A soothing cold touched my bare back as I said my goodbyes to the world and Anya, whom I couldn’t sense at all anymore.
Everything went dark.
Chapter Ten
Avari
Chills tore through my body, rattling my teeth. I must have died and gone to hell, only instead of a fiery inferno, I was trapped in an endless, merciless winter. Tremors wracked my limbs, faltering for a heartbeat before returning stronger and sharper. Perhaps this was fitting punishment: my mother’s curse of fire condemning me to die in the cold.
There was nothing the queen loved more than tormenting others, and because I was a fire-breather, I had always been first in line for cruelty. Daughter or not, I was an enemy of the state.
Her favouritism had always galled me. Lilian and Willow were the apples of her eye. Even before my powers awakened, she disliked me, perhaps sensing I would never be as strong as my sisters, which to a power-hungry monarch was the gravest sin of all.
I remembered the day of the curse as vividly as if it had happened yesterday. I had been a teenager, not yet bonded to Anya. The cleaning maids found the bag I’d hidden under mybed, packed for escape. I hadn’t even managed to react before my mother blasted me with the spell. The magic was so dark it sucked the air from my lungs, leaving me gasping while my only parent cackled.
‘You thought you could leave us?’ Her boot struck my ribs, the crack echoing through the chamber. ‘Try to leave again, and before the week is up, this—’ She jabbed a finger at my chest. ‘will burn you alive.’
Weeks passed before I could breathe without agony. The ribs had long since healed, but the curse remained, a living thing coiled in my chest, waiting to strike. It must have killed me this time. I remembered the sensation of burning alive, ash filling every crevice, my organs boiling as my consciousness drifted away. Yet through the darkness came voices, faint and distant.
‘It’s been too long. She needs a real healer.’
‘She needs fire, which is what she’s getting.’ Was that the king’s voice?
‘She was almost burnt alive. That’s about as much fire as she might need!’ Michael snapped.
Behind me, Dracon sighed, his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
Wait… Behind me?
‘That was the curse. It’s not the same,’ he almost whispered.
They knew about the curse. And was I lying on top of my captor?
‘Why are you behind me, creep?’ I rasped, my voice raw and broken. Speaking hurt.
The king flinched. Whether from offence or surprise at my being awake, I couldn’t tell.
‘Rest,’ he ordered. ‘You’ve been drained.’
Only then did I notice the void where my powers usually rested. Nothing but motes of dust remained.
‘What on earth are you doing?’ I protested, feeling the enticing warmth of the energy he was pushing into me through his chest at my back and through his arms wrapped around my stomach. His chin rested lightly on my head, and though the intimacy made my skin prickle, my body welcomed the heat. It disgusted me that his touch calmed me.
‘I’m thirsty,’ I whined, ashamed to need their help.
Michael pressed a glass of water to my cracked lips and tilted it carefully so I didn’t have to move my stiff neck.
I couldn’t comprehend the king’s sudden change of heart. The last time I had seen him, he had been enraged and violent. It seemed he was as unstable as he was powerful. But I had survived. The curse should have worked. My heart had stopped. My lungs had burned to cinders.
‘How?’ I demanded weakly.
And in unison they replied, ‘The forest.’
Before I could ask more, exhaustion dragged me under again.
When I next stirred, the restlessness hadn’t faded. Dampness coated my forehead, sweat dripping from loose strands of hair that someone had tied back. How thoughtful. Perhaps the king wanted an unobstructed view of the purple marks he had left around my throat.
At least my hair, unbound, would have formed a small barrier between me and the brute at my back, who still channelled his power into me. One minute, he had tried to kill me; the next he was saving my life. It made no sense. He probably believed me too weak to drain him, not that I wanted to. Still, it seemed Michael and the king were the only reasons I had survived.
