Page 5 of Of Blood and Banes (The Arterian #2)

I stumble, nearly tripping over my own feet as he glides us to the stone wall and pins me against it. The chain from his shackles squeezes the breath out of my throat.

I search his eyes, digging for a hint of mercy, but he’s back to his signature glare.

I’m not sure what happened between now and those soft moments with him at Windmere: sweeping me off to his room, wrapping me in his jacket, and tucking me into his bed.

Even teasing he was going to bring me breakfast in bed.

Perhaps it was all a game. Or a fever dream.

Darian presses himself into my chest as he lowers his face closer to mine. His laboring breath stirs my hair. “Let. Me. Free.”

“Darian…s-stop…” I wheeze out as I arch my back against the wall and push up onto my toes, searching for a meager inch of space so I might catch a breath.

I sink my fingers into the chain and attempt to pull it away from my throat.

But my grip is slippery, and my strength is waning by the second.

He doesn’t shift his grasp. If anything, he pushes harder.

My vision sparkles in black, and when my eyes roll back into my head from the lack of oxygen, he pauses.

Slightly.

Lifting the chain off my throat, he then loops it behind my head to pull at the nape of my neck. I suck in a strangled breath through my burning throat as the haze of asphyxiation lifts.

“You so much as make a move to escape, or try to fight me, and I’ll fucking kill you. Do you understand?” he growls, and tugs me hard enough my face bumps into his bare chest.

“Yes…” I rasp out, still struggling to steady my breath.

A dizzying sensation wracks my head, and I rest my forehead on his pecs before I black out.

I run through all the possible scenarios of how to get out of this.

Even in his disadvantageous state, I’m no match for him.

Especially considering my wounded side—any hard twist will easily split the stitches open again.

Besides, he’ll catch me long before I can slip out of his grasp and run.

“Put your hands on my chest,” he barks.

I hesitate.

“Don’t fucking make me ask again.”

I skip a breath and shakily rest my palms on his bare chest, sticky with blood. His muscles flex underneath his skin as he pats down my sleeves, shoulders, back, and sides. I wince when he brushes my injured ribs. His assessment moves on to my waist, my hips, my…rear.

I flick a glare up at him. “The fuck you think I’m hiding in my ass ?”

He uses the tip of his boot to tap against the insides of my ankles, ignoring my question completely. Repositioning the chain back behind my head, he growls in my ear, “Turn around. Away from me.”

I obey, slipping my hands off his chest and slowly turning in his arms until I’m facing away from him. He collars my throat with the chain once more, pulling me back with him a half-step until my shoulder blades press into his chest.

“Move,” he grunts in my ear, and then shoves his groin into my ass so I step toward the staircase.

If I wasn’t still dazed from the air he squeezed out of my lungs or the aching pain in my ribs, I might have even blushed.

“You…f-fucking…idiot…” I gasp as we edge up the stairs.

He tightens the chain on my throat, silencing me. My boots slip off the steps, the edges of my vision bleed into black. I lean back harder into him for support.

We ascend the rest of the stairs, step by painful step, as I hold on to the chain around my throat for dear life.

At the top of the staircase, he commands me to open the door.

I push it open slowly, and after he scans the quiet cobblestone streets, he slips us out into the cold.

His pace doesn’t quicken until we leave the outskirts of Midkeep and head south into the forest.

In the back of my mind, I know he won’t hurt me. I think.

He would have easily killed me in the dungeon if he really wanted to. He had me right there—all he had to do was strangle me a second or two longer. And yet, he didn’t.

I still have no idea what he’s playing at, or why he wants me alive.

He can’t possibly think he’ll walk to Arterias from here.

He’d be caught before he got halfway. And given his hands are shackled, he wouldn’t be much of a fight.

But a terror looms over me like a shadow as I consider all the wild possibilities that might run through someone like Darian’s head. There’s no telling what he’s planning.

“Let…me…go…” I wriggle against him as we tread deeper into the forest.

The chain against my throat is far too tight, and my face grows unbearably hot.

Tight.

Tighter.

My lungs scream in withered protests. All the pine trees around us blur into a single mass. My thoughts dull to a whisper as I begin to wink out of consciousness. I overestimated his mercy.

“Daeja…”

As if in slow-motion, I fold to my knees. This fucker is going to kill me.

“Shit,” Darian mutters under his breath. He catches me in his arms before I can fall face first. The strain on my throat disappears, gifting me a shaky breath.

A branch snaps off behind us and a menacing growl splits the silence, quaking the air around us.

“Fuck,” Darian hisses. He yanks me off the ground to my feet, pulling me back into his chest, his heart hammering against my back like it might jump through both of us.

Behind us, Daeja’s head-splitting roar blasts strands of my hair out in front of me. Birds stir in the trees, shooting into the starry night sky with startled cries.

