Page 14 of The Naga Princess’s Soldier Mate (Serpents of Serant #7)
Sazzie
I caught whatever Reid had noticed a fraction of a second after he did. By then, it would have been too late—I was certain of it. If he hadn’t acted as fast as he had, one of us would have been pierced by that arrow. Now, all I had was a bruised rear and a few scratches along my scales where the obsidian shards of the shattered arrow tip had scraped me.
My heart was pounding in my throat when Reid pressed me more tightly against the wall before rising to a defensive position in front of me. Like him, I had looked down the tunnel in both directions and seen what we were up against. I had counted the number of Bitter Storm warriors approaching, and I did not like those odds. Six were coming from what I assumed was the outside, where the tunnel brightened at the end. Another such party was coming from behind, from the direction of Bitter Storm’s Hearth Cave.
That party was led by a more senior male; I could tell from the sash of red tied around his biceps and the dangling obsidian shards around his neck. A Senior Sentinel, tasked with guarding Bitter Storm’s tunnels and mountain. Out of all the males there, that one was the most dangerous. Then he grinned, showing off blackened teeth, and my stomach turned. That was a new trend I had heard about but not seen, and it seemed the rumors were true. He was not the only male to display blackened teeth when they started advancing.
“Tell that abomination to stand down if he wants to live, Princess Sazzie,” the sentinel demanded. He had halted a safe distance away and lowered his spear to aim it at Reid, a disgusted glare twisting his features. “You are outnumbered.” I could see that, but I also knew they would kill Reid regardless. I had a use; it was a miracle they hadn’t killed my brave human yet, but they had to be out of patience with him now.
Sliding with my back along the wall, I rose, but I made sure never to leave the safety of the rock. “I can’t do that, Sentinel,” I said. “He does not obey me; he’s my male. What would you do if it were your mate in danger? You wouldn’t stand down.” I had not outright called him my mate, but it came dangerously close. The Sentinel narrowed his eyes at me as he processed what I’d said, but some of the others behind him and on our other side made the connection as he did. They murmured; one elbowed another and hissed furiously, and a third made a gagging noise as if the idea of a mating between human and Naga was so disgusting it upset his stomach. I curled my lip at that one and mouthed “Weakling” at him, though I did not say it out loud.
The Sentinel seemed to conclude that a fight was his only option, but he appeared not to relish that idea as much as I thought he would. “It’s Sentinel Sra to you, Princess. Surrender yourself peacefully, and I will speak in your favor to our King.” I laughed, the mirthless sound startling me by how loud it was. Surrender? To Aser and his fanaticism? To him and his alliance with Astrexa? He might as well kill me himself; the result would be the same.
“Enough of this,” Reid said, though nobody but me would be able to understand what he said. It was the first time he had spoken since we’d mated while we weren’t touching, but I was not surprised that his words were crystal clear to me. That’s how it worked: once fully mated, I no longer needed to touch him to understand him. “The princess does not want to go, and the princess gets what she wants. It’s as simple as that.”
Sra and his two patrols had started to move toward us, no doubt planning to subdue, or even kill, Reid. When my mate moved, it caught them by surprise. I had been watching Sra’s face when my male leaped into action, so I could see his shock as Reid became a blur of speed and power. There was nothing on Serant that moved as quickly as that, except perhaps the Revenants beyond Bitter Storm’s territory. They did not expect it, and two fell before any of the warriors had even raised their spears.
Reid had gone for Sra’s party first, but while they were gaping at their fallen brethren, he turned and hurled his pilfered spear over my head at the second party. It landed in the chest of one of those warriors with such force that it pinned him to the tunnel wall. Everyone stared, and then they all roared and charged at him. I was completely forgotten and ignored in the ensuing battle rage. The violence made my chest ache; it made me want to squeeze my eyes shut and curl into a tight ball. I couldn’t do that—I needed to help Reid where I could.
The truth was, I hated fighting with my sisters, but fighting these Bitter Storm warriors was ten times scarier. They were so much bigger than me and stronger—shockingly strong. When a spear clattered to the ground next to my huddle, I forced myself to grab it. The next opening I saw, I took, hitting one of those huge males in the back of the head with the blunt end. He did not go down, howling in rage as he spun on me, and Reid was just there . The male fell without blinking his eyes, and my mate was gone again, spinning around the next opponent and trading blows with another.
Impossibly, it seemed to me like Reid had only gotten faster and stronger since the last time he’d fought. Maybe that was because he’d taken one of those capsules from Erish, or maybe it was a matter of getting used to this. Whatever it was, it was in our favor—not many warriors were left standing. Only three remained upright; many lay dead or dying, while others were moaning or passed out. In the distance, I could see one crawling away as fast as he could, his tail limp as if he were unable to move it.
“Give up,” Reid shouted as he struck Sentinel Sra in the side of the head with his fist. “Sazzie is mine, and your boss cannot have her.” His brown eyes seemed to glow with an inner light in the dark tunnel, and silver glittered on his skin through the tears in his shirt. I didn’t know what that was, but he seemed stronger than any of the others because of it. I wondered if it was a sign of his ‘nanobots,’ the ones he and Erish talked so much about.
