Page 31

RUAROK

I pace outside the entrance to the cave.

I listen hard, trying to pick up any sense of what might be happening inside, but it’s like a void and Taelyn has been swallowed by it. I want to yell and shout and break things. I want to fight the other men who are standing around, waiting with me, while we let our princess face the danger.

“She’s been too long,” I say to Balthorne. “We should go after her.”

He shakes his head. “No, she told us to wait.”

“I don’t give a fuck what she said,” I growl. “She could be in danger.”

“She’s trying to save the kingdom.”

“I don’t give a fuck about the kingdom either. She’s all that matters. The rest of it can go to hell.”

I don’t mean that, do I? Isn’t the whole point of my plan that I ruin her and take the kingdom for myself? If she were to die inside that cave, my problem would be solved. I’d be the only heir left to rule .

There is one fatal flaw with my plan. If she doesn't find a way to save the kingdom, there will be no kingdom to rule. That is the only reason I want her to survive. The only reason I’m barely holding back from ignoring commands and tearing into the cave to save her.

It has nothing to do with the way I can't get her off my mind, or the way I've become addicted to her scent and the softness of her hair.

The reason I spend every waking second trying to find a way to be in her company.

I was the person who suggested she come here. If something happens to her, it’ll be my fault. The knowledge tears at my heart, making it hard for me to breathe.

Movement comes from somewhere deep in the cave, the scraping of footsteps on stone.

“Taelyn?” I call.

She emerges into the light—pale-faced and shaken, but physically unharmed. I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved to see someone in my entire life. Even when she opened the cage, I wasn’t this happy to see her.

“Thank the gods. You’re safe.”

Automatically, I reach for her, wanting to hold her, and reassure both of us that she’s okay, but she jerks back like I’ve burned her.

Of course, we have an audience now, and she’s not going to want me touching her in such an intimate way when others are watching, or perhaps she simply doesn’t want me touching her at all.

“Did you find the Mage?” Balthorne asks.

She takes a deep, shaky breath and nods. “I did.”

I butt in. “What did they say?”

“That in order to stop the rot, there needs to be a sacrifice. ”

“What kind of sacrifice?” I ask for clarification. “One of blood?”

She doesn’t meet my eye. “No. They say it needs to be a sacrifice of love.”

Love? “What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure.”

I continued to press her. “Didn’t you ask?”

She snaps her gaze to mine, fire burning in her blue eyes. “Of course, but it isn’t exactly easy to get a straight answer out of someone who’s been living in a cave for a thousand years and who cut out their own eyes so they could see better.”

She’s clearly upset, and I don’t want to push her anymore.

I soften my tone. “The good news is there is a way to stop it.”

She scoffs. “Through love. As if there is such a thing.”

This doesn’t sound like her. Has something else upset her, other than her encounter with the Mage? What did she see in there? What else did they tell her?

Balthorne clears his throat. “Princess, we have a long journey back to the kingdom. If we are finished here, we should turn back so we can find a suitable place to camp for the night.”

She gives a curt nod and pulls her cloak around her. “We’re done here.”

She goes to her horse, jams one foot in the stirrup, takes hold of the saddle, and pulls herself up and over in one easy move.

I admire that she’s an accomplished horsewoman.

She’s strong and brave and beautiful. She talks about love.

Is thinking these things about a person what love is?

Or the way I can no longer think or care about anything other than her?

No, I don’t love her. I’ve never loved anyone—sometimes I doubt I even loved my own father. It wasn’t as though he ever gave me any reason to love him. He robbed me of my mother and had the castle staff raise me. Then he locked me inside a cage for the rest of eternity.

If that’s what love does to a person, I’d prefer to have none of it.

I return to my horse as well.

I’m still convinced Taelyn’s not telling us the whole truth of what happened in that cave. Perhaps it is none of my business, but I’m curious, and I hate to see her upset. I vow to find a moment alone with her before the day is out.

We turn the horses around and head back the way we’ve come.

The mood hanging over our small group is somber, which feels wrong.

Shouldn’t we be celebrating? We achieved what we wanted.

