Chapter 5
Rise couldn’t believe she hadn’t complained yet.
He had made her walk miles now, and he could imagine the blisters that were forming on her feet.
Yet, she hadn’t said a word. She had stumbled along, continually looking over her shoulder, without so much as a grimace or a groan.
He had to admit that some small part of him admired her strength of will.
It didn’t change anything, though. She needed to suffer as he suffered.
He thought he would finally get a taste of vengeance when he reminded her of their first meeting, but instead of throwing a haughty chin in the air and claiming her entitlement because she was a princess and he was a slave, she had pitied him.
He hadn’t felt even a little of the satisfaction he’d been craving. For a brief, maddening instant, he’d thought she actually meant it when she’d apologized. It had been…surprising and so, so frustrating. And completely unexpected. But her pity angered him. She had no right to pity him now.
Considering her response so far, she was nothing like he remembered, nothing like he’d imagined.
Yet, that wasn’t what made him angry about the whole situation.
He was furious with himself because he actually felt…
guilty…for how he was treating her. It boggled his mind, and he wondered if she were working some sort of sorcery on him.
He shifted in his saddle and turned back to face the vast wasteland before him.
She had to be using her powers to influence his emotions toward her.
It was the only explanation. He still couldn’t believe that for the first time in his whole, miserable life, he had slept through without a single nightmare.
Every night he could remember had been filled with every atrocity committed against him or that he had witnessed, played repeatedly, in his dreams. Yet, the one night he had slept with the Queen of the Deadly Arrows in his arms, he’d slept peacefully for the first time in his life.
It was baffling. And even more confusing, if she were working such abilities on him, why didn’t she just pour it on and try to use her magic to escape?
When he swiveled to catch another look at her, she was staring backwards once more. He decided it was time to allay that hope for her.
He stopped and dismounted. It was time for a break. He’d give her a piece of bread and some sips of water, and he’d explain why her sister was never going to come to her rescue.
She shuffled up to him and nearly bumped into Nick’s rear end before turning back around and realizing they had stopped.
He pulled the water out of his bag and gave her a short sip before taking one for himself. He put a small amount in Nick’s bowl and held it for him in one hand until he’d drunk his fill.
Once the water was secured, he pinched off a couple of pieces of bread and began to break it into bite-sized chunks. He lifted the first one to her mouth, but as with the mush, she refused his offering. He shrugged and popped it into his mouth to chew and swallow the morsel as she watched.
“No one is coming for you, princess.”
Her multi-colored, hazel eyes burned with anger as she said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re looking for your sister, and she is probably looking for you, but no matter how hard she searches, she’ll never find us.”
He heard the resentment in her voice as she asked, “And why is that?”
“Because we’re not exactly in Umbraland.”
For a moment, she stared at him as if he’d suddenly turned into a bug, and then she glanced around before saying, “It looks like Umbraland. Did we cross a portal?”
“Not exactly. I have an ability to create something I call a pocket dimension.”
“A what?” She met his gaze again, no emotion on her face as his meaning began to sink in. “Well, Rise, that sounds like an interesting ability you have there. What does that mean for my sister and me and our problem with finding each other?”
“A pocket dimension is still attached to the other dimension and shares many of the same characteristics, but it runs parallel to the original. That means, we can travel to our destination without a single other being in sight…well, except for the few predators who have figured out interdimensional travel.”
“So, my sister could be standing right beside me, and I would never know.”
She was smart, too. Rise needed to watch her closely. Even if she didn’t use her sorcery to attempt an escape, she clearly had other means to try to flee him.
“That could be a possibility.”
She nodded slowly, but he knew he hadn’t destroyed her hope completely. The thoughts of escaping his captivity were still churning in her mind.
Something behind him caught her attention, though, and she lifted her chin to point in the direction over his shoulder.
“Is that the direction we’re heading? It looks a little steamy.”
He looked away from her reluctantly and examined the area in the distance. “That’s Dlogsif, land of the lava lakes. It’s not ideal to have to travel through, but it’s the shortest way to Hedonista.”
“It also looks like the shortest way to death. Is there a way around it?”
His gaze returned to hers. Her countenance seemed calculating. He got the feeling she was plotting. He might want to keep her close so he could watch her a little better. “Probably, but we’re going through.”
She glanced down at her feet, drawing his attention to the black boots she wore that had seen better days. They had been shiny once, but now were worn and scratched all over. The walk across hot, rocky terrain wasn’t doing them any favors either.
Again, he got the idea she was manipulating him, but he certainly didn’t need her slowing him down as they made their way through such dangerous terrain.
With a shrug, he threw the rest of the bread into his mouth and bent to lift her into the saddle.
She steadied herself with her thighs, and for the merest of moments, he thought about those thighs squeezing him around his waist as he drove into her beneath him.
Dammit! He shook the thought from his brain. She was getting into his head again. He had to remember that she was a powerful sorceress, and he had a mission that didn’t include fucking her or getting his mind fucked by her.
He watched for a moment as she grabbed the reins and snapped them, kicking her heels against Nick’s flank.
“Go! Come on, horse! Don’t ruin my plan! Let’s go!”
But Nick stood still, not following her commands at all.
Rise chuckled and patted his horse on the neck a few times before running a hand down his nose and whispering praise to his prized companion.
He’d found Nick sickly and abandoned in a desert on the other side of Umbraland.
He’d nursed him back to health, and they hadn’t left each other’s side since.
“Nick only listens to me and those I trust. You do not fall into that category, princess.”
He secured everything once more and mounted behind her. He reached around to take the reins, clicking his tongue to make Nick move once more. Nick didn’t hesitate, following Rise’s commands without pause.