We were winning—or rather, Reid was. A dozen against one, and he had decimated their numbers like it was nothing. Hope soared in my chest as I realized that this battle was almost over, and it was my male who stood victorious over them all. In that moment, I knew that fate had matched me with the perfect mate—one who would always help me feel safe. One so strong that I knew when we left this mountain, I would never have another worry or another fight again. I did not think I deserved all that, not yet anyway, but I was going to make sure my male knew how much I appreciated him.
The feeling that swelled in my chest was hard to describe, hard to put a name to. It was not really something I’d ever felt before—not this strongly. I thought that maybe a very gentle version of it had existed between my father and me before he died, and perhaps even between Zathar and me. It was a pale shadow compared to how I felt for Reid. This emotion choked me up, caught in my throat, and came awfully close to fear—but it was not fear. I could lose him, and I’d never be the same again. But I wouldn’t, because my Reid was the strongest male there was. He’d protect me, even from this strange new feeling in my chest.
Sentinel Sra had traded a quick flurry of blows with my male while I’d been caught up in my feelings. He was the only Naga left standing, and he was desperate—his grimace so rigid, his fangs were digging into his lower lip. A final blow to his chest sent the male stumbling back, and Reid waited, offering him a chance to retreat. “It’s almost over, Sazzie,” he said to me in a low murmur. “This one is smart enough to know when to back down. We’ll be out of here in no time.”
I hoped he was right. The tunnel was growing quiet, and the body-strewn floor was a macabre sight. It did not seem to me like Reid had gone for killing blows, but some males definitely would never get up again. Mostly, though, they lay passed out, unconscious from their injuries, or playing dead so they would not have to go a second round. Twisting to look over my shoulder, I searched the darkness in the direction of the Hearth Cave. I recalled that a warrior had crawled that way—had he made it far enough to sound the alarm?
Squinting, I flicked out my tongue to draw scents more sharply into my nose and mouth, filtering through the ones I already knew in search of any sign that more warriors could be approaching. I did not hear anything, nor did I smell anything—just the sound of Sra as he hit the ground behind me. The fight was over. I needed to hurry to Reid’s side so we could get out of here. My hands were already flying to the pouch of capsules secured on my belt; he’d need those too.
“Let’s go,” Reid said, just as I started to move toward him. Something drew my attention—something faint, just beyond full awareness. A sound or a smell, whatever it was, made me turn one last time to look toward the Hearth Cave, and what I saw made my belly turn as cold as ice: the glint of obsidian, the gleam of a pair of red eyes in the dark. Then, all I heard was a loud ‘twang,’ followed by a whoosh that instinctively made me duck.
Rock exploded above my head the next moment, stones falling from the tunnel roof. This was exactly what I’d feared the moment we’d entered the mountain: it was collapsing on top of us. Dust rolled over me in a great big cloud, making me cough as I struggled to see, until I flicked my nictitating membranes protectively over my eyes. Fear made my heart pound. Where was Reid? Had he been hit?
Another cough struck me, but no rocks—big ones, at least—had landed on top of me. Before the dust had settled, I rose, blindly flinging myself in the direction I was certain Reid was in. He had to be there, but he’d been right beneath the rock collapse. No, there was no way he was dead. He would have seen it and moved just in time!
A dozen feet away, my hand bumped into something warm beneath the rubble. For an elated heartbeat, I was certain it was my mate, but then I realized the arm was covered in scales. Hissing, I crawled forward, searching. This time, I used my sense of smell rather than my still-useless eyes. He had to be there. He had to be okay. I found him, pinned beneath a large rock, one too big for me to move without help. It was just his fingers, but they twitched against mine, then curled around my hand in a tight fist. “Sazzie?” he said hoarsely, but he did not cough from the dust. I did not know why, but that worried me.
I followed his hand to his wrist, then had to push rocks out of the way to reach his shoulder until I could cup the side of his chin. “Reid! Are you hurt? Can you get out?” I was starting to see more as the dust began to settle, and the sight alarmed me. The boulder that sat on his chest was too big; it was simply impossible that he wasn’t crushed badly beneath that thing. I had seen a male trapped beneath a rockslide once, as a young girl. The sight had haunted me in my dreams for years. He had been alive, and then they’d moved the rock off him, and he’d died just like that. I didn’t understand why that had happened exactly, and nobody had explained, but I feared for it now.
Reid healed fast. I told myself he could survive this, unlike that Thunder Rock hunter. This was different. It had to be different. Reid had not responded to my questions, and with his eyes closed, it looked like he’d fallen asleep. But he felt warm, and I could see how his breathing stirred the dust in the air. I grabbed the pouch with Erish’s medicine—the capsules that supposedly gave power to the foreign things inside his blood. Pulling several out, I worked to make Reid swallow them, my thumb brushing over his throat to force them down. “Come on, Reid. You have to live. I can’t lose you. Swallow, damn it. It’s just a little boulder. You can handle this, can’t you?”
