Page 51 of Immortal Origins (Chronicles of the Immortal Trials #1)

A kadian tore through the forest, swatting tree branches away with so much force he split them from their trunks.

He’d find her.

He couldn’t remember the last time he felt such fear.

He hated himself for it as it clawed at his chest with the flames he kept at bay.

How he longed to let them go and burn the entire forest down if that was the only way to find her.

To save her. Even with all the strength she had, there was no way she could survive an encounter with the Alkijin.

What in the gods’ names was she thinking?

A frustrated growl rumbled in his chest as he scanned the darkness for any sign of where she’d run, but was met with silence.

Where is she? He wrapped his hands in his hair and let out a furious roar.

He’d had one job. Watch her. Keep her safe .

There was no way she could survive this.

He’d find her.

He told himself the pounding in his veins was because he’d failed in his mission, but that was a lie and he knew it.

No one had ever broken through him the way she had.

Ever since that day when she stood and made the pledge, refusing to let her fate be chosen for her, even though every odd was stacked against her…

he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head.

He’d given up hope so long ago and wasn’t even sure if he ever had any to begin with.

But that’s what she brought. In more ways than she could ever know.

Hope .

He’d find her.

The limbs of the trees swayed against the breeze the same time the screeching came back.

Followed by screams.

Her screams.

Without thinking, he flung himself in the direction her voice had come from. Head ringing, he refused to cover his ears in case she screamed again. The sound penetrated every fiber of his being. Tearing him apart at the seams but he wouldn’t stop. Couldn’t.

The wind howled against the shrieks of the Alkijin, carrying their horrid sounds to him as though they were everywhere and nowhere. Confusion fogged his brain but he pressed on towards the direction of her scream. As his body shook, he fought the urge to light a flame and set the forest ablaze.

He’d find her.

Pressing on, he paused only when the shrieks turned from hunger, to thrill, and dread washed over the prince.

Whatever they’d been hunting, they’d found.

“No!” The cry tore from his hoarse throat and he realized he’d been yelling the entire time. Yelling what, he didn’t know. Her name? Felius’, maybe? More than likely just incoherent sounds as he desperately searched for her.

The rage that boiled inside him found a charge in the air and small blue flames danced at his fingertips and he willed himself to calm.

The trees around him began to smoke and he stopped running and gathered his mind and magick.

If he let go, he’d kill everything in the forest, including her.

He had to stay calm. As he pushed the fear down and forced his magick to obey, the woods fell quiet once more.

Silence.

His heart skipped a beat.

Silence.

She wasn’t dead.

He would never accept that.

Silence.

Then, the screams from Podara, Danthan, Oryon and Eurus broke through the trees along with the excited cries of the Alkijin. But… he could’ve sworn it sounded like less Alkijin. Had they separated to hunt them all?

He stood there frozen.

He had to find her.

But they were helpless against such violent creatures. His face contorted as he wrestled with his decision but he couldn’t go back. He had to save her.

Which meant leaving the rest of them to die.

He’d answer for his sins later.

He had to find her.

Pushing the waves of nausea down, the prince did his best to ignore the screams from the party as the sounds of the Alkijin feeding followed.

He’d pay for this.

Calming himself, he pushed his way through the trees.

He forced back the memories of the first time he encountered Oryon and Eurus.

They’d been just sixteen when he found them and they’d been foolish enough to try to rob him.

They’d known who he was but were so desperate they didn’t care.

It had been all too easy to admire the way they fought as a team, even managing to corner the prince in one of the back alleys of the market.

It would’ve been a simple task to avoid them, punish, or kill them.

But standing there, watching them move as though they were one, Akadian couldn’t bring himself to commit to any of those options.

Instead, he offered them a place in the palace.

A place where they could train and become part of his own personal guard.

He never needed them of course, he could well enough protect himself and usually let them roam around the palace to their hearts’ content as they trained among the best.

It’d been a decade since then.

He loved them like brothers.

Podara he’d plucked from the streets after she’d been abandoned by her tribe in Nethyr.

She’d been responsible for the death of a member of her tribe and as was custom, they exiled her.

Unfit to be an assassin , they’d said. It broke her in more ways than one.

So, Akadian found her. Gave her a new tribe and a new purpose.

Paired her with the twins and made her into a lesser noble, much to her vehement protests.

She’d claimed she loathed palace life and could usually be found raiding the winery, but every once in a while, he’d catch her smiling.

She would never admit it, but she was family.

And Felius… He’d been serving with him as one of the kingdom’s fire mages for two decades.

The redheaded fae always brought such life to everything he did.

He taught Akadian how to find beauty in his flames.

Had it not been for him, Akadian never would’ve learned that his flames could be something more than just destruction, even for something as simple as the festival.

It was almost unbearable to think about his body lying somewhere, torn apart by the Alkijin.

Danthan had been for her. The prince noticed how close they’d gotten during her magick training.

The healer would tell her all about his home city outside the Capital and the way she would light up hearing about other places made something in the prince’s chest tighten.

He watched them grow closer over the weeks and how much her progress had been owed to the healer’s support.

