Page 8 of A Curse of Breath and Blood (The Mind Breaker #1)

7 AELIA

Burning pain seared into every inch of my body as I headed back to the inn. The manacles still bound my hands. One soldier remained unaccounted for. More would come.

I had to get back to the inn and warn the others.

Dawn’s first light peeked over the horizon, casting the city in pink and yellow. Fisherman and salt sellers made their way to the lake for another day of hard labor.

I kept to the alleys, hoping no one would look my way, always looking behind me. Gideon’s men were quick, but it would be hard to track me with all the foot traffic heading toward the lake.

My head ached as the dust wore off. This would not be pleasant.

I pushed the door open to find Amolie still asleep in her bed.

“Amolie, wake up. I don’t want to alarm you, but we have to go now.”

Amolie’s hazel eyes blinked awake. “What are you talking about?”

“I fucked up. I fucked up big time.” I paced back and forth, body shaking .

Amolie popped out of bed, her messy curls flying everywhere. “Oh, Aelia. What did you do?”

“Pack, and I’ll get Caiden. We need to leave. Now.”

The door to the men’s room opened before I could knock. Lucius answered, wearing his padded riding attire, his hair pulled back into a white bun. “What did you do this time, Springborn?”

“I need to talk to Caiden, and I need you to take care of these.” I held up my manacled hands.

Lucius clicked his tongue. “I can’t decide if I want to know or if I should just pick the lock and let it be.”

“It’s not what you think it is.”

Lucius drew a lockpick from his pocket and got to work on my handcuffs. His face contorted as he waited for the click of freedom.

“What is it now, Aelia?” Caiden didn’t bother to look up from where he was lacing his boots.

Click. The manacles thudded on the floor. I rubbed the soreness from my wrists.

“We need to go now. Gideon is here. Or, at least, his men are. I went out last night for…” Lie, lie, lie, you can’t let him know about your weakness. “For a smoke, and they found me.” I danced from foot to foot like a child waiting for their scolding.

Caiden stood, balling his hands into fists.

“How could you be so foolish as to go out alone?”

I crossed my arms over my chest in defiance. “I needed to clear my head?—”

“And buy some dust.” The judgment in his voice made my heart sink.

Had I been that obvious? I thought I had control of myself around him. Unless Amolie told him.

“Go fuck yourself, Caiden.”I spit the words at him.

“You’re pathetic, you know that, Aelia? I can’t believe I ever—” He caught himself. Those words were too cruel to utter, but I wanted to push him to see how far he’d go.

“You know what? If you’re so desperate to be free of me, I’ll grant your wish, Caiden.”

Our noses nearly touched, and his warm breath made my wet skin dimple with goosebumps.

“You’re high as a kite.”

“I’m sober enough to grant you your wish right now. I’ll erase your entire mind if you ask me to.” I glowered at him, hoping to spark his ire.

“Enough, you two,” Amolie interrupted. “You’re both acting like children. Gideon is coming for us. We need to go now.”

A ball of fire ripped through the window, setting the floor ablaze.

“Out the back window.” Lucius sprinted across the room before a breath left my chest. He opened the window and motioned for us to climb out. Flames crept up the dingy curtains. Smoke filled the air. A jagged cough escaped my lungs.

Escaping onto the roof, my feet skidded across the thatches. Below, merchants lined the streets, setting up their stalls for the day.

“We’re going to have to jump,” Roderick said.

Flames shattered the windows behind us.

“Where?”

“There.” He pointed to a fruit stand below.

Screams erupted as flames burst from the inn.

“Now!”

We all jumped, landing in the fruit stand below. Pulp covered us from head to toe. We didn’t have time to think.

My head throbbed, and my body ached. Each breath stung like a thousand bees. I didn’t know if I could run. I didn’t know if I could get up.

“The stables, we need the horses.” Caiden sprung to his feet .

The sound of clinking armor echoed through the morning streets. People hurried to avoid being trampled.

Caiden pulled me from the cart, and together, we ran toward the stables.

With no time to spare, we mounted our horses bareback before bursting out the back of the barn. “Ride swift and true, boy,” I said, jamming my heels into Arion’s sides.

Our horses’ hooves skidded on the cobblestones as we fled Brutus’s men, taking sharp turns, hoping to lose them.

“The rooftops,” Roderick shouted as an arrow whizzed past my head. We turned down a covered market street. The echoes of the horses’ hooves pounded in my ears. My heart beat faster with every step Arion took. I would not go back to Gideon. I would not be his caged bird again.

We escaped the city and hit an open field of snow. I let Arion loose. As we led the others towards the forest, the ebony stallion lengthened his stride. We were on the edge of the Winter Kingdom and the Court of Sorrows. Gideon did not have a treaty with Queen Nysemia and lacked the boldness to cross the barrier between humans and sylph’s lands.

“A little further,” I whispered to Arion, urging him onward. Riders appeared behind us. Their horses’ breaths turned to mist in the morning sun. I’d recognize their red eyes anywhere. Blood Riders—born and bred to end lives. Death gleamed in their fanged smiles.

“Don’t look back!” Caiden called. “Keep going.”

They needed a chance. Gideon wanted me. “Head for the woods. I’ll meet you there.” I turned Arion violently. He whinnied with displeasure but kept moving.The others split off, heading into the forest.

The Blood Riders followed me, urging their water horses forward. Sharp fangs protruded from the creatures’ mouths as they chased us through open snowy fields. Dread coiled like a snake in my stomach. Arion could not run forever. Eventually, we would hit the great Atruskan River.

