And not once had I considered the possibility that my husband would have already rescued himself.
I could see where I had come in and made my way there. We were so close. I hoped Ahyana would spot me and unleash her angry wasps soon.
But a tall man stepped out in front of us, his sword drawn and pointed at me.
Dolion.
Chapter Forty-Seven
He didn’t speak.
My muscles tensed and my chest hurt. Like my heart would explode.
“Dolion, please,” I said, the blood draining from my face and pooling in my gut. “This is my brother, Haemon. He’s sick. I need to save him.”
He still didn’t speak, just kept his sword trained on me.
“Please, let us leave,” I begged. I would have gotten on my knees if I’d thought that would sway him. I was so desperate to get Haemon to safety.
The screams started to the south of us. Ahyana must have released her wasps.
The three of us stood there, staring at one another. I tried to control the way my limbs were shaking.
Because even if I fought Dolion and won, at any time all he had to do was call for the guards and Haemon and I would be done for.
He slowly lowered his sword.
And then he said, “I would have been so good to you.”
Was that a warning? Or was he going to let us go?
Dolion walked toward the screams, as if he intended to help with the wasp situation. I led Haemon away from it, going as quickly as wecould. My lungs felt frozen—at every step I expected to hear someone call after us or order us to come back.
When we reached the trees and could no longer be seen by the guards, my trembling actually got worse as my adrenaline flooded out of me.
My adelphia was there, ready to help.
“That’s not Xander,” Io said, already reaching into her pouch for vials.
“Xander escaped. This is my brother, Haemon.”
Ahyana put a blanket around his shoulders. “I thought your brother was dead!”
Haemon said with a smile, “So did Lia.”
“We need to move,” I said. “They’re going to come looking for the escapees. And we have to find Xander, who is probably lying in a ditch somewhere, dying of poison. Instead of staying put and waiting for me to come save him.”
Io poured some potions down Haemon’s throat. “To be fair, Xander probably didn’t expect you to rescue him.”
After he’d told me he loved me? How could he not have expected it? I let out a deep sigh. I knew that I was covering up my concern and worry with annoyance.
Zalira turned her aspect off and Ahyana had to help her stand. She’d held that storm for a long time.
And ... it was still going.
“How are you doing that?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said, sounding out of breath. “It’s like I made it rain so much that it decided on its own to keep storming.”
