Page 31

Chapter

Eighteen

DAIN

M orning sunlight filtered through the forest canopy as we left the inn behind. We stayed off the road, instead moving through the trees that ran alongside it. Pine and damp soil scented the air. Dew clung to the tips of my boots.

One of the bounty hunter’s swords hung from my belt. Two of his knives rested in holsters against my chest. His axe rested in its leather scabbard against my back. Birds chirped, and squirrels chattered. Nikolas carried the other half on the bounty hunter’s armory.

Ezabell was a vision in dark green between us. Before we left the inn, Nikolas had surprised her with a scarf that matched her new gown.

“There,” he’d said as he helped her adjust it over her ears. “Now you’ll blend in with the trees.”

He was wrong, of course. Ezabell would never blend in. She stood out no matter what she wore. But she wore her new clothing well, the green complementing her shining dark hair and bright gold eyes.

She tugged at the scarf now, her eyes worried as she swept a look over the forest. “Helios should have caught up with us by now. He said he’d stay close.”

Nikolas made a gruff sound. “Maybe he got lost in thought. Preferably for several hours.”

She gave him a sharp look. “You better hope that’s not true. We need him to shield us.”

I touched her shoulder. “Helios will turn up.” I smiled. “He never misses an opportunity to torment Nikolas.”

She grinned, and it was like a goddess smiling up at me. My breath hitched. Memories of her sleek body in the pool—of her tight, hot pussy clenching around me—spun through my mind.

They were still spinning when she murmured something and kept walking. I stumbled after her, a beggar desperate for any crumb she might toss my way. A look, a glance. Anything at all.

She caught me staring and raised an eyebrow. “Something amiss, Dain?”

“No,” I said quickly, my face heating. I jerked my gaze back to the trail. “I was just thinking you look…appropriate for forest travel.”

On her other side, Nikolas laughed out loud.

I shot him a glare over her head. He blew me a kiss. When my face flared hotter, he chuckled again.

Biting back a curse, I focused on the magic in my chest. The Dokimasi tugged us in the same direction, its pull stronger than it had ever been. It connected all three of us now, drawing us northeast.

Toward Solbarren.

Viraxes’s curse still moved through my veins, but its path was slower, like water trickling through a dam. Ezabell’s presence kept the flood at bay, the same as it did for Nikolas.

I’d probably never understand why or how. Magic was far too complicated for someone like me to untangle. But it didn’t matter. Ezabell had come back. She was safe, and it appeared as though she might forgive us. I understood that. Whatever happened next, the rift between us was starting to mend.

“The sunstone is close,” Ezabell said, pressing a hand to her sternum. Excitement trembled in her voice. She walked faster, and her skirts whipped around her legs. “It’s this way. I can feel it.”

Nikolas and I looked at each other, and I knew my misgivings showed on my face.

I swallowed. Maybe you should have grabbed scarves for us, too.

He scoffed under his breath. You think that’ll hide us from Viraxes?

Ahead of us, Ezabell stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Are you two coming?”

Nikolas and I started forward as one.

We walked in easy silence for the next hour, the road to our left.

The undergrowth thickened, brambles occasionally snagging Ezabell’s skirts.

Nikolas and I stopped and untangled her, earning a smile or a soft “thanks” as our reward.

After a while, it became a race to see who got there first, the loser glaring at the gloating winner.

The sun rose above the trees. The canopy grew denser, the forest cool despite the light trickling between the leaves.

A golden blur shot between the trees, moving so fast I barely tracked it before it halted in front of Ezabell.

“Helios!” she cried, relief flooding her features.

The sunsprite hovered at eye level, his body blazing like a tiny star. His spectacles sat askew on his nose, and his hair crackled with agitation.

“Where have you been?” Ezabell asked, adjusting his glasses. “I was worried.”

“Scouting,” he said, his voice tight. “And you should be worried. There are riders on the road behind you. Six mounted men, maybe more. They were asking questions in the village.”