Darian spins us to face Daeja. She flares her wings out to the sides, her lips curling and exposing her rows of vicious fangs. Every horn crowning her head and neck gleams in the moonlight, with her slitted white eyes hooked into Darian.

“Now’s…your chance…to run,” I rasp.

Darian removes the chain from around my throat and shoves me to the side. I stumble and fall to my knees, catching myself on my hands before I completely collapse. Another shot of pain explodes in my ribs, and I instinctively cup a hand to my side. When I pull my hand away, blood stains my palm.

I glance up as Daeja snarls and lunges toward Darian, who’s bolted in the opposite direction and leading her farther away.

Daeja’s heavy footfalls shake the earth beneath me as she chases after him.

I force myself up to my feet and turn to follow, but Darian doesn’t get far.

Daeja races past him and whips around to face him head on, blocking his escape.

She lowers her head with a growl, her black talons digging into the soil.

Darian goes rigid before he backpedals at a measured pace. Daeja takes a taunting slow step toward him, her mouth parting open and tongue flicking out between her rows of teeth.

She strikes like a snake, snatching his shackles’ chain and ripping him up off the ground. He kicks out at her neck with a grunt. But it’s no use—he hangs helplessly from her mouth, flailing in her grasp like a caught fish.

“Don’t hurt him,” I warn Daeja as I stumble forward, fighting against the pain rolling wave after wave over me, begging me to slow down.

Her head swivels to me, swinging him in her mouth, and her icy white eyes glare at me. “I ought to kill him just for threatening you. And eat him for putting his hands on you.”

I stop ten feet away from her. “I’ve got this, trust me. Just put him down.”

She snorts and tosses him to the side. He flies off several yards and hits the ground before sliding into the base of a tree with a thud.

Pushing up to his forearms, he struggles to get to his feet.

The moonlight etches all the angled edges of his shoulders and ribs, still blooming with bruises and cuts.

“Maybe a little gentler next time.”

“He doesn’t deserve gentle,” she growls, slinking in behind me.

I shrug lightly, partly agreeing with her, but not wanting to encourage any bad behavior. As I stop a few feet in front of Darian, Daeja lowers her chin just over my shoulder, and I pat the side of her muzzle.

Darian drags his gaze up to me, his eyes widening in shock. The color drains from his face as he realizes Daeja isn’t going to just not hurt me. Recognition dawns on his expression, and his fear of Daeja transforms into something greater.

A fear of me.

Daeja roars from beside me, the sound sending my hair into a flurry, and ringing in my ears. As I hold Darian’s gaze, I don’t even flinch.

He jerks away, pressing his back into the tree trunk as he flicks his attention between Daeja and me. “You…you! I should’ve known you were a dragon rider .” He spits out the last word.

I smile. He must not have been paying attention when Sethan mentioned my dragon.

“You’re not the only one with secrets, your highness .” I give him an exaggerated bow before I swoop the chain to his shackles and yank him up to his feet.

“Unarm me, you peasant.” He rips his chains out of my grasp, the metal clinking together at the motion as he snarls.

On second thought…maybe I should let Daeja eat him.

“Gladly …” Daeja snakes forward.

I hold out a hand to her. “ Didn’t realize I shared that one. It was a hasty thought.”

She licks her maw and takes a half-step forward to lean into my hand. “Or a tasty thought.”

As I toss her a glance, a group of shadows stretch across the forest floor from behind us.

Daeja twists her head to survey the area. “We have company.”

When I turn to face the approaching group, Sethan catches my gaze at the front of the throng. His eyes narrow, hinting at what he’s already thinking— see, I told you.

Daeja snorts, clearly attuned to my own irritation as she positions herself between Darian and me but keeps her focus set on the rebels walking our way.

Sethan is accompanied by ten others, all with their weapons drawn.

With a few of Sethan’s gestures, several of his guards break off from the group, pass Daeja and I, and seize Darian before escorting him back toward Midkeep.

The few who remain are frozen at Sethan’s side, poised and ready for the next command. Sethan makes eye contact with each of them and dips his head, dismissing them one by one. Silently, they turn and walk back to Midkeep. Leaving only me, Daeja, and Sethan.

“I can take him. Though, quite confident of him to send off the rest of his men.”

“I don’t think he’s here to fight…”

But Sethan stares at me as if he’s taking off every brick, piece by piece, of my self-confidence. Waiting for me to crack. Waiting for me to give in. It might have only been seconds, but it ticks by like hours. A drop of sweat rolls down the back of my neck.

“What?” I bark, attempting to mask my nervousness with irritation. Anything to break through the awkward silence and readying myself to hear the “I told you so .”

His expression doesn’t change. “They’ve made a mistake.”

“They?”

“Whoever decided you’re the one to save us.”