Page 3 of The Heart of Nym (The Twisted Roots Duology #1)
When he loaded her out of the iron cage, she was so weak that she couldn’t stand on her own two feet. The other guards would have made her crawl, would have poked and prodded her with spears to get her moving. He’d seen it happen before. Many times.
Aziel bit the inside of his cheek, eyes darting around the yard before lifting her up into his arms.
The girl was almost lifeless, limbs dangling and hair strewn all over her face. The white strands were caked to her skin, mixing with blood and dirt. She would have been entirely naked, too, if Aziel hadn’t slipped his jacket over her.
It was a shame.
For her to go from one form of imprisonment to another in such short amount of time, he believed that the shock of it all would surely end her life.
Instead of taking her into the dungeons as he was instructed, Aziel took her directly to Desi.
She would clean her, heal her, and possibly even allow her to eat something before she was jailed and forced to wait weeks for her trial.
There was no telling when she’d get her next meal or what would happen to her once he left her in the care of the other guards.
The girl was pretty enough that he knew something bad would happen to her. It wasn’t just a fear, it was the truth.
He made it to the servants quarters without being crossed by anyone and for that, he was grateful.
The servants parted around him as he walked down the damp, dank hall to the room at the end.
The door was left cracked and when he nudged it open, he saw little Desiree hunched over the back of another servant—the poor woman’s back was like a torn tapestry of flesh and mangled meat.
“Desi,” he whispered.
She was only twelve, but had the healing gifts of someone well beyond her age. The most skilled in the palace. Surely, she could do something.
The girl in his arms stirred at the sound of his voice, fear rekindling the life inside of her, the will to fight.
He shushed her like one would a small child, bouncing her softly against his chest as Desi looked up from the poor maid’s healing back.
The skin was folding back together slowly, leaving red welts and bruises as they closed.
Desi pushed to her feet, quietly gesturing for him to place the girl on the empty bed.
He did it slowly, gently, but the moment he went to pull his arms out from under her, the girl’s hands curled around his biceps with a vise-like grip.
“Don’t go.” She managed, her eyes so swollen that she could only look at him through thin slits.
Aziel nodded and lowered himself to the floor beside her.
Desi began to slowly assess her, running her hands along the girl’s pale skin. She frowned, large purple eyes brimming with tears as she looked down at Aziel. “By her own people?” Desi gasped.
Aziel nodded slowly, anger roiling in his body all over again. He’d wanted to kill them all, but the girl laying on the bed had too good of heart to let him. She said it was her own fault, but he had a hard time believing that.
He brushed the hair out of her face, peeling some pieces off where they’d dried with her blood. “Can you make her better?” He asked. “They did this,” he pointed to the spot branded onto her stomach, the Seelie glyph meant to brand traitors. “It’s infected.”
Desi nodded and poked at the burn, frowning when pus oozed from the raised red lines. “She’s young. Too young for this.”
“How old?”
The young healer closed her eyes and placed her hand over the girl’s head. “Fifteen. Her name is Nymiria.”
Aziel let out a small gasp behind his mask, his brow crumpling as he looked down at the girl’s face once again.
He hadn’t recognized her. She’d looked familiar, but there was so much blood and bruising on her face that the features were hard to make out.
“We have to keep her safe.” He said, mostly to himself, but partially to the gods.
“I don’t want anyone else touching her. Not like this. ”
There was only one way that could happen. He knew it. He’d have to get on his knees and beg. There was no other way.
“Aziel, you shouldn’t have brought her here.” Desi looked scared as she spoke this time, her hands trembling as they worked over the various wounds on Nymiria’s body. “She’s a princess—“
“I know.” Aziel interjected. He shook his head, finally pulling his mask off of his face to reveal the face of a young boy—not the man Nymiria suspected him to be. “But I couldn’t take her to that dungeon in the shape she’s in.”
If they caught them with another Mystic who hadn’t faced trial, they would be killed and there was nothing Aziel could do to protect them anymore.
When he’d gone into the pit three months ago and won, Camalia, the Queen of Yaar, made it so that he could never use his magic against anyone in the royal family.
Even if he was family, even though he’d sworn on his life that he would never do anything like that, she still didn’t believe him.
She’d branded him, too—burned runes into his back that he would have to carry with him for the rest of his life.
While calling him a traitor for something that was entirely out of his control, she stripped him naked in front of all of those people and—
“I have to go.” Aziel whispered. “I’ll be back in an hour. Two, maybe. Keep her hidden.”
And so he went. Even when his legs felt like lead and the scars on his back burned the closer he got to her, he approached the witch.
She was cloistered in her parlor, as usual, surrounded by her pets—both human and animal alike—with grapes being fed to her by the hand of a young boy who looked no older than he was.
Aziel fell to his knees the moment her cerulean eyes shifted in his direction.
Camalia was approaching him, the smell of her perfume filling his nose. Aziel’s hands tightened into fists at his sides.
“You’re accepting my offer?” Camalia hummed, extending a sharp-tipped finger and running it along his jaw.
He had no other option.
This is the only way.
This is the only way.
This. Is. The. Only. Way.
“Under one condition.” He could hardly hear his own voice. It sounded like it was coming from a place miles away, but he'd never spoken something with this much heart—this much courage. He looked up into Camalia Yaarborough's eyes. “Nymiria Celentas."