Valen’s expression had turned stony. “Queen’s Blood Roses.”
Well, that didn’t sound ominous at all.
“A toxin coats their thorns,” he said. “A single scratch inflicts a strong fever, sudden weakness, and potent hallucinations.”
“Nice, relaxing hallucinations?”
“They’re generally described as ‘torturous’ and ‘nightmarish.’”
“Of course,” I huffed.
Valen drew his sword and cautiously approached the thicket. My breath caught, and I couldn’t speak, the sudden tension choking me. He was just going to charge in? No strategy, no whispered plans?
At first, I feared he was going to hack at the plant and get himself scratched to pieces. But as he stretched the tip of his sword toward the necklace, I understood his intention. He could use the blade to hook the necklace without getting too close to the thorns—ideally. In reality, the thicket was just too big. Even with the sword’s extra length, he would need to stick his hands between the branches to reach.
“Wait,” I said when it became obvious he was going to do just that.
I bent down, tugging at the bottom layer of my dress. The sumptuous fabric was surprisingly strong, and I couldn’t rip it.
“Give me your sword,” I said. “We can wrap some cloth around your hand. It’s better than nothing.”
I cut off some fabric from the innermost layer, which no one should notice unless they paid extremely close attention. Then I wrapped it around Valen’s right hand.
“If only we could find a leather glove…” I pulled the knot tight but didn’t let go of his hand, biting my lip as I looked at him. Thefabric was too thin. It would barely give him any protection at all.
“No time,” he said. “Wish me luck.”
I kissed him—it was hard, desperate, and much too fast. He gave my hands a reassuring squeeze and then pulled away, approaching the thicket.
Slowly, he extended his sword toward the jewel. The tip fell short by five or six inches, an impossibly wide gap when every little twig on the thicket was covered in thorns. I clutched my face as he eased his hand between two stems, moving the sword’s tip a little closer to its target. His knuckles shone white where he clutched the hilt, and a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. I could barely breathe as I watched, the scent of the roses thick and suffocating. As he slipped his hand deeper into the thicket, I swore I could feel the phantom prickle of thorns on my own skin.
The sword inched closer to the necklace. Valen’s biceps, taut with the strain of careful movement, stood out beneath his formfitting shirt. His chest rose and fell in steady, controlled breaths. I hated seeing him like this. I should be the one risking myself to get the jewel; I’d thrown it into that damned thicket. But Valen hadn’t given me a chance to volunteer.
The blade brushed the necklace’s metal band. I sucked in a sharp breath as the necklace swayed, still dangling from a thorny branch. A muscle in Valen’s jaw twitched, his eyes remaining locked on the jewel. A puff of air left his nose as he stretched farther, tilting the sword upward. It caught the necklace, lifting it up. He maneuvered it carefully around the branch…
The necklace caught on a thorn, sending a shudder through the thicket. Leaves rustled. I covered my mouth with my hand to stop from crying out and distracting him. Had a branch brushed his hand? I couldn’t see.
Valen painstakingly edged the necklace away from the thorn. Once it was free, he began extracting his hand from the thicket.
He couldn’t make half an inch’s progress without having to adjust so the necklace wouldn’t catch on another branch, twig, or flower. It was maddening. How much time had passed? Valen couldn’t rush, but a guard or someone would surely discover Regula before much longer.
When his hand emerged from the thicket, the rush of relief left me dizzy. The sword followed, and he briskly removed the necklace’s metal band and sheathed the blade.
He held the jewel in his hand. Even better, he showed no sign he felt that buzzing magic that had stopped my shapeshifting. I felt giddy. We’d done it. We could go now.
“We need to move fast.” He stuffed the Selenian Jewel into a pouch on his belt. “I can pass off the toxin’s effects as drunkenness to everyone else, but the guard inside will realize the truth.”
The toxin’s effects...? My stomach clenched tight as my gaze dropped to his hand.
The cloth was torn. He unwrapped it, revealing a thin red line on his forefinger.
He’d been scratched.
Chapter 35
Emmeline
We didn’t even make it out of the gardens before he stumbled, looking ill. I threw his arm around my shoulder, wrapped mine around his waist, and supported him as we charged onward.
