Page 53 of Immortal Origins (Chronicles of the Immortal Trials #1)

The tournament was so close now. If she went back, there’d be no turning back. She’d never get an opportunity outside the palace like this one again. Only death waiting to welcome her with open arms.

“No, I can keep going,” she protested and pushed herself away from him.

As she took a step her head pounded and she fell to her hands and knees, her entire body shaking violently.

Her right hand fell on something jagged and she grimaced as a throbbing pain shot up her arm.

Her body betrayed her as she struggled to stand again.

“I’m taking you back to the palace. You’re in no condition to stay out here.” He reached for her again.

“We can’t!” She had to think quick. “What about the others?”

A darkness fell over his features and she didn’t need to ask to know what it meant.

They were all dead.

“No…” she whispered, her face cold and blank. They couldn’t be. “How do you know?”

He looked away so she wouldn’t see the shame on his face. “I heard their screams.”

“Then you don’t know if they’re dead!” she insisted. “They could still be alive! Maybe hurt somewhere, we have to find them.”

Akadian shook his head, dark waves swinging as his eyes bore into her and he crossed his arms over his chest. “Almost no one survives an encounter with the Alkijin.”

“I did!” Her vision blurred with tears. “I did! Which means they could have.”

No. They couldn’t all be dead. Not because of her.

She was a curse.

A monster.

He stood a little taller and squared his shoulders. “You can tell me about how you did that when we get back to the palace. I’m taking you back.”

“No!” She fought to make her legs move. One of them had to be alive.

Akadian pulled her into his arms and cradled her against his chest, his own breathing sharp and uneven. His touch was firm, but gentle as he dipped his head next to her ear. “I’m sorry. Really, I am.”

Pressed into him so tightly, she could feel that his heart was beating even faster than her own.

He took a deep breath and did something she never would have expected to see in her lifetime and wouldn’t have believed had she not witnessed it for herself.

From his shoulder blades a pair of wings burst to life and extended above them.

Ambrose stared at the prince as though she’d never seen him before.

His wings folding and unfolding as though they hadn’t been used in a long while and he wanted to make sure they still worked.

She gasped at the leathery, deep blue skin that penetrated the darkness and how beautifully they framed his body, making him appear even more powerful than he did without them.

“You have wings?” She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Did all the royals have wings they kept hidden from the world?

How did he hide them, they were huge!

He didn’t look down at her as he swept an arm under her legs and his wings gave one more practice beat before they shot them into the air, sucking all the words from her lungs.

They missed the limbs of the trees gracefully as they extended towards the sky.

The forest grew smaller as they reached the tops of the trees and beyond them, the tips swaying in the night breeze.

His wings beat skillfully and launched their owner and his cargo into the clouds.

Wind streaked her face as she tucked into his chest to keep the freezing air from stealing all her breath away.

They passed over Cidaer as the remnants of Artie’s farm smoked, now a scar on the continent.

They flew over the vast farmlands that stretched across the kingdom, giving her glimpses of towns and cities she’d likely never see.

Neither of them spoke a word as his wings tore through the early morning sky and passed over the gates of the Capital, using the cover of darkness to keep them hidden .

A journey that had taken them weeks to accomplish on foot took him only a matter of a few of hours as he banked to the nearest courtyard that would bring them back to his chambers.

Streaks of early dawn greeted them as they arrived.

His wings didn’t slow until he found the yard he was looking for when he pulled back and dipped them gently into the grass below.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, Ambrose pushed herself out of his arms and rushed towards the garden she’d become all too familiar with.

Her breath still hadn’t returned as her lungs and mind burned and her stomach flipped from the speed of their journey.

Akadian obviously wasn’t used to flying with regular mortals or he might have taken more care.

Wings.

Akadian had wings .

She flung herself towards the spot where his door would appear.

Weeks ago he’d had it enchanted to appear whenever her presence was near.

At the time, she’d been surprised that he allowed someone else to have access to his most kept secret, but now she couldn’t wait to throw herself onto the other side.

As expected, the door appeared, iron welcoming her to a home that wasn’t hers as she rushed through the door and collapsed onto the ground.

She wrapped her arms around herself, holding tight as she took her first deep breath in hours and fought to still her nerves and stomach.

Akadian slipped through the door quietly behind her.

Trying to gather her thoughts, she ran into her room and before she could slam the door, he was right behind her.

“Ambrose…” he pleaded, his tone slightly desperate. “You can’t tell anyone what you just saw.”

Spinning to face him, his features were set into hard lines as his icy stare pierced her.

Her mind reeled with everything that had transpired since they stepped through the town gates.

The Brotherhood, and what it meant now that the deacon was dead.

Artie and his family—or what was left of it.

Her encounter with the Alkijin and how close she’d come to death.

Twice . Felius. Poor Felius. Leaving the rest of them behind when she wasn’t even sure herself that they were dead. And Akadian’s wings.

“You couldn’t have flown a little bit slower?” she bit out between breaths.

“I had to get us back before dawn. No one could’ve seen us or I would’ve had to kill them and that’s the last thing I wanted to do.” He turned his face to the ground.

“We left them,” she choked out. “We don’t even know if they’re actually dead and we left them.”

Akadian didn’t look at her. “Most mortals that encountered the Alkijin don’t live to tell about it.

You’re lucky to be alive, there’s no way they survived.

” He walked to a cabinet in the center of her room and pulled out a decanter and two goblets, pouring a generous amount of wine into each of them before walking over to her and handing her one.

“How did you survive? When I found you, the only wounds you had were from a knife. Not a scratch on your otherwise. How did you escape?”

She thought about his question as she gulped down the entire contents of her goblet, the sour taste filling her mouth and senses. A line dripped down her chin as she drank in the dark liquid.

Could she truly trust him?

Every time she turned around there was something else waiting for her.

A new surprise she never could’ve prepared herself for.

She had no one around her she could trust. Adym hated her and Ernaline was nowhere to be found.

Lily had been more than a good friend but she barely knew her and still wasn’t sure how much she could trust her.

Magnus might understand if she could find him, but he’d just encourage her to keep moving forward.

No one in the palace had spoken about what she found the night she killed the guard aside from Casimir—who only mentioned it in passing.

Did Akadian know? Was he fishing for information to take to Casimir?

Akadian looked at her as though he could read what she was thinking.

“I could order you to tell me.” He sipped from his own goblet, swirling the dark liquid as he did so.

“But I don’t want to do that. If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to.

” He finished the contents of his goblet, the silver handle glinting against the early morning rays that peered in through the window.

Her apprehension grew as he refilled his goblet, then hers in turn.

“But I must ask you not to tell anyone what you saw. It’s one of the most closely guarded secrets of the royal class.

If word got out…” He shook his head. “Please, just don’t tell anyone. ”

The words almost knocked the breath out of her. Akadian wasn’t telling her. Wasn’t ordering her. He was asking—no begging her. In all her years of serving the royals and nobles, she’d never heard one of them say ‘please’.

She had no idea why the royals were keeping their wings a secret, but the reality of what he’d done began to sink in.

He’d shared so much and she hadn’t told him anything.

She wasn’t sure if she could trust Akadian.

But he’d trusted her with the key to his home, his past, and now his future.

The look on his face was enough to tell her this secret could put his life in danger.

And twice now he’d saved hers. She wasn’t ready to give him all of her secrets, but she could give him one.

A precious one.