And then she dropped to her knees and slammed her knife tip into the ice.
18
James
Everything I do is forthe benefit of William and Virginia.
Alexandra’s voice filled James’s head, rising up from memory. If Alexandra knew the entirety of his father’s plans, then she had known her marriage was invalid. Had known that William and Ginny were bastards as a result. Had known that James’s father had intended to disinherit both and put James on the throne with Ahnna at his side.
He blinked, and saw Alexandra bloodied on her knees, eyes full of pain and fear. Could she have done that to herself? Was she capable of that sort of personal violence? It seemed like madness to consider, and yet…
“I have to protect Ithicana.” Ahnna’s voice tore him from his memory, her gaze focused on the arrow tip still pointed at her head. “Forgive me.”
She slammed her knife down. The tip sank deep into a fissure that ran straight between his legs.
Fuck.
The ice shattered beneath him, and James plunged into the freezing darkness. The water closed over him with brutal finality, stealing his breath and slicing into his skin like shards of glass. Instinctively, he started kicking and reaching up to find the opening. But his headstruck solid ice. He was trapped, the black water pressing in on all sides, numbing his limbs as he fought to stay calm.
James’s lungs screamed, his fingers scrabbling against the smooth, unyielding ice above. Panic clawed at him as he tried to orient himself, his gaze darting through the icy dark for any sign of the hole he’d fallen through. Bubbles slipped from his mouth, drifting away in silvery streams. Every part of him wanted to slam his fists against the ice, but James forced himself to still as he hunted for the opening.
He ran his fingers over the ice, his vision blurring, the freezing water slowing his movements. Then in the far corner of his sight, he saw rays of moonlight filtering through a jagged hole in the ice. He kicked toward it, his body heavy, limbs numb, the darkness at the edges of his vision starting to close in.
Just as James thought his lungs would burst, his head broke the surface. He gasped, sucking in air so sharply it stung his throat, but he barely had time to recover before his hands slipped again, sending him back into the water. Panic surged, and he struggled for a handhold even as he watched Ahnna cautiously move on her hands and knees, keeping well away from the opening.
Leaving him to die.
Shoving down his panic, James kicked his legs and tried to push himself up onto the ice. It cracked beneath him, and he plunged down, water closing over his head.
It was so cold.
His strength was faltering, his heart stuttering, but he kicked upward again, forcing himself onto the wet ice. He clawed at it, trying to get a grip, but he kept sliding backward.
Then a hand closed around his wrist.
Ahnna’s face hovered above him, her expression fierce and determined. She braced herself on the ice, leaning back with all her strength, and with a final, desperate pull, she dragged him out. She hauled him along the ice until they reached shore, and then in a quick motion, she was on his back, shoving him face-first into the snow.
“I’m not a murderer.” She repeated her refrain from before. “But I don’t fucking trust you, James, and I never will. You live on my terms.”
Her knee pressed down on his wounded forearm as she affixed her belt to his other wrist and then bound them together. Rising to her feet, she hauled on his arms. “Get up. You’ll freeze to death if I don’t get you warm.”
James stumbled forward, his legs trembling as he waded through the knee-deep snow, each step a brutal fight against the cold that had sunk bone-deep. His clothes were soaked through, clinging to him like ice; every inch of fabric held the frigid bite of the water he’d fallen into. The belt cutting into his wrists behind his back was just one more source of pain, a reminder that he was at her mercy as he fought to keep moving.
“Come on, James.” Ahnna’s voice rang out sharply from a few paces ahead. She looked back at him, her expression hidden by shadows. “The cabin’s close. You can make it.”
Answering was impossible, his throat raw and frozen, the effort to form words too great. His legs were heavy and numb, dragging through snow that threatened to swallow him with every step. The cold had spread inward, a constant ache in his muscles, and a shudder rattled through his body, uncontrollable and violent.
The slope rose sharply before him, a slick, glistening incline that seemed steeper with every step. He could see the cabin now—a dark shape hidden beneath snow-laden pines, just at the edge of his blurring vision.
He slipped, his boot catching on a hidden root beneath the snow, and he fell hard, plunging into the icy powder. The shock of cold against his soaked skin jolted him, sending waves of agony through his freezing limbs, and he struggled to push himself up, but his arms remained uselessly bound, pinned behind him.
Ahnna came back to him, gripping his arm firmly and hauling him upright. Her face was hard, her mouth a thin line, but he didn’t miss the tears rolling down her cheeks. “Not here,” she muttered under herbreath, pulling him onward with shocking strength. “You’re going to make it inside.”
They reached the cabin’s door, and she kicked it wide and let go of him once they were inside. James fell to his knees.
“Lie down,” she ordered.
James didn’t argue, didn’t so much as flinch as she pressed her knife blade to his throat and unfastened the belt binding him. She kept the blade in place as she pulled off his greatcoat, then his uniform coat and shirt. With ruthless practicality, she again knelt on his wounded arm to secure his wrists, and then tossed a blanket over his body.
