Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
N eve fluttered her eyelids open, then squinted against blinding yellow sunshine.
She looked down in confusion. With a jolt, she realized that she was sitting sideways on a dappled gray horse. Her body was slumped against something large and hard.
Alarmed, she pushed off the hard thing, which seemed to be a man’s chest, and tilted her head back. The sudden movement made her vision explode with stars and she had to grip the front of the man’s cloak to steady herself. He held her with his muscular thighs and an arm around her, with his other hand on the leather reins.
Terror ripped at her insides as his pale features and onyx hair came into sharp relief.
“You!” she gasped.
The man had tried to kill her after luring her from her bedroom in the dead of the night. Now, he’d apparently kidnapped her. She had to get away from him.
“You’re awake, I—” he started, glancing down and adjusting his arm around her. “Ow! Gods!”
Neve had bitten his arm through the jacket, then slipped from the saddle and landed on the dirt road. Her weakened legs wobbled, and she stumbled clear of the gray horse’s hooves. She wore her black robes, but no shoes.
“Don’t run away!” commanded the man, pulling his steed to a halt.
She ran away at once. As if she was going to listen to her abductor.
The sorceress fled into the tree line, wincing and cursing as the spiky sticks poked her bare soles. How far had they traveled? All around, there were only trees and distant mountains. He must’ve brought her to a remote backroad—the main roads were more well maintained and busier.
Insects buzzed in the bushes and birds called to each other overhead. He would chase her down, surely. It was imperative that she put as much distance between them as possible.
“Ach!”
She tripped on a branch that lay across the yellow and orange leaf litter, making her drop painfully to her knees.
The man’s voice floated from the road. “Are you alright?”
Rubbing her leg, she didn’t respond.
“Your boots are here,” he added in a mild tone. “If you’d like them. I packed you a bag.”
Neve frowned. What in the hells was going on? She tried to recall their conversation from the night before. He’d said several mad things, including that Queen Meliohr had ordered her death.
Hauling herself to her feet, Neve picked her way back over the ground toward the road. Once the man was in view, she stopped behind a tree, peeking out at him. He hadn’t dismounted or armed himself.
“You said the queen sent you.”
“She did.”
“To kill me?”
“That’s right.”
“But you failed to do so.”
He groaned and lifted his eyes to the heavens. “Don’t remind me.”
“Why on earth would she want me dead?”
“Ahhh, well.” He cocked an inky-black eyebrow. His face was still ashen from when she’d nearly killed him, his lips pale. Dark circles ringed his eyes, making his silver irises pronounced. “Your mother never told you?”
“Told me what?” She stepped out from behind the tree and narrowed her eyes. “What do you know of my mother?”
“Nothing. I know of your father.” He cleared his throat and adjusted his grip on the reins. “Your father is King Leonid.”
Laughter escaped Neve’s throat. She couldn’t help it. This was too ridiculous.
“But you jest,” she said.
“But I don’t.”
“Why does she really want me dead?”
He gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Your father is King Leonid.”
“No, he’s not.” Neve blinked hard, her smile fading. “That’s impossible.”
“Is it? Kings spread their seed as much as any man. Oftentimes more.”
“My father was a—” She faltered. Her father was a bad man who made her mother flinch to discuss. “Not a king.”
“An enchanted mirror named you. Or rather, drew your portrait with smears of your blood, is more precise. Meliohr commissioned the mirror from the sorcerer Polinth. I was there when she used it, so that I would recognize you when I—” He cleared this throat again. “Until she had your blood, all she knew was that Leonid’s offspring resided at Starlight Gardens. You look like him, you know. Same eyes as the rest of the Nikolaous.”
Dizziness assailed Neve. “I wouldn’t know how their eyes look. I’ve never been that close to any of them. Everyone always says I resemble my mother.”
Her initial impulse was to deny the idea. But her mother had worked as a servant at the palace—many years ago, before Neve was born. What if Leonid had forced himself on her? What if he was the bad man? It would explain why Brigit forbade the topic.
Leonid didn’t seem like the kind of man who’d do such a thing. But then, what did Neve really know of the king? What did anyone? People could be very different behind closed doors from how they appeared.
She lifted her hand, gazing at the pink line where she’d been cut during the queen’s visit—by accident. Except, perhaps not.
The queen’s aide had stemmed the bleeding with a handkerchief, and taken the handkerchief away. What if that was the entire purpose of the royal tour? To attain her blood and verify her identity with Polinth’s mirror?
“Why didn’t you kill me?” she asked the man.
Eleksi, he’d called himself the night before.
His jaw ticked. “Now that is a long story.”
