Forcing levity into my voice, I said, “Shall we, then?”
Bending, I interlaced my fingers, offering her a hand up. Once she was seated, I threw her pack on, and swung up behind her, settling in. Her rich scent enveloped me, and I let myself linger for a moment, then focused on the reins. My chest pressed against her back as I reached past to collect the reins. She shivered—a stilted, involuntary tremor.
Halting, I searched for any understanding of what it meant and noticed the soft grinding of her teeth from a clenched jaw.
“Nyleeria?” I whispered, my mouth a hairsbreadth from her ear.
She went rigid under me and a heartbeat later a deep, visceral sob tore from her lips.
Rage ignited within me, hot and immediate—a sharp, scalding promise for whomever had hurt her. Dropping the reins, I dismounted carefully before gathering them up again, heading south with a single-minded purpose.
I seethed for hours as we walked in silence. It wasn’t a stretch to know Thaddeus had somehow broken the indomitable woman I’d met in the Summer Court. The one whose hands now rattled against the pommel. Whose sobs rang loudest when she silently swallowed them. Whose tears smelled of the Clarian Sea.
Finally making it to where I wanted us to camp for the night, I turned to face Nyleeria. Unable to witness the marked sorrow I knew adorned her features, I averted my gaze as I said, “Let’s rest here.”
As she placed her slender foot in my hands, I felt the weight of her uncertainty. She wobbled, as if searching for her sea legs, and I clenched my fists, battling the urge to steady her.
Later, the light from the crackling fire accentuated the exhaustion that clung to her features as I handed her a plate. She blindly accepted it, never averting her gaze from the dancing flames.
She still hadn’t said a word since that first sob, and I couldn’t help but stare at her from across the fire, praying that taking her to the Summer Court was the best option—even though I knew it was the only option.
As her eyes began to droop, I finally broke the silence, saying, “I’ve laid out a bed for you.”
Her head shifted toward where I’d indicated, then down to her plate. She forced down a few more bites, then labored over to the bedroll before collapsing into it.
Checking in on her before I went to the river to wash off the day’s stain, I couldn’t help but smile as she clung to an ornate dagger in her sleep. Even then, her guard never dropped; fingers curled around the hilt as though it could shield her from a world that had already taken too much. I wondered if she knew that she guarded herself—awake or not.
I opened my eyes to a training facility—unmistakably of the human realm. I barely registered it before Nyleeria’s trembling hands pressed against the King’s back.
The instant her palms met flesh, her body convulsed, head snapping back, mouth open in a scream that would never take purchase. It was the kind of agony I’d only seen in those tortured by lightning magic, a silent, writhing horror.
I lunged for her—but didn’t move. My limbs strained, useless, as though fighting against the weight of an ocean, and dread curdled in my gut. I was trapped as surely as she was, forced to witness her hell.
“Yield!” The King’s command cut through the air, and a searing pain flashed through me. Without knowing how, I knew it was hers.
I watched in horror as blood leaked from the corner of her mouth, a dark line tracing down her long, elegant neck. The sight cracked something deep in my chest, and a savage, black rage surged forward, mingling with an impotence that threatened to tear me apart. I dug deep, clawing for any power—even if I had to cleave it from my own soul.
Nyleeria!I screamed in silence, her name pounding against the confines of my mind. Nyleeria!
One heartbeat I was bearing witness; the next my feet were moving. Air rushed out of her lungs as I tackled her hard from the side. I twisted mid-fall, pulling her into my chest as we crashed to the ground.
A dome of dull white shimmered into place around us, my gaze drawn to the strange sight. Shimmering darkness weaved into the pale light, thickening until the barrier strained to contain it. The excess drifted down like snowflakes giving in to gravity, but on their own terms.How in the?—
Nyleeria kneed me in the ribs, scuttling off my chest as she pushed against the barrier, her body curled tight as if trying to disappear into herself. Her fear of me, even in this hellscape, eviscerated me.
No matter how complicated sensing her emotions proved, there was no mistaking the thick terror that now filled the dome, making the air difficult to breathe.
“Nyleeria,” I whispered.
Her hands flew to her ears, covering them.
Fuck…Fuck. I should have known better. Should have waited until her terror ebbed. But I wanted more than anything to make this stop—make it all stop. Watching her like this, broken and vulnerable, felt like a punishment crafted by the fates themselves. Utterly useless, I settled against the dome.
Each second tore at me, and I watched as the relentless crackle of power stole something essential from her. I’d been tortured to the brink of death many times—as was customary for one holding my rank—but I would have endured the worst of it a thousand times over if it could save her from this.
Slowly—so slowly, like a frond daring to unfurl under a harsh sun—Nyleeria began to stir, and the moment she broke contact with the dome, a blinding white filled my vision.
“Where are we?” she asked, her voice so tenderly innocent it cracked something in me.