Perhaps the Mage’s answers weren’t as clear as Taelyn would have liked, but we still have time to unravel their meaning.

I want to ride beside Taelyn, to question her further, but it’s clear she’s not in the mood to talk. I tell myself the important thing is that she’s safe, but I don’t think she’d agree with me. She came here to get answers, and from what she told us, she came away with only more questions.

We ride for a couple of hours. There’s still light in the sky, but the temperature is dropping, signaling night will soon be upon us. We’ll need to set up camp before it’s too dark to see what we’re doing.

I wonder if Taelyn will allow me to slip into her tent again to keep her warm, or if she’ll be guarded against me now. Maybe I shouldn’t have said what I had, but I’d meant it. She does want to fuck me; she just hasn’t admitted it to herself.

“This is as good a place to stop as any,” Balthorne announces, bringing his horse to a halt. “The ground seems firm enough.”

I glance around at the barren moorland. He’s right—it is as good a place as any. Everything looks the same around here. No one has dismounted yet, though. It’s as though we can’t bring ourselves to accept that we have to sleep out here for another night.

My horse paws at the ground, shakes his head, and gives a low whinny. The animal’s behavior is quickly picked up by the other horses.

“I don’t think the horses want to camp here,” I say.

Something has spooked them. They neigh and snort, and one rises to its hind legs. Another turns a full circle, against its rider’s wishes, as though it’s looking for something.

“What’s happening?” Taelyn asks, clearly nervous.

“I don’t think we’re alone,” Balthorne says.

“What should we do?” I ask. “Dismount and cover the princess? Or should we keep going and hope to outride whatever it might be?”

For once, the normally confident man seems unsure. He doesn’t reply but scours the surrounding moorland. We still have light, and nothing is obvious, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing here. These lands are filled with dark magic and monsters.

“What do you think it is?” Taelyn presses him .

He shakes his head, his lips thinning to a line. “Honestly, Princess, I have no idea.”

“If we can’t see it, we can’t outrun it,” I say. “My vote is that we dismount and prepare to fight.”

We always knew coming out here was going to be dangerous.

The other guards pull their horses to a halt.

Staying mounted isn’t safe. The animals are becoming more distressed, their ears pinned back against their skulls, the whites of their eyes showing.

Several rear up and snort their distress.

I don’t want to see Princess Taelyn being thrown.

A broken leg out here would not be a good thing.

Balthorne nods. “Agreed.”

We climb off and draw our weapons, moving into a circle to protect Taelyn. I don’t have a full-length sword like the guards, but I have a large dagger, the weight of which feels good in my palm. The horses still aren’t happy, and their nerves filter through to the rest of us.

Seemingly from out of nowhere, a flash of sleek black fur darts out in front of us. One of the guards lets out a scream of agony, and then he’s gone, leaving only a patch of dark blood on the cold, hard ground.

“By the gods,” Taelyn says under her breath.

She pulls a dagger, too, and stands with her legs apart, braced for attack. We surround her, trying to offer her protection, but what if this creature kills us all and leaves her vulnerable?

“This isn’t how this is going to end.” I grit my teeth. “I did not survive ten years in a cage only to end up as some mutt’s dinner.”

We wait, ears straining for any sign the monster is going to return. There’s a possibility it took what it wanted—a man to fill its belly—and won’t bother to come back for more.

In the distance, something, perhaps the creature itself, lets out a long, mournful howl. The sound is picked up by another and is echoed back, the cry rolling across the moorland.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention.

Several of the horses break free and gallop away. Our supplies are carried in the bags attached to their saddles. If we lose all the horses, spending the night out here, or making the journey back to Askos, won’t be pleasant. That’s assuming we survive long enough for us to make it back at all.

The beast streaks back across our group, and a second man is snatched. It disrupts the circle we’ve created around Taelyn.

“Fall back in,” Balthorne yells.

The man’s screams filter across the moorland, and I don’t like to think I hear the crunch of bone.

How many more of us is it going to take?

“Fuck this!” one of the guards cries. “I’m getting out of here.”

