Chapter Six #2
When he looked back at her, she wasn’t watching him anymore. She was staring into the fire, but her eyes—gods, those eyes—held a grief so raw and fathomless that it stole the breath from his lungs.
‘No one deserves to be banished, Kai,’ she said softly, almost to the flames.
Kai watched her in silence, the weight in his chest tightening, unnameable. He couldn’t say what it was. Grief, perhaps. Or guilt. Or something far more dangerous.
And just for a moment, he wondered if there was something more behind her words. Something meant for him alone.
…
‘Kai!’
The scream ripped through the night and tore him from sleep in an instant. Dawn’s voice rang in his mind like a bell struck too hard, too sudden. A sound that could only ever herald disaster. His eyes flew open, dark and sharp, scanning the clearing as his heart thundered in his chest.
But she wasn’t there.
The place by the fire where she’d lain only hours, no, moments ago was empty.
Gone.
Kai was on his feet before breath could fill his lungs.
Hook swords drawn in a flash of steel, he scanned the shadowed trees, every muscle taut with purpose. He lifted his head, inhaled. There. He moved like a whisper on the wind, silent and swift, his boots barely kissing the earth.
Then he saw them.
Just ahead, through the trees, five drakonian men were dragging Dawn, her limbs flailing, her mouth gagged by panic, her eyes wide with terror.
She had fallen asleep in her true form.
A savage curse escaped him under his breath, fury igniting through every vein.
He should have made her cloak herself in glamour, should have insisted she wear the mask of a wyverian.
But he hadn’t. Because he knew how much she loathed it, how each time she was forced to wear a face that wasn’t her own, a little more of her soul splintered.
And he couldn’t bear to be the one to break her.
Before the drakonians even realised they were being followed, Kai had already outmanoeuvred them. He circled swiftly through the trees, a shadow among shadows, and emerged ahead of them, silent, poised and deadly.
He raised one of his hook swords, its curved blade glinting dully in the darkness, and levelled it at the man who appeared to be their leader.
‘I’d advise you let her go,’ he said, his voice low, calm, almost polite.
‘She’s a witch!’ the drakonian at the front snapped, his grip tightening.
‘That she is,’ Kai replied evenly, ‘but she’s also my prisoner.’
The men exchanged uneasy and uncertain glances, doubt clear in their eyes.
‘You’ll not object if we burn her, then,’ one of them said with a shrug.
Kai sighed, slow and deliberate, before returning his swords to their place across his back.
His posture eased, though only superficially.
He caught Dawn’s withering glare the moment she realised he was sheathing his weapons.
He offered her a small smile in return and a wink even, which only earned him an exaggerated roll of her eyes.
‘I’ll make this simple, gentlemen,’ he said, dusting imaginary dirt from his palms with a flick of nonchalance. ‘You release her now, and we all go on with every limb intact. Or...’ His gaze slid lazily down to his nails. ‘I break each and every neck.’
The leader spat at the ground, unimpressed. ‘How about we have a little fun with her first?’ He seemed entirely unaware of the way Kai’s eyes darkened. Not with anger, but with promise.
The man turned his back on the wyverian prince and strode towards Dawn, who was still pinned to her knees by two others. He crouched, grinning as he reached for the hem of her skirt.
‘She’s a pretty thing,’ he said, leering. ‘For a witch. Always wondered what they wore beneath these dresses—’
A sharp cluck of the tongue stopped him.
‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ Kai said quietly.
The drakonian glanced over his shoulder, sneering. ‘Why not?’
Kai’s smile was slow and dangerous.
‘Because she bites.’
In that very moment, Dawn let out a roar that echoed like a battle-cry through the trees. Her hands flared an eerie green, crackling with raw magic before an explosive wave of power burst from her tattooed fingertips, hurling her captors into the air like autumn leaves caught in a storm.
The leader hit the ground with a sickening thud. Before he could recover, Kai was already there, striding towards him with measured calm. He crouched slowly, bringing himself to the man's level, eye to eye, breath to breath.
‘Why are you helping her?’ the drakonian rasped, fear widening his eyes. ‘They’ve burnt down our lands!’
Kai tilted his head, voice cool and unwavering.
‘Yes, and we burnt down theirs, didn’t we?
That’s no excuse to put your hands on a woman.
’ He sighed, almost lazily, as though the moment bored him.
‘Now I’ll have to make sure you never use those hands again.
Can’t have you lifting anyone’s skirts, can we? ’
‘Kai.’
He ignored the witch’s voice. Soft, warning, but not yet commanding.
‘I was going to be merciful,’ he continued, drawing one of his hook swords ever so slightly from its sheath. ‘Take your hand clean off, quick and efficient.’ A pause. ‘But I find myself compelled to let you suffer.’
‘Kai.’
This time her voice had more weight. He turned to see her approaching, her steps steady, her eyes, those brilliant purple eyes, filled with something that twisted sharply inside him. Conviction.
Plea.
Control.
‘Don’t,’ she said simply.
He held her gaze for a moment too long, jaw clenched. Then he swore under his breath and rose to his feet. With a grunt, he drove his boot into the man’s side, relishing the pained hiss that followed.
‘It seems it’s your lucky day,’ Kai muttered, before swiftly delivering another kick, this one to the face. The drakonian slumped into unconsciousness. ‘You should’ve let me kill them,’ he growled, summoning his shadow horse with a low whistle. ‘They’ll likely follow.’
‘No,’ Dawn said firmly, narrowing her eyes. ‘I don’t want more blood on my hands.’
Kai let out a low chuckle, bitter and amused in equal measure. ‘Since when did the witch grow a conscience?’
She kicked him hard in the back of the leg.
‘How did they even manage to drag you so far?’ he asked, half-laughing.
‘I was sleeping!’ she snapped. ‘They took me by surprise.’
Kai swung himself onto the shadow horse with practiced ease, then reached down and extended a hand to her. With a single pull, he lifted her up in front of him, his arms instinctively locking around her waist, firm and protective.
‘Careful now, commander,’ she said, that ever-dangerous smile playing on her lips. ‘For a moment there, you almost sounded concerned for my safety.’
‘Don’t start confusing things,’ he muttered, guiding the horse away from the unconscious drakonians and into the shadow-stained trees. ‘I’m just using you.’
She gave a low, delighted snort. ‘Is that what we’re calling it now?’ Her grin widened, all teeth and mischief. ‘Very well, commander. Use me all you like.’
Kai turned his face away, eyes fixed on the path ahead, on the darkness beyond the trees. Anything to avoid those purple eyes that held far too many truths he wasn’t ready to face.