willing to consider going anywhere with you, there’s not enough time for anything but the most direct route.
” She gave a sharp shake of her head. “Carlo wasn’t wrong.
Edward’s murder and everything that has happened since might not have been my fault, but there is no denying that Alexandra used me, and is continuing to use me, to achieve her ends.
There is no risk I won’t take to try to save my people, and if I have to die, so be it. ”
For that to happen, he’d have to be dead first, but James said nothing.
Her eyes shot to his. “You put the lives of my people on the line. You and Edward aimed to use me to steal my brother’s crown and put it on your head. You manipulated and used me to try to make yourself a king!”
James reached down and caught hold of Dippy’s reins, pulling both horses to a stop.
“We don’t have time for this!” Ahnna objected.
“I’m making time,” James snapped. “What Carlo told you about my father’s plans for a coup in Ithicana was true, but I had no part in their creation.
I didn’t even know his intent until after you slammed your door in my face and I went to call him out for how he’d treated you.
When he revealed his intentions for Ithicana, I told him he’d misjudged your feelings toward Aren.
Told him you’d oppose it on every level, and that no one, least of all me, would be able to convince you to turn on your family.
And I never intended to try, Ahnna. I never asked to be king.
Never wanted to be king. That was my father’s dream, and as much as I grieve his death, there is a part of me that rages at him because there was no one he used more as a pawn than me. ”
“Don’t pretend you’re innocent.” She thumped her heels against Dippy’s sides to try to get her horse to pull free. “Bronwyn and Taryn were innocent, and you went after them. My cousin is a prisoner of war because of you, James. You can’t blame Daddy for that one.”
“Don’t take this out on your horse,” James snapped. “Bronwyn is safe in Ithicana, and Taryn—”
“Is being forced to relive the trauma that nearly killed her!” Ahnna lifted her sword. “I brought Taryn to Harendell to give her a chance. To help her find a haven to heal, and I can only imagine how you’ve destroyed that. And separating her from Bronwyn? Why? Why would you do that to her?”
“Because I knew it would hurt you!” Maven squealed and pinned her ears, but James barely noticed the mare’s reaction. “Obviously I regret my actions knowing what I know now, but I can’t undo the past.”
“Would you have regretted it if I’d been guilty?” she demanded. “Would you care that you’d destroyed Taryn’s life even though she was innocent?”
“The Beast of Amarid is on our heels and you want to quarrel about hypotheticals?” James gestured behind them, fully aware of his hypocrisy given that he was the one who held the horses still.
“Answer the goddamned question, James,” Ahnna snarled. “Answer it, or we part ways now.”
“Fine. If you were guilty, I would have been glad to hurt Taryn in order to make you suffer,” he shouted. “And the suffering wouldn’t have stopped at her. Is that what you want to hear?”
“Better I know the truth. Better I know who you really are!” she shouted back. “You might pretend to be the civilized prince but it’s all an act, just like Carlo said!”
“Yes, it is.” James glared at her. “But don’t pretend you were ever fooled by it. You fucking wanted it, Ahnna, and if I am to stand here and spill every dark truth lurking in my heart, perhaps you might be honest about what lurks in your own.”
“Fine.” She lifted her chin, eyes gleaming in the moonlight.
“You want the truth, James? I’ll give it to you.
I wasn’t fooled. How could I have been fooled when the real version of you was the one I met in the tunnels beneath Northwatch?
I knew what lurked beneath the manners and civility, and I wanted it.
Wanted you. I was in Verwyrd to marry your brother, but it was your face in my mind every night that I slipped my hand between my legs to make myself come.
It was your mouth I dreamed of kissing me, your hands I wanted to touch me, your cock I desired inside me.
I wanted you like I wanted breath, and though it was folly, my heart wanted you as much as my body. Is that the truth you want?”
James’s lips parted, but no words rose to his tongue because he’d not expected her to rise to his challenge. Which made him the purest form of stupid, because Ahnna always shattered expectations.
“You want more truths?” she spat. “Even after you blamed me for a crime I didn’t commit and then hunted me across Harendell, I still wanted you.
I couldn’t get you out of my mind, because you have a hold on me that makes every part of me ache in every possible way.
I hate myself for it. Hate that there is a part of me that wants you to pull me off my horse and fuck me in the snow despite evil stalking our steps. ”
His cock stiffened, not caring about the threat on the trail behind them because his head was filled with a vision of Ahnna beneath him, those endless legs wrapped around his waist.
Whether it was because his body was betraying him or because Ahnna was just that quick, James was too slow to react as she abruptly lifted her boot heel and slammed it into his hands. James cursed, dropping his sword and Dippy’s reins. She was instantly moving, circling around Maven.
“But here’s another truth, James. You use your name, your size, and your force of will to intimidate people into doing what you want.
It’s your way, in all things, and to hell with anyone who has a problem with it.
Except I’m Princess Ahnna Kertell. My family has ruled the wildest and most dangerous kingdom in the world for generations, and I have lived and breathed violence since I could hold a blade.
No one intimidates me, and you would do well to remind yourself that you live because I willed it so.
You stand here now because I chose to free you.
And you will ride with me only on my terms, is that clear? ”
His knuckles stung from where her boot heel had connected with them, but James barely felt the pain as he slid off Maven’s side to retrieve his sword.
Every part of him was twisted up with anger and desire for this woman who infuriated him like no other.
Watching Ahnna circle him, James bowed low. “Your will, my sword, Your Highness.”
“Fuck you, James,” she snarled.
“That wasn’t the sword I was referring to, but I’m happy to oblige, Princess.” He gave her a dark smile, feeling the thrill of the chase settling upon him as her lips parted, her throat moving as she swallowed. “Though perhaps we might put some distance between us and the Beast first.”
“We’re riding to the coast.” Her words were an order, but he did not mistake the slight breathiness to them. “Aren needs to be warned that Amarid is no ally, but rather the anvil Alexandra’s hammer will smash Ithicana against.”
That route was a mistake. James knew it was a mistake.
But some mistakes were worth making. “Then let’s ride.”