Chapter 8
Eight
ALLETTE
Wildflowers sway in the field where Senan and I lounge, our hearts and minds at peace as we stare into each other’s eyes. Warmth from the sun-drenched earth seeps into my bones. A lazy bee buzzes from a sprig of lavender to a tiny pink flower whose name I don’t know. Each inhale tastes of sweet freedom; each exhale swims with bliss. I’d stay here forever if I could.
Senan’s brow furrows, and he pushes to his elbows, his nose lifting toward the cloudless sky. “Do you smell that?”
I sniff the air. Fragrant flowers. Fresh cut grass. Tilled earth from a distant field. And something else. Something that doesn’t belong.
I sit up, resting my forearms on my knees as I scan the purple mountains on the horizon. There isn’t a tower in sight. Songbirds, not Scathians, ride the breeze high above.
There it is again. That strange smell.
“What is it?” I ask.
When I look back at Senan, distress lines his brow and tightens his mouth.
He grabs my hand, our palms slipping together as our fingers lock tight. When our eyes connect, his are black as pitch. “We need to run.”
I don’t want to run. I want to stay. This place is perfect.
He tugs harder. “Run, Allette. I need you to run.”
“But—”
“Run!”
I jerk upright but can’t make heads nor tails of what I see. Rather, what I can’t see through the thick layer of black clouds stinging my eyes. I’m no longer in a soft, fragrant field but sitting on hard wood.
The shack.
Senan and I fell asleep in a shack.
And these aren’t clouds around me, they’re plumes of smoke.
Why is there so much bloody smoke? The acrid air consumes my lungs as I search the empty room for my prince, finding not a trace. I shout his name, but the only sign he had been here at all is his abandoned coat on the floor beside me.
“Senan?” I cough, waving my hands to try and clear some of the blackness from the air as I stumble toward the door. I have to duck to avoid the angry orange flames licking at the beams overhead. “Senan!”
Where in heaven’s name did he go?
Crack . Three steps from the bloody door and my bloody foot breaks straight through another bloody floorboard. This time without the protection of my bloody boot. Sharp, slicing pain shoots up my leg. Cursing, I yank and pull, but it’s no use. My foot is pinned in.
Another sharp crack fills the air. One of the ceiling beams slams right down on the place I’d been laying only a few moments before, showering sparks across Senan’s abandoned coat.
The flames are growing too fast. If I don’t get out of here, I’ll be burned to a bloody crisp.
I pull and tug at my foot. Wrench and twist. Heat from the blaze leaves sweat dripping down my spine.
The floorboard groans but gives a little. And a little more. With one final tug, I manage to free my foot. Blood oozes from a wide gash across my ankle and bits of splintered wood protrude from my skin. It’ll need tending, but not until after I escape this inferno.
I hobble toward the door and shove the barrier aside, dropping onto the frosty grass right when the roof buckles and caves inward. Flames shoot into the dusky pink sky.
Tears prick the backs of my eyes, but I manage to breathe through the pain as I limp back the way we came. Where is Senan? Why didn’t he wake me?
A fresh set of footprints leads away from the cottage.
That doesn’t make sense. Did he leave without me? Perhaps he is still within earshot. “Senan! Hello?”
“Hello!” a deep voice shouts from the forest.
Oh, thank the stars. “Help! I’ve cut my foot, and the cottage is on fire!” Twigs and stones stab my feet as I hobble toward the incline only to realize the man who answered my call isn’t Senan at all but a light-haired stranger dressed in all black.
Two more men appear from behind the burning building. When they reach me, they come to a skidding halt, their faces pale as they gawk. What is their problem? Have they never seen a shoeless woman before?
“Fucking hell,” one of them whispers, his wide eyes darting to his companions. “Is this her?”
Her who? Can’t they see I’m wounded? “Can one of you please help me? I’ve hurt my foot, and my companion has gone missing. He’s about so high.” I hold my hand above my head. “Dark brown hair down to his shoulders.” Thanks to his glamour .
From between two trees, a flash of black catches my eye.
I step forward to get a better look.
It looks like…
Like a boot.
Not just one boot but two. Two boots attached to two legs. Two legs belonging to someone I know.
Wynn .
Her body lies face-down on the frosty ground, but she isn’t moving. Why isn’t she moving?
The man who first shouted finally reaches us. Red splatters stain his scarred cheek. They look like…
Blood.
The man…his hands…his face…are all covered in blood.
I stumble back, but before I can even take a step, one of the men catches my arm and yanks it so hard, it feels like he’s trying to tear it off.
“Let me go!”
The blackguard’s blunt nails dig into my flesh. “Afraid we won’t be doing that.”
The blood-drenched man’s fist flies toward me, slamming into my cheek. Pain bursts behind my eyes. When I fall, the man holding me lets go, and my knees crack off the unforgiving earth. My face collides with the wet grass with a sickening thud .
Two of them pin me beneath their knees, splaying my arms wide.
I thrash and whimper, but my cries fall on deaf ears.
Their laughs are vicious. Grating. I try to call on my element to fight them off, but the power that has always lived within me doesn’t respond. I open my mouth to beg for freedom as the third man stomps on my spine right between my shoulder blades. Air evacuates my lungs, and my wings appear unbidden. The limp hair around my face is no longer black but blue.
They broke my glamour. How is that even possible?
My face. My knees. My foot. My spine.
Everything hurts .
A sharp slice lances across the base of my right wing, and the sickening cacophony of ripping flesh fills my ears. It feels like I’m being sawed in two. Hot liquid splatters down my back. Cerulean feathers flutter next to me.
I gasp and gasp but can’t find my next breath. Black spots speckle at the edge of my vision as I stare toward my friend’s lifeless form, praying for a respite from this pain.
If only someone would make it go away.
A blur darts between the trees. The man at my back lets out a grunt, collapsing at my side with a heavy thud , his sightless eyes trained on me. Blood leaks from a crooked gash across his throat, painting the frosty leaves red.
The hold on my right arm loosens. Someone garbles a protest until it, too, is cut off. The third man runs, but he doesn’t make it far before Senan’s guard, Eason, launches a blade at his back, sending the bastard careening into a tree.
Eason hobbles toward me, his lip split, his eye blackened, his shirt torn and bloody. “Stay still,” he whispers, wincing as he eases forward.
“My wings…” I can’t feel my wings. Why can’t I feel my wings? Even glamoured, I could always feel their weight. But now…
Eason’s calloused fingers graze my cheek. “They’re gone.”
Gone? They can’t be gone. Not my wings .
A broken whimper rips from my chest.
“Shhh. Don’t cry. We must conserve our energy if we want to have any hope of surviving in this forsaken realm.” Eason presses his hands to my shoulders. Warmth flows from his palms as healing power pours through me.
“Stop,” I rasp. If he gives me all his magic, he won’t be able to get back home.
“You’ve lost too much blood, Allette. If I don’t heal you, you’ll die too.”
Die too . Die too. Die too.
“Wynn…they…they killed her.” My confidant. My friend. My fault .
I never should’ve invited her through the portal. Never should’ve left her in the village.
Eason’s heat wanes, and he falls back onto the blood-drenched ground. His haunted gray eyes meet mine, overflowing with the same regret that floods my soul. “I tried to save her, but I was too late.”
How could we have left them all alone in that square? How selfish we’ve been. How foolish. Now Wynn is dead and Senan…
Shit . Where is Senan?
I try to push myself from the ground, but the excruciating pain in my back keeps me flat. “You must find Senan. Please. I need him.” He is my lifeline. My reason. My everything.
Eason’s head falls into his hands, and his voice breaks when he says, “The prince is gone too.”