Page 57 of Blackheart

As the dark-haired Sapphire lunged, I swung Singer with both hands, landing a blow to the top of his head. It didn’t land as hard as I would have liked, but it staggered him long enough for me to bolt.

Back into the woods, my orb flashed on, guiding me as I leapt over fallen trees and crunched through snow as fast as my legs could carry me.

Riven was going to be pissed. He might not even help me get to Castivian anymore. We couldn’t make it a single day without trouble. How were we supposed to get to a kingdom across the sea?

I slipped, my knees slamming into the wet ground. Snow soaked through my pants.

Mynewpants.

The orb flickered rapidly. Maybe it was mirroring my emotions because my heart was also pounding.

Black stains painted the snow as I pushed myself up, staggering frantically over another log.

I wasn’t fast enough.

A thick rope wrapped around my body, yanking me backwards over the log. I fell, hitting the back of my head on a rock.

I tried to sit back up, wincing as pain flooded my senses, a shitty reminder of the midwinter celebration. This was somehow worse.

The burly one crouched next to me. “Doesn’t feel good getting hit in the head, does it?” he gritted through his teeth.

My nostrils flared. “Ask yourself, dumbass.”

With Singer in my right hand and the man at my left, I shifted and swung, this time letting the weapon take what it wanted from me.

The violet gem glowed as it made contact with his face, a burst of Nature going through him like an arrow. It was a clean blow, the club sliding through his face like warm cheese. He fell over, lifeless. Poison pooled out of a palm-sized hole in his cheek.

The white-haired asshole caught up, but I was far too weak to even attempt to stand. His boots crunched closer, his cloak swaying.

I tilted my head skyward as he towered over me. His cloak was scorched where my Nature had taken a toll on his arm.

“You’re dangerous, Blackheart.”

He looked at me like I was the first person he’d seen in a long time.

He must have been Fate’s favorite to craft. His hair as white as the snow, brows dark as night, and skin smooth as silk. He probably hadn’t spent a day of his life unnoticed.

“You look like your mother fucked a troll,” I mumbled, my nausea demanding release. Just before the darkness pulled me away, I spewed all over his snow-covered boots.

Lightning zapped my hip, jolting me awake. My eyes drifted open. The orb zapped me again.

“Stop that,” I hissed.

Now I was talking to an orb.

The surface beneath me was harder than the ground had been. Facing the dark sky, I rolled over and nearly pissed myself.

I was suspended in the air on a wooden platform, held up in a tree by a net.

Just like an animal, I was in yet another cage.

I crawled to the edge of the platform and poked my fingers through the holes of the net.

Below me was an entire camp of busy Sapphires. It had snowed a lot more, but other than that, we could have been anywhere.

I sat up, sucking in a breath and reaching for my pockets. My gold was gone, and so was Singer. My heart sank. I’d lost her.

A glimmer caught my eye. Hanging from the next tree over, on its own platform, was Singer.