Ahnna remained trussed on the floor, her only motion the slight rise and fall of her chest. He said nothing to her as he added wood to the fire, and then sat on the single chair while he ate and drank.
Why couldn’t he do it? Why couldn’t he put down the woman who’d ruthlessly butchered his father?
What is wrong with me?
It was exhaustion, he told himself. James couldn’t remember the last time he’d really slept, and that’s what was weakening his resolve. A few hours of rest would put steel back into his spine, and he’d do what needed to be done.
Triple-checking that Ahnna’s bindings and gag were secure, James sat with his back against the wall and his sword across his legs. He stared at the crackling fire, but against his will, his eyes tracked to Ahnna’s still form. Her wrists were bound, as were her ankles, and he’d strung a rope between them to reduce her mobility even more. Though she could probably have removed the blanket covering her face, she hadn’t tried, and a sudden unease filled him that she’d hit her head harder than he’d thought. That she’d been slowly dying beneath a rough woolen blanket while he’d eaten a meal.
Let her die!his anger demanded.If her skull is cracked, you can’t save her anyway.
James tightened his grip on his sword hilt and clenched his teeth, fighting the urge to get up. His heart thundered faster and faster, his eyes fixed on Ahnna’s chest, which still rose and fell.
Maybe she was just asleep.
Or maybe her brain was bleeding, and the next heartbeat would be her last.
Cursing, James twisted onto his knees and yanked the blanket off her face. Ahnna glared back at him, the firelight gleaming off her eyes. Unblinking, she slowly shook her head.
“Your stubbornness will not save you.”
Using her limited range of motion, Ahnna lifted one shoulder in a shrug, and with a snarl of frustration that was more at himself than her, James threw the blanket back over her head.
He returned to his place at the wall.
Sleep,he ordered himself.Rest.
And though it seemed impossible given the way his heart thrummed, his eyelids slowly drifted shut as exhaustion claimed him.
17
Ahnna
Ahnna needed to escape.
Just because James was struggling to kill her himself did not mean he wouldn’t drag her back to Harendell so an executioner could do the job, and while James seemed to think that her death would sate demands for war between Harendell and Ithicana, Ahnna had no such delusions. Alexandra wanted the bridge, and even if James dragged her corpse before all the nobility in the Sky Palace, the queen would only manufacture another justification for war.
Aren needed to be warned, and time was of the essence.
Which was all well and good, but Ahnna had yet to figure out how she was going to escape her bindings. James knew his business: There wasn’t an ounce of slack in the rope digging into the flesh of her wrists and ankles. She could barely breathe with the two gags and the blanket over her head, and James was only a few feet away from her.
Think.
He had to be exhausted. While she had the benefit of many hours of sleep in the cabin, James had to have been going nonstop since the avalanche that he’d somehow escaped, on top of what would have been a severe lack of sleep over the many days he’d pursued her. If shewaited until he nodded off, that would be the best opportunity she had to get free of these ropes.
Ignoring the crackle of the fireplace, she focused her ears on the sounds he made. The scuff of his boot heels as he shifted his position. His soft sigh of frustration. And then, after what felt like an eternity, his breath deepening with sleep.
Unless it was a trick.
Ahnna scowled at the blanket, not putting it past him to try to lure her into attempting to escape, but eventually she conceded that it was now or never.
Her mobility was severely constrained, her back bent with the way her wrists were bound to her ankles, but what James hadn’t taken into consideration was that Ahnna was very,veryflexible. Muscles screaming, she increased the bend in her spine and reached down and down until her fingers found her ankles.
A loudpopmade her jump, her heart racing, but it was only sap in the firewood. She waited to see if James might stir, but his steady breathing continued.
Moving by feel, Ahnna picked at the knots holding her ankles in place, the pain in her back rivaling the pain in her battered skull as she dug her fingernails between the ropes. The first knot came loose, but James, curse his goddamned proficiency, hadn’t limited himself to just one knot.
Tears of pain leaked down her face from sustaining the position, but Ahnna kept going. One of her nails pulled up as she clawed at the ropes, and she clenched her teeth around the dirty blanket forming her gag. Then the knot came loose.
