“You know, the king didn’t say wehadto letyoulive. Only thatshehad to be brought back alive.” Xander steps ahead ofme, his sword angled out, while Daje’s yellow magic flares from one hand, a dagger held in his other.
The backs of my fingers brush against Nox’s, and he turns his hand over in invitation for me to take it. I do, wishing I could spend time mapping out all the places our palms meet. That my mind could be empty of everything buthim.
My guilt festers within me at the thought.
“We should get to the horses,” Daje whispers as his magic flares brighter.
“They’ll kill us before we can take another step,” Xander answers. “We need to draw them out and see how man—” A scream sounds, then another, the blood-curdling noises echoing off the trees as the bellowing of men reverberates around us. Magic pulses beneath my skin and pools in my free hand within seconds, Nox gripping me more tightly as I lift a shield of glittering white in place around us. Xander’s sword lowers a fraction as he inspects my magic. “This is helpful.”
I don’t respond as I scan the woods ahead of us, searching frantically for the threat. Though I know my finger is bare of the king’s ring, the ghost of the cold metal still stings the skin there. I send more magic into the shield just as something moves between two of the tree trunks—a flash of gold that makes my pulse race.
Another scream rends the air just as something hits my shield directly in front of Nox. My heart leaps into my throat as Daje curses and Xander adjusts his stance. But Nox remains calm, looking down at me with eyes that pulse bright silver. The panic that something could harm him claws at the back of my mind.What if I’m made to hurt him again? What about the vow the king forced me to make in blood?I try to warn Nox that maybe it isn’t safe for me to be here, my feet already backing up so that the three of them might escape before I’m forced touse my magic on them. My throat closes as my tongue presses behind my teeth, Nox’s name impossible to push out.
I make the mistake of looking down, and then all I see are my bloodied flats on the fallen leaves blanketing the forest floor.Alexi’s blood. Nox’s. Eve’s.They had all bled because of me.
“Something is attacking them,” Xander says. “Maybe we should try to leave.” More leaves crunch, the cadence quicker, as if someone is sprinting directly towards us. The sound intensifies, one pair of steps morphing into more until I’m sure we must be surrounded by at least a dozen men hidden within the trees.
“I’m almost done,” Nox replies calmly, his fingers twitching around mine.
I scream when a man leaps out from behind a particularly thick tree trunk, his golden sword aimed for Xander, who lifts his own to block despite being behind my shield. But the man doesn’t make it more than a foot before he’s abruptly yanked back and slammed into the ground. My ears ring with the reverberation, and I don’t realize I’m shaking until Nox draws me in, one hand cradling the back of my head as the other stays firmly gripped around my own.
“Don’t watch this,” he murmurs above me. But I do—of course, I do. With an ear against Nox’s chest, I watch as a shadow curls around the hilt of the fallen guard’s sword, yanking it out of his hand and spinning it until it’s angled at the soft spot between his helmet and chest plate. There is no hesitation as the shadow—asNox—plunges the guard’s own weapon into his neck, his whimper cut off before it’s more than a single note.
Nox continues, effortlessly extinguishing the guards that we can see, manipulating shadow and steel, and mercilessly killing the ones we can’t, their terrified screams alerting us through the trees. Both of us command our magic without so much as lifting a hand, even as arrows fired in rapid succession hit my shield.The guards’ screams eventually dwindle beyond us, but I hear them still in my mind, feel myself go stiff in Nox’s arms when he suggests dropping the shield. As if my magic now bends to his will, the shield retreats despite my fears, and the woods return to the silence from mere moments before.
“Now can we go?” Daje asks, using his magic to extinguish our fire.
“I have something I need to do first,” Nox says, earning a frustrated word from his friend. He kisses my forehead and begins to pull away before registering that I’m gripping his tunic, my fear-stricken eyes flicking up to his. He gently cups both sides of my face, and I want to scream that I can’t let him out of my sight. That even as terror begged me to run and leave him behind moments ago, now it has my feet rooted into the earth and is demanding that I keep him here with me. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he whispers, his face unguarded and open. His touch on me is warm and firm. “I promise, Rhea.”
Reluctantly, I force my fingers to uncurl and release him, watching as he walks towards the guards, pulling shadows from the ground as he passes by. He uses them togatherthe dead bodies, lifting them a few feet in the air to trail behind him.
“What the fuck,” Xander says under his breath, more statement than question.
We wait until Nox disappears behind the trees before we gather the horses and lead them to the road we’ve been traveling on. There, I pace as I wait for Nox to return, stopping short every time I hear a twig crack. It isn’t long before he emerges again; though, by then, the night has fully cloaked us in darkness only softened by a crescent moon.
Unable to help myself, I run my gaze over his body, confirming he is unharmed. Still, I ask, “Are you alright?”
At that, his serious demeanor fades, and he steps closer, gentle hands featherlight at my waist. “With you at my side?Always.” Then he lifts me onto the horse and mounts behind me, Xander and Daje mounting their own.
We ride out of the thickest part of the forest to a natural break in the trees, picking up our pace while staying off any roads that might get us spotted. But as we ride, I keep glancing over my shoulder, paranoid that we’re being followed and also extremely curious as to what Nox did with the guards’ bodies. “You know you can just ask me,” he says the fifth time I check behind us, and I pinch my lips together as I look up at him.
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to share.”
“I want to share everything with you, even the things I’m afraid will shake your love for me. Because we promised each other honesty, didn’t we?”
My breaths are uneven as I stare into his darkened eyes. “We did.”
He nods, fingers flexing where they drape over my hip. Thankfully, not the one with the brand. “I left King Dolian a message with the bodies. He can come for us, foryou, but this time, there will be no hesitation in our response. There will be no holding back to spare thosejustfollowing orders or because of my fear it will throw his kingdom in chaos if he is murdered.” The resolve in his voice is absolute as he adds, “I will slaughter his men as easily as I breathe, and I will do it over and over again to keep you safe.”
Words escape me at his declaration, but I slide my fingers over his, interlacing them as I force myself to relax against his chest. In the silence, with only the crunching of dead leaves beneath the horses’ hooves, I replay what he’s said in my mind. And I wonder if safety will always be an illusion, an elusive idea that we are always running towards but never quite reaching.
Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Six: Rhea
“Savilleisasmalltown about three hours to the south of Celatum,” Nox explains as we slow the horses to a trot when we spot the first home on the town’s edge, its walls built with white stone and roof thatched with straw. “I figured it would be better to go somewhere where I’m still anonymous,” he adds on quietly. I draw my fingers closer to his, the only solace I can offeras the reminder of what King Dolian had done to Immie plays briefly in my head. She likely wasn’t the only one who knew Nox was mage, but even if she was, the town of Celatum had been searched because the king was looking for a guard named Flynn who had stolen the princess from the tower. It would be foolish to return and risk being spotted, but my heart still ached over the way Nox spoke as if he was ashamed.
“What happened there wasn’t your fault.”
He sighs softly. “Neither was it yours.” The following silence gives away what we both feel: We may not befullyresponsible, but neither are we completely blameless. Another tally for King Dolian hurting others in our names.