Rise kicked lightly to pick up the pace. Now that he no longer had to worry about dragging her behind, and she knew there was no escape, they could make better time with a quicker pace. And, then, he could rid himself of the intrusive thoughts she was clearly planting.
Of course, he had to find a way to ignore the brush of her hands on his thighs and the natural delicious smell that shouldn’t still be emanating from her sweaty, dusty skin and tangled hair but made him to want to get closer and closer.
He chuckled to himself. The people of Umbraland shouldn’t call her the Queen of Nightmares, as he’d heard a few times, along with the Queen of Deadly Arrows, She Who Should Be Avoided, and other names that hinted of an evil nature.
They should call her the Queen of Dreams. And he should call himself a damned fool.
She was such a damned fool.
Why had she opened her big mouth? If she had still been on foot, she might have found a way to break the rope connection between them.
Now, it was still in place, she was trapped even more, and she was hyper-aware of his large, warm body behind her and his muscular arms around her.
Every accidental touch was enough to send chills over her skin and energy swirling through her abdomen repeatedly.
Not to mention, each gallop of the horse took them closer to reality.
Why had she thought she could get the horse to run from Rise?
Stupid, stupid stupid! She really needed to get her head on straight and put together a good escape plan.
If she didn’t do something soon, she would be dead the moment her father got his opportunity.
And the big dummy behind her didn’t realize he was marching straight toward his own death, too. Somehow, she needed to convince him they were on the same side. But how did she do that when he didn’t trust a word she said?
Sweat began to bead on her forehead as they grew closer to the lava lakes of Dlogsif. She could see the orange-red glow dotting the terrain that was broken by large, spiky stone formations and jagged boulders.
“This seems like such a bad idea.”
“It will shorten our journey by two days. Finally, getting the satisfaction I deserve, and two days early as well, is worth it to me.”
She knew she wouldn’t be able to convince him that she wouldn’t be running into dear daddy’s arms as the long-lost princess he assumed she was, but maybe she could steer him in a different direction.
“So, what’s your plan? When you see Grawl? How will you strike?”
“As if I would tell you so that you could warn him.”
Or let you distract him while I kill the bastard, more likely. “What if I told you that I knew of a sure way to kill him permanently? A way for which he had no defense and a way in which he could never be resurrected? Would you be interested?”
“I would say it is just another tactic to get me to drop my guard.”
She gave a frustrated growl. “You just can’t imagine that we might have the same goal, can you?”
“No, I fucking can’t! I was a slave in your household, treated little better than the vermin that ran inside the castle walls. Tends to make a person think the worst of the ones who owned him.”
“The bonds of slavery are never justified, but I had no power over your situation. Trust me, life with my father was no frolicking holiday for me either!”
“Frolicking holiday? Really? You have no idea what was stolen from me by your father.”
“I really hate that my father ever crossed your path, but I can’t make up for his wrongs. My focus for the past twenty-two years has been to avoid him and to prepare for the day I can no longer do that.”
“Why? I can only imagine how much you miss your life as royalty.”
“Royalty?” She turned around as much as she could in the saddle until she could meet his gaze. “You think I was treated as royalty?”
But his gaze was no longer on her. Instead, he was staring ahead of them, causing her to swivel back around. In the distance, it appeared that a chunk of lava was running straight toward them.
“What is that?”
“Something that shouldn’t be here. They can’t travel inter-dimensionally on their own. That’s a heliskrat, and they’re near to impossible to kill.”
He pulled on the reins, causing his horse to stop and rear up on its back two legs before hitting the ground once more and turning to run back the way they’d come.
“Where will we go?”
“Anywhere but here.”
She glanced around him. It looked like the heliskrat had gained on them. “We can’t outrun that thing.”
“We can’t fight it. We can’t get anywhere near it.”
He would never agree to it, but she had to convince him to free her. She could use her bow and arrows. She wouldn’t miss.
“Where’s my weapon?”
“That was the first thing I got rid of when I grabbed you.”
“Dammit! I could have shot it.”
“Your arrows would have melted like ice.”
“We can still find a way to fight. You need to cut my hands loose.”
She felt the negative shake of his head even though she couldn’t see him. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Rise! We’re going to have to face that creature. You need my help.”
He was silent, but as she looked behind them once more, there was no doubt in her mind that the heliskrat was closer.
His words seemed forced as he asked, “Can you use your sorcery on the beast?”
She had never wanted to lie so badly in her entire life. If she just told him yes, he would cut her loose and give her the chance she needed to escape. But she couldn’t.
“I can’t. The minute I weave my magic, my father will know exactly where to find me.”
“Then, bring him to us. I’ll find a way to get my vengeance against him here in this place.”
“I’m not ready to see him yet.”
Waves of heat began to pulse over them, making it clear the creature was almost upon them.
“Did you do something to disappoint daddy?”
“Yeah. You could say that.” She shook her head. He wouldn’t believe a word of what she had to say, but it was worth a try. “I disappointed him the day I was born.”
“Couldn’t live up to his impossible standards?”
“No, it wasn’t that. The fact that I drew breath at all was what disappointed him. So much so that, the minute he sees me, I’m dead.”
“In a metaphorical sense?”
“No. There’s nothing metaphorical about it. He wants me dead.”
“I don’t get it. You’re his daughter.”
“The only way he can be killed is when three of his offspring unite. My sister and I were on a mission to do just that. It failed. We were working on Plan B when you came along.”
They came upon a small, rocky outcropping. Rise halted the horse and dismounted quickly. He slid her down beside him and pulled his knives. He cut her hands free, pulled his bag from the horse, and slapped the horse on the rear, sending it away from their hiding place.
Liv rubbed her wrists and arms, trying to get the feeling to return to them. “Are you sure you trust me not to stab you in the back?”
He pulled her bow from his bag and handed her a few arrows. “Show me what you can do, bullseye.”