I gripped the hilt of my sword. “How close?”

“Close enough.” Helios looked at Nikolas. “They had one of those wanted posters with your ugly face on it.”

Nikolas’s nostrils flared. “It’s a terrible likeness.”

Helios turned back to Ezabell. “It won’t take long for the riders to pick up your trail. We need to move.”

The Dokimasi pulsed harder, as if it agreed with him. Whatever lay ahead, the magic wanted us to reach it quickly.

“This way,” Ezabell said, picking up her skirts. She rushed forward, and Nikolas and I followed with Helios on our heels.

We moved faster, breaking into a jog. Helios flitted ahead to scout. The forest thickened, the trees growing taller and closer together. Curtains of moss dangled from the branches. My shirt stuck to my back, sweat dampening the linen. The curse sent periodic jolts of pain through my limbs.

But Ezabell’s magic was there, steady and warm, keeping the worst of it at bay.

Behind us came the distant thunder of hoofbeats. Dread slid through me.

Our pursuers had found our trail.

“Faster,” I muttered, catching Ezabell’s elbow as she stumbled over a root.

She righted herself, flashing me a grateful smile that warmed me despite our circumstances. The hoofbeats grew louder. The sound of snapping branches echoed in the air.

“This way,” Nikolas rasped. He cut to the right, heading away from the road.

We followed, skirting thorny bushes and ducking under low-hanging branches. The forest floor became uneven, rocks and fallen logs littered among the leaves. Ezabell’s breath came in quick gasps, but she kept pace, her determination evident in the set of her jaw.

Helios darted back, his glow subdued. “They’ve split up,” he whispered. “Three riders heading straight for us, the others circling on horseback.”

“They’re trying to cut us off,” Nikolas growled as the forest floor sloped sharply.

As we scrambled down it, the Dokimasi pulsed harder in my chest. It tugged with painful urgency, robbing my breath as I slipped and slid over the rocky ground.

“I see something,” Ezabell gasped, pointing to where the trees thinned slightly.

Ahead, stone appeared through the trees. Ancient masonry, half-swallowed by moss and vines, formed what might have once been a temple. The structure was barely visible, as if the forest had conspired to hide it.

We ran toward it, and more of the temple came into view.

Crumbling columns supported the remains of a domed roof.

Broken steps led to a sagging portico. But traces of former glory peeked through the decay.

Flakes of gold clung to the dome. Above the yawning entrance, the intricate carving of a sun bore traces of bright paint.

We stumbled to a stop. The Dokimasi was a dazzling force in the center of my chest.

“The sunstone,” Ezabell breathed, gazing at the temple with wide eyes. “It’s in there.”

Men’s shouts echoed behind us. We had minutes at most before they crashed through the trees.

Ezabell ran to the temple, her scarf falling to her shoulders and her hair flowing behind her in a dark ribbon. Nikolas and I ran with her.

Ivy climbed the portico’s columns. The temple’s entrance gaped like a toothless stone mouth. Shadows filled the interior.

But there was something else—a wrongness that skittered over my skin.

“Ezabell!” I hissed, reaching for her as she gained the steps, but she darted up the stairs and slipped inside.

Nikolas and I lurched after her, nearly colliding as we both tried to cross the threshold. Stale air hit my nose. Thin shafts of sunlight pierced through cracks in the dome, revealing a circular chamber heaped with broken rock and piles of dead leaves. Dust eddied in the air.

A small stone altar stood in the temple’s center, its surface bare. Weeds sprouted from gaps in the floor around it.

Foreboding drew an icy finger down my spine. I gazed around, my hand on the hilt of my stolen sword. Shadows swirled against the temple’s walls. Something was wrong.

“We need to leave,” I said.

Ezabell stared at the altar. Her shoulders sagged. “I don’t understand…”

Beside me, Nikolas tensed. He stared around us with a worried expression. “Dain…”

“I know,” I muttered. “We need to?—”

Ezabell stepped toward the altar.