“There’s nowhere to go!” Balthorne says, but the man is already running in terror, glancing over his shoulder at the thing he’s running from.

It must have sensed fear as, a moment later, the creature appears, bounding across the moorland, heading directly for the man. It opens its jaws wide and closes around the back of the runaway guard’s neck. A split second later, only the man’s body remains, and, headless, he falls to the ground.

Behind us, Taelyn gives a cry of horror .

Is there only one of these creatures attacking us, or is it different beasts that we’re seeing?

A pack of them. If it’s only one, it isn’t killing because it’s hungry.

It would have just taken one of us, if that was the case, and retreated with its meal.

No, this beast—or beasts—are killing for pleasure.

If we’re dealing with a pack, then we’re all dead.

One, however, we might be able to take down.

I take a step outside the circle.

“Ruarok, what are you doing?” Taelyn cries.

I don’t respond but lower myself to a crouch, every muscle tensed, my dagger in my hand. If my instincts are right, then the creature will come for me as I have separated myself from the pack. I just have to be ready for it when it does.

I might have been ready, but it’s far faster than my eyes can take in. I feel it as a whip of wind, followed by the stench of a muddy peat bog, old blood, and death.

Then it’s on top of me, standing over me. It’s huge, far bigger than I am. It snarls, and spittle falls from its jaws, landing on my face. I don’t even want to think about how sharp the rows of teeth that I just caught a glimpse of are.

With a roar of fury, I drive my dagger up into its throat.

The blade seems pitifully small compared to the size of the creature, and I’m not sure it’s even going to slow it down.

It opens its jaws wide, and I’m certain it’s about to tear off my head with one swift bite.

I brace myself for agony, followed by death, and experience a wave of regret for all the things I didn’t get to do in my life.

But then something else punches the animal’s side. It lets out a roar of fury and turns its attention from me, snapping out at something to its left.

It’s Balthorne. He’s just stabbed the creature in the ribs.

The distraction gives me time to reach the dagger held in a cuff around my ankle, and I wriggle out from under the beast. It’s hurt but far from dead, and now it’s snapping at Balthorne, with Balthorne’s sword protruding from its side.

With a yell of fury, I throw myself back at the creature. I raise the dagger high and bring it down, aiming directly at its red eye. The point of the blade finds its mark, and I grimace at the sensation of popping before the dagger sinks deeper, straight into the monster’s brain.

It goes rigid, several spasms jerking through its body, and then falls to one side, its legs sticking out as though a bolt of electricity is running through it.

I look at those claws, how huge, curved, and lethally sharp each one is.

It could have gutted me in a second, and I’m incredibly lucky it didn’t.

No, actually, it wasn’t luck. If it hadn’t been for Balthorne stabbing the monster with his sword, I would be dead.

I wipe my palms on the seat of my pants and then put my hand out to him. He glances down at it and realizes what I’m doing and places his palm in mine.

“Thank you,” I tell him as we shake. “You saved my life.”

He gives a subtle nod. “Of course. Your bravery may have saved all of ours, too.”

We both turn our attention to the princess. “Are you okay?” I ask her.

She’s still staring down at the creature that attacked us. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Do you think there are more of them out there? ”

I glance out over the rugged landscape. “It’s certainly possible.” I hope my earlier thoughts about it possibly being one of a pack were wrong.

She visibly shivers, but I don’t think it’s from the cold.

“How many men have we lost?” Balthorne asks the surviving guards.

“Three,” one of them says. “Haron, Arnain, and Korzith.”

“Damn it.” Balthorne closes his eyes briefly.

I imagine he’s thinking of the men’s families back home, and the devastating news he’ll have to break. More families torn apart. The world is a cruel, cruel place.

“Let’s gather the horses and keep going,” Balthorne instructs. “We still need to find somewhere to camp before dusk, and we can’t stay here now.”

“We’re still camping out here?” Taelyn asks, her voice trembling. “I want to go home.”

“We don’t have any choice, Princess. It’s too dangerous to ride in the dark, and the city is still a good half day’s ride away.”