The ground quaked under the water horses’ hooves as they gained on us. Still, I urged Arion forward. The stallion gave me everything he had in him. His feet barely touched the ground as we sped through the snow.

A blinding pain seared into my back, hitching the breath in my lungs—an arrow.

My lungs slowly filled with blood, but removing the arrow meant certain death. A river of fire flowed through my veins. Wincing in pain, I reached to feel the weapon. Shit .

The Blood Riders were so close I could smell the rotting flesh on their breaths. I pulled Little Death from its sheath. Dragon steel slayed gods; surely, it could kill a Blood Rider.

I needed to put the dagger where it would do the most damage.

One rider broke away from the pack, surging toward us.

I jumped from Arion, planting my feet into the fresh snow.

Pleasure filled the rider’s dead eyes—he thought he had me now.

I gave him a smile before hurling my dagger with all my might into the horse’s chest.

The creature screamed in pain, slamming its rider into the snow. I held out my hand, calling Little Death back.

The rider lay lifeless, steam rising off the still-warm beast. I scrambled to him, not checking his pulse before I slit his throat. Hot blood spilled from his neck, staining the pristine snow.

A small crossbow dangled from his bandelier. I hastily snatched it before crouching down, using the horse’s body as cover. The rancid stench of the creature brought bile to my throat. With the arrow still lodged in my back and my breathing labored, I waited for the others.

Three more riders approached. Their gray skin identical to the overcast sky. Drool dripped from their long incisors. Where lips should have been, only skin met teeth—monsters just like me.

Firing a bolt, I hit one in the chest. His limp body plunked into the snow like a sack of potatoes.

“Got you now, little lamb,” a deep voice echoed as the other two riders approached. Their water horses strained against the bits, begging to taste the blood on the snow.

Laying perfectly still, my breath barely a whisper, I waited for them.

Their boots crunched in the hardened snow as they dismounted.

One bolt left.

The crunching grew louder with each step, scraping against my eardrums. I gritted my teeth to withstand the pain. The iron flowing through my veins made it impossible to use my telepathy.

“Ah, Aelia, always the troublemaker.”

I grimaced at the voice of one of my guards in Ryft’s Edge.

My spine screamed in pain as he yanked my hair, but I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of hearing me cry. Clenching my jaw, I dug my bare hands into the snow. The burning cold distracted me from the arrow in my back.

He leaned down so his lips were practically on my ear. “You could’ve made this easy. Now I have to explain to the king how you got an arrow in your back.”

“Fuck you,” I said, spitting blood onto the ground.

He released my hair, slamming my face into the hardened snow, reopening my wounds. Blood poured from my nose.

“Put her on the horse,” the man said.

Next to me, a water horse devoured the dead body of a Blood Rider.

A pair of powerful hands hauled me upward, forcing me to face the leader of the Riders, a muscled man no older than thirty with pale skin and eyes the color of dried blood. He looked through me, reducing me to a state of utter insignificance. I made sure to conceal the crossbow under my cloak. There would be no second chances.

“Make sure she doesn’t have any weapons,” he barked at the rider holding me.

A smile graced my lips.

“What are you smilin’ at?” His brows knitted in confusion.

“Too late,” I said, firing my last bolt straight into his neck.

A look of shock crossed his round face, and blood seeped from the wound.

The bolt had hit an artery.

He sank to his knees, taking his last gasps of air.Blood flowed like a river around his lifeless body. The water horses seized the opportunity to lap up the fresh sanguine.

“I should kill you for what you did.” The Blood Rider pressed a blade into my neck.

I fought as best I could against his grip. “I don’t think your king would be too happy with you.”

“Drop the weapon.” He dug the tip of the knife into my skin.

I sucked in a breath, dropping Little Death and the crossbow into the snow.

Blood filled my lungs as death closed in upon me.

My healing powers lacked the strength for a wound this severe. Knees going limp, I sank into the snow.

“Shit.” The soldier said as my body hung lifeless in his arms. “Shit. We weren’t supposed to kill her.” He laid me down. The cold proved a brief respite from the pain.

My vision tunneled. I could hear the soldier’s frantic footsteps dancing around my head. A smile tugged at the corner of my lips, finding solace as I imagined the look on Gideon’s face when they brought him my lifeless body.

Darkness encroached upon me.

A man no older than fifty appeared before me, dressed in cream robes with hair as white as fresh snow. The corners of his eyes wrinkled as he smiled at me. “Hello, Aelia.”

My chest lightened at the sight of this reaper—Hadron, my old acquaintance.

Many fear death when he comes for them, but not me.

I had died before.

I smiled back at him.

“Aelia.”

Hadron’s calming voice soothed my aching soul.

I stared at his expressionless face. No pupils graced his eyes, only white nothingness.

“I’m ready,” I said, swallowing hard. My voice little more than a whisper.

He chuckled, shoulders bouncing as he shook his head. “It is not your time. The Trinity has other plans for you.”

“Please,” I begged, but Hadron did not oblige.

Taking a glowing ball of life from his shabby twill satchel, he placed it in my chest.Electricity radiated throughout every limb of my body. My lungs constricted.

“Breathe, Aelia.”

Surrounded by a white light, the magic worked its way through my blood, healing the torn flesh. A feverish heat brought sweat to my brow.

I shut my eyes.

Caiden’s voice pulled me back from the other side. “Breathe, Aelia. Fucking breathe. Trinity, help us.”