He’d wanted her to have someone kind, and familiar on this trip.

Someone who would encourage her but not push her.

She’d been pushing herself so hard lately.

He wanted her to enjoy her training. To worry less of what was to come.

Akadian never imagined…

He never thought he would have to ignore their screams, unable to return to their sides as his insides tore themselves apart with grief.

There was nothing he could do.

So he continued on.

The darkness swallowed him from every side and he focused on using his hearing to find his way. The Alkijin had grown silent and while his head split against his skull, his hearing was still stronger than any human or fae could achieve. One of the benefits of being neither.

It would all be for nothing if he couldn’t find her. Their deaths would be for nothing .

He wouldn’t allow that to happen.

He’d find her.

He slowed his breathing until every whisper of the forest carried to him.

Searching the space he closed his eyes and listened for anything that could help him find her.

Holding his breath, a couple of miles to the northeast voices could be heard.

They were too far away for him to be able to tell how many, and if they were male or female, but it was the best he had so he began running in the direction they carried from.

With no other choice than to send a silent prayer to the gods that he never let past his lips, lest they actually hear him.

Once her found her, he would never let her out of his sight again. Would never leave her so vulnerable again.

Please, let her still be alive. I’ll do anything, Akadian silently pleaded. Anything .

The voices grew stronger as he closed the distance and the furious roars of a dragon broke through the trees and the wall around his heart.

No .

Akadian ran faster, as hard as his legs could carry and even with his strength and speed, it wasn’t enough as he cursed.

Faster.

Faster .

So close now. He could begin to make out the silhouettes of a few figures and almost cried out when her voice carried over to him.

He found her.

She laid on the ground, facing a mage who held a blade in each hand as his face stared down at her wickedly. The dragon had broken free and was launching itself into the air as its blood rained down with each beat of its wings and it disappeared over the treetops.

Red seeped across the prince’s vision as he took in the dagger buried deep into her abdomen, her body twisting on the ground with a horrible wet squelch he would never be able to remove from his mind.

Blood.

So much blood.

It covered the ground as the prince broke through the trees. The only thing that cut through his rage was the sight of her laying there, riddled with dagger wounds and bleeding into the grass.

Heat seared inside him. His channels raged with a blinding inferno, pushing against the barrier he kept it locked in.

Burn …

Out of the corner of his eye, a small flash of movement drew his attention for a moment as the prince glared at the juvenile boy who attempted to run away and commanded, “ Stay .”

His voice wasn’t his own, but the boy obeyed. Terrified and frozen where he stood.

Akadian was on the metal mage before he could even grin in victory, his hands only inches away from cutting her throat.

The prince wrapped his fingers around the man’s throat, lifting him into the air as though he weighed nothing.

His fingernails grew into claws that dug into the helpless man’s skin, coating the prince’s fingers in his blood.

“Akadian,” she whispered weakly through watery eyes.

“I’m sorry it took me so long.” He glanced at her, doing his best not to let the terror he felt when he looked at her show on his face. He didn’t want to frighten her.

“You came,” she cried as the sobs beat her chest.

By all of the gods he would never let anyone hurt her again.

He refused to see her like this ever again.

“Of course I did,” he nodded, pulling one of the metal mage’s blades from his hip, the prince admired the metal in the moonlight.

Obsidian. So, they were from Nethyr. He clenched the dagger and pressed it into the mage’s chest, reveling in the way his skin split apart as the man thrashed against him.

Holding him still was almost too easy. Hunter so quickly turned prey.

“I’m going to make you feel everything she felt and so much worse.

For every mark on her body I’ll cut you so deep no one will be able to recognize you when I’m done. ”

The power Akadian struggled to hold back flared with his anger, radiating into the air as the plants around him recoiled from the heat that surged from his skin. How he longed to let it burn…

Burn …

The mage coughed, his blood splattering Akadian’s face. The sight of the hunter who’d been so convinced he had the upper hand just moments ago was too much. Akadian threw back his head and laughed. “You don’t get to die yet,” he told him through barred teeth. “I’m not even close to done with you.”

The prince dragged the dagger in his hand down the man’s face who twisted deliciously against his fist, screaming as blood soaked the dragon leathers he had no right to wear.

The prince couldn’t help himself, it was as though something took over him and he released his grip on the hunter’s throat just enough to be able to hear the full force of his screams. The chorus filled the air in a perfect song.

“I’m going to watch you die.” His voice was barely his own when he pointed a dagger at Ambrose before slamming it to the hilt into the man’s thigh.

“ She is going to watch you die. And I’m going to enjoy every delicious second of it. ”

“Akadian…”

Her voice broke him out of the trance he was in.

When he turned around, he found her barely holding onto consciousness.

She lay there… so broken and bleeding. The beat in his chest skipped as his clawed fingers clenched and the mage’s windpipe broke beneath his grip.

Fear like the prince had never known consumed him and he pulled the mage’s bloody face close to his and whispered, “It’s your lucky day. ”

Then, he sliced the hunter’s throat from ear to ear.