Page 64 of The Fox Heir

I can’t help but wonder what’s happened in Llwyn since I fled with Hunter and Tristan last autumn. Is my father’s new bride, Elena, still alive? And what of her son, my alleged brother? Has he survived his first few months in the care of a monstrous king?

I’ve been detached from my homeland over the past couple of months. With the Spires and the storms between us, Annwyn is uniquely cut off from the rest of the world.

More detritus washes up on the shore as the waves courier secrets from the wreckage. Waterlogged travel biscuits. A soggy boot. The torn remains of a sail. There must be something here that could tell us what’s happened in Llwyn.

A short distance away, one of the villagers turns over another body with his crutch. He pauses, staring down.

“This one’s alive!”

It takes me a moment to register his words.

The man starts to wave his free arm while leaning on his crutch. “This man’s still breathing!”

All around me, people run toward the body on the ground, but I’m frozen in place. Not because of fear. Not because I’m worried what that man might say about my homeland or my father. I’m paralyzed because I recognize that head of sopping blond hair. That bulky, tall frame, and the cut of the man’s jaw. I ought to, since I’ve trailed my fingers over it enough.

It’s Hunter.

My vision blurs. He didn’t die on that flaming battlefield in Ellyll. He wasn’t mauled by corpse wolves or murdered by my father’s soldiers. Finally, my feet catch up with my brain. I sprint across the beach, then kneel beside him in the wet sand. His face is unnaturally pale; his breath shallow. When I touch his cheek, his skin is as cold as death.

“No.” I shake my head. “No, Hunter, this isn’t how you die.”

Not after what I’ve done to you, I think. This man is the purest soul I’ve ever known, and I treated him abysmally. Guilt makes my breath catch in my chest. This can’t be it. This can’t be how his life ends. Not after everything we’ve been through.

My brain whirs through the hundreds of medical procedures I’ve seen the non-noble healers use in the borderlands, from sewing sutures to herbal remedies for infection. But we never had patients who were half-drowned on the battlefields. I don’t know what to do.

My face scrunches up with a confusing mix of frustration and panic. I push Hunter full in the chest. He doesn’t respond.

“Wake up!” I yell. I push him again. “Hunter, wake up!”

There’s a small crowd forming around me, keeping a short distance. They watch me with pity in their eyes, but I refuse to be pitiful.

I bend forward and speak into Hunter’s ear. “You have a long life of wooing pretty maids in seaside towns ahead of you, remember?” I wipe the wet hair away from his eyes. “You’re going to marry one of them, and have a dozen babies, and grow old, and tell your grandchildren stories about being a great knight in the King’s Guard.”

He doesn’t even flinch. His skin is beginning to take on an unmistakable blue tint. I growl in frustration and fight back the tears that are building behind my eyes. But I can’t cry now. If I start, I know I’ll never be able to stop.

If I am anything, I’m stubborn. And I refuse to watch my only friend die here, on a frozen shore, in a foreign land far from Llwyn. I close my eyes and place my hands over his chest. His breathing is dangerously shallow, and his wet skin sends a shiver through my arms. From deep within my core, I try to reach for my power.

“Please,” I whisper to it. “Please.”

At first, all I sense is emptiness, that all too familiar hollowness in my chest. Then, I recognize a small spark in the darkness. I focus on that small flame of hope, coaxing it, drawing it out of the depths of my core. It eases into my chest, filling me slowly, then faster. I gasp, unable to control it as it returns with an unexpected force.

Light power surges through my veins in a rush of heat. Golden power bursts through me, traveling up my chest and down the length of my arms. It doesn’t so much pool in my hands as it rushes like a waterfall, engulfing Hunter.

Only now do I realize how close to death he truly is. I can feel his heart beating, so painfully slowly, it’s as if it’s already giving up. His life force is still there, barely hanging on by a thread. One foot already into the abyss of death.

“Come back,” I beg.

Power laced with panic floods my mind. I think of nothing else, just Hunter. How much I’ve missed him. How he saved me from my father when we were children. How he rescued me when I was locked in the dungeon. How he crossed the entire Llwyn Kingdom for me.

How I need to save him. Desperately.

Even if I forget all else, I could never forget this: I love Hunter. I always have. And here, on the frozen coast of a forbidden land, I know that some part of me always will.

Under my palm, Hunter’s heartbeat begins to grow steadier, stronger. He takes in a shuddering breath.

“Please don’t leave me.” Even as I say it, I understand the irony of the words. I’m the woman who left him. Not once, but twice.

Suddenly, his hand shoots up to grab my arm. His eyes flutter open.