His eyes remained closed, and he never said my name again. I tried to feel hopeful that the capsules had stayed down, but I didn’t know if that was a good sign or not. I just wanted a sign—anything—that would tell me he was going to be okay. But things weren’t okay, were they? I could never move that boulder off his belly and legs, not without help. Bitter Storm warriors would be here long before I could do anything to save him.
I knew what he’d say if he were awake: he’d tell me to run, to get out while I had the chance. He’d tell me to save myself. I didn’t want to be safe when I didn’t have my mate at my side. Safety was important, but at this cost? Overwhelmed with despair, I curled myself closer against his side, begging quietly for him to open his eyes.
I heard the movements behind me—the approach of my enemy, ready to drag me back to the Hearth Cave. That couldn’t make me care enough to move. I felt so heavy and sad that all I wanted was to lie down and stay at Reid’s side. After all we’d been through, and after he’d seemed so invincible, I could not accept that he’d never open his brown eyes again, and stare at me with warm affection.
The soft glow along his nearest arm was so delicate that, at first, I did not see it. Then I blinked, certain I was imagining it. A silver sheen shivered over the beautiful ink that marked his skin—his protective totems. It swirled in slashes and savage curls, the way mating marks on a Naga male did, and then it blinked out. I lifted my head and skimmed my eyes up and down his body, hoping to see them again, but met his eyes instead.
They had opened, though his expression was hazy and unfocused. Red tinted the corners of his eyes and lay like a web over his left orb. “Sazzie, go. Save yourself,” he husked, followed by a shuddering inhale that did not seem to pull enough air into his lungs. “Leave me, go!” he said, with a hint of his usual bossiness.
Tears sprang to my eyes, and for once, I did not fight to hold them back. I did not even feel ashamed for crying. “Reid! No, I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying with you.” He started to shake his head, but that clearly hurt, and he froze in place. His eyes briefly squeezed shut, and when they blinked back open, I told myself they weren’t as red and bloodshot as before. Fumbling with the pouch, I pulled out a few more of the small, round capsules and offered them to him. “You’ll get better. You’ll heal. You’re going to be fine. And I’m not going anywhere without you. You are my mate!”
A curious thing happened as I said that, declaring it loud enough that those approaching would have heard. They were taking their sweet time to reach me, as if they enjoyed seeing my pain. That silver I’d seen on Reid’s skin before? It now shimmered over my arms and upper chest. I ducked my head to confirm what I saw and was just in time to see it wink back out. I might have imagined what I saw on Reid, but this—this was no fantasy. How was that possible? Naga females did not have mating marks; they did not shimmer and glow for their male. And yet…that was exactly what that was.
“What?” I murmured, confused by what had just happened. My eyes flicked back to Reid’s instinctively. Had he seen what I had? I couldn’t tell. Then his expression turned furious and agonized at the same time. The muscles in his neck grew taut, as did his arm beneath my hand. He shook his head, his mouth opening as he strained to speak. His warning came too late.
There were a lot of them, and Aser was with them when I turned around to look behind me. They were close now, and rather than fight, I chose to rise smoothly and offer my wrists as regally as possible. “Take me then,” I said to Aser with a tilt of my chin horn in his direction. “I have nothing left to lose, and as you all know, a cornered female is most dangerous.” All Aser did was give me a slow, satisfied smile, his red eyes gleaming with pleasure.
Heart pounding in my chest, I moved away from Reid and let the Bitter Storm King’s warriors tie my wrists. As long as I had their attention, they might forget about Reid. They might not have noticed how I had slipped the pouch with the last remaining capsules into Reid’s hand before I rose. If I was lucky, they would leave him alone, thinking he was a dead male anyway. My chest ached, but I couldn’t lose faith. I had to believe that he’d somehow survive and come for me.
When Aser and his escort of warriors led me back to the Hearth Cave, it felt like my heart had been left behind—a giant, gaping hole inside my chest. It felt so real that I glanced down to check whether I had been wounded in the tunnel collapse. What I saw instead brought a chill I could not shake long after I’d been taken. Reid and I had not been the only ones trapped in that collapse—a collapse triggered by a large harpoon shot from a distance into the tunnel ceiling. A collapse caused on purpose.
Not far from where Reid lay, I saw the glow of a red pair of eyes—Sentinel Sra, trapped beneath debris just like Reid was, and still alive. None of his brethren reached out to help him, and he did not ask for it either, though I could see he was conscious. The same could not be said for the broken bodies of many of the others Reid had fought—many of them stuck or crushed beneath the rock, and many, I knew, who had not been dead.
How evil was a king to sacrifice his own males like that? Not even my mother would be that cruel. Not even, I imagined, Astrexa would be that cruel to her people, should she manage to seize power. Clan above all others—that’s how it was supposed to be. But as I left that tunnel behind, I knew Bitter Storm had forgotten that creed. I felt sick to my stomach as I was escorted into the Heart Cave—sick because I’d been forced to leave Reid behind, sick because I now knew how deep the rot inside this Clan went. It was hard to feel hope in the face of all that.
And then, I was brought to Astrexa.