If nothing else, it seemed he wasn’t going to kill her now. She’d been unconscious and at his mercy for hours—if he was going to do it, he would have. Plus, he had a horse, and her belongings. For the moment, she needed him.
Neve walked onto the road and looked up at him. “I would like my boots, please.”
He reached into a saddlebag and withdrew them.
“What am I supposed to do?” she asked as she pulled the boots on. “You say the queen wants me dead. Where can I go?”
“For now, you need to rest. You look like you’re about to expire.”
She folded her arms, eyeing him warily. “As do you.”
An involuntary shiver ran through her body. She’d used her deathly ability on Eleksi. It’d felt scarier, and more exhilarating, than she ever imagined.
Her eyes drifted to his neck, where the shadow of her handprint remained.
“Are you . . . alright?” she asked.
The question was mostly out of morbid curiosity rather than concern. He’d fared better than the boy she kissed when she was sixteen. Far better.
“I’ll live.” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder. “There’s a village nearby where we can lay our heads and figure out how to proceed. Meliohr expects me to present your body to her at the Harvest Festival in Klatos, so we’ll have a few days. I straightened your chambers back at Starlight Gardens, to make it look like you left under your own steam.”
“They’ll assume I’ve gone to Klatos early to stay with my mother.” Neve didn’t know how she felt about that. On one hand, it was a relief that she had a few days to breathe. On the other hand, no one knew where she was—except for the assassin sent to kill her. “And Beatrice?”
“Alive and well.”
Neve exhaled in relief.
The protection spell beneath her bed came to her mind. Was someone trying to protect her from this exact scenario? Did they know about the queen’s plan?
“Gods, my head hurts,” she said, rubbing her temples. “Like I drank far too much mead last night.”
“Come.”
Eleksi held out his hand. After a moment’s hesitation, Neve allowed him to haul her onto the horse’s back.
He twitched his heels and the horse ambled onward. Sharing a horse with the man was awkward. She tried to perch forward, so that she didn’t have to lean on him, but she nearly fell from the horse when they went over a rise.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, resting back against his body.
“I can hold you, if you like?”
“Oh.” Her face grew warm. “Alright. Just so I don’t fall off.”
There was a hint of amusement in his voice. “Just so you don’t fall off.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and she let her head rest against his shoulder. “Better?” he asked.
“Yes.”
The warmth of his body was comforting, as was the steady thud of his heart. Under usual circumstances, Neve didn’t allow herself to be physically close to anyone, fearing for their safety. But these were not usual circumstances. And she certainly didn’t fear for his safety. If he ended up dead because of her, he would only have himself to blame.
“What is Queen Meliohr afraid I’ll do, exactly?” she asked. “If I am indeed Leonid’s child, I am a . . . bastard.” The word tasted bitter on her tongue. “I’m no threat to her.”
“She fears you’ll try to seize power. That you’d petition the king to legitimize you, making you an heir to the throne.”
Neve snorted. “I’ve never even met the king, let alone forged any kind of relationship with him. I doubt very much that he’d claim me as his own. Besides, I wouldn’t sit on that throne for all the gold in the kingdoms. To exist under the scrutiny of the whole world sounds like a nightmare. I much prefer to exist on the periphery.”
“I know what you mean,” murmured Eleksi, adjusting his grip on her waist fractionally.
“You said Meliohr requested my corpse?”
“That’s right.”
She screwed up her face. “How vile.”
“It’s not unusual. She wants incontrovertible proof of your death. The queen is paranoid and power hungry. If I fail to present your body, you and I will both be hunted down by royal guards, and the Spider Kings.”
Neve’s eyes fell on the silver spider ring on Eleksi’s thumb. He must’ve retrieved it from the corridor outside of her room.
“Spider Kings,” she repeated. “Rumored to be an elite band of assassins. They exist?”
“We do, yes.”
“But if you’re one of them, they wouldn’t hurt you, would they?”
“On the contrary. They would be honor-bound to kill me, for defying my duty.”
“That sounds very unforgiving.”
“Aye. That’s the whole point. We aren’t forgiving. They are terms I not only agreed to, but have lived by with pride. A person doesn’t live once marked by a Spider King. And you, Neve, have lived.”
“But for how long, if the queen wants me dead?”
“Indeed.”
“You aren’t going to change your mind and kill me?”
He looked down at her, his intense silver eyes fathomless. “No. I won’t change my mind. I don’t know what you’ve gotten me into, but I will find us a way out of it.”
“Excuse me?” She raised her eyebrows. “What I have gotten you into? I was minding my own affairs, trying to go to bed. You attacked me.”
He grunted. “I simply meant I didn’t expect this . To be absconding with you, alive.”
“Well, yes. You’re not a very good assassin.”