Light flooded the temple, the blaze blinding me. I staggered, hand flying up to shield my eyes. Heat rolled over me in thick waves.

“The sunstone!” Ezabell cried, joy thick in her voice.

Squinting, I lowered my hand. Nikolas did the same beside me, and we stared at the glowing orb that had appeared above the altar.

No, not an orb. The object was oblong, its center pulsing like a star. Amber yellow and faceted like a gemstone, it could have fit in the palm of my hand.

But it dazzled more brightly than any gem I’d seen. Magic warped the air around it. Heat flowed off it in great loops that expanded and collapsed only to reform again. The sunstone spoke , its whispers rustling leaves as they raced around the walls.

The Dokimasi clamped hard around my ribs. Pain snatched my breath. I braced for the magic to tug me forward.

Instead, it yanked me backward . Nikolas cried out as he stumbled back with me.

“Something’s wrong!” I shouted.

Nikolas jerked a wild gaze to Ezabell. He started forward. “Bel, no!”

At the same moment, she rushed to the altar and snatched the stone from the air.

The light vanished, plunging us into shadow. Ezabell screamed.

The stone beneath my feet collapsed.

I plummeted into darkness.

Wind whistled in my ears and tugged at my clothes. A shout ripped from my throat. I reached out blindly as I fell, my fingers catching on something.

Something solid.

“Nikolas!” I bellowed, grabbing onto him. We tumbled through the wind and darkness.

But it wasn’t as pitch-black as I’d first thought. Meager light strained through the air around us, revealing a massive cavern with walls that glistened like they were coated in black oil.

“Ezabell!” Nikolas roared in my ear. I spotted her several feet below us, her green gown billowing as she fell. The sunstone was gone. Her black hair whipped around her terrified face.

“Hold on!” I called to her and then cursed my stupidity. There was nothing to hold onto. No way to reach her. There was only the cavern and the fall.

Wind screamed. The oily walls appeared to pulse, as if the cavern was a living thing that sped our passage through the system of a great, evil beast. My stomach lurched as the darkness seemed to twist around us, making it impossible to tell up from down.

The curse chose that moment to surge through my veins, its fiery fingers spreading up my chest to my neck. I gritted my teeth as agony burst the dam of Ezabell’s magic.

Nikolas’s pained gasp told me he suffered too. I gripped him more tightly as a faint light appeared below us. It expanded, deep gold growing brighter with every second. We sped toward it, and a black stone floor rushed up to meet us.

I clenched my jaw, prepared for impact. Prepared for the end.

“Brace!” I shouted anyway. The golden light flared bright. The black floor filled my vision.

We jerked to a stop, suspended mid-air about twenty feet above the floor. Ezabell hung in the air just below us, her scarf long gone and her hair in a wild tangle.

I opened my mouth to call out to her when pressure wrapped around me and sucked me down. Nikolas and I clung to each other as we dropped to the floor. I turned at the last second, landing on my back with Nikolas on top of me. My teeth clicked together, and pain exploded in the back of my head.

Nikolas rolled away, groaning before he drew his knees to his chest. The curse spread up his neck like yellow spiderwebs under his skin. Pain struck me a second later. The curse blistered through me, my vision blurring.

Ezabell appeared at my side, her green skirts pooling as she grabbed my shoulder. “Dain!”

“All right,” I croaked, relief piercing my pain. “You’re all right.”

“But you’re not!” Tears filled her eyes. She glanced at Nikolas. “What is this place?”

I blinked hard, willing my vision to clear. Obsidian walls surrounded us. But I didn’t need to see them to know where we’d landed.

Viraxes’s Tower.

Slow, heavy footsteps echoed off the stone. I struggled to sit up. Ezabell slid a supportive arm behind me just as a tall, robed figure stepped into view.

“Fuck,” Nikolas muttered.

Viraxes smiled. “Nikolas and Dain. Welcome back. And how thoughtful of you to bring a guest.”