Page 31 of Wrath Of Suns And Shadows (The Osparia #2)
Chapter Twenty-One
Emelyn
T he metal door creaked open loudly, pulling me from my dazed state.
Two soldiers accompanied her as she walked over to my cell and had them click the lock before the door slowly creaked open.
The soldiers came for me, and I tried to shove them off, but one grabbed my matted hair while the other punched me in the gut, taking my breath away as they strung me back up in iron chains, preparing me for Valla’s endless assault.
“You’re dismissed,” she said, and they both shuffled quickly out of the room.
Valla pulled the dagger from her hip, beaming at her reflection in its sharpened, shined blade.
“I can’t wait to make it bloody. I cleaned it just for you,” she murmured as she walked around me like a wild animal stalking its prey.
My breathing quickened without my permission as I prepared for the pain.
I felt the cold metal of the dagger push against my skin right when the large metal door creaked open, making Valla pause.
I looked toward the door, seeing Kade slowly swagger in and down the steps.
He leisurely walked over to my cell and leaned against the bars of my open doorway, looking in at both of us as he put his hands in his pockets.
“Father will not be happy about this.” He spoke smoothly as Valla huffed.
“I’m sure he’ll be rather pleased to get the Peacebringer after I break her like a wild mare, don’t you think?”
“I will not break,” I rasped, and she looked over at me with eyes of venom. She pulled back her blade, readying to strike me with it. Kade took a step forward right when her men barged through the door, making her pause.
“For fuck’s sake, this better be good,” she seethed, and her men stumbled over their words.
“There’s been another problem with the ship, Your Highness,” one said with a trembling voice. “The welder needs a word with you.”
“Hmmm, it seems karma worked quickly then,” Kade said with a quirk of a grin, and Valla gave him a look of annoyance that could only be shared amongst siblings.
“If you touched my ships—”
Kade lifted both his hands in defense. “I swear on my honor, dear sister, I would never stoop to your level,” he vowed, and she glared daggers at him again.
“Tell them I’m busy,” Valla hissed as she walked toward her men.
“He insists, Your Highness.” She blew out a frustrated breath as she sheathed her blade and brushed past her brother, still leaning against the bars.
“Watch her until I get back,” she commanded her men.
“And brother, don’t do anything stupid.” She walked up the stairs and out of the prison room.
A beat passed where Kade didn’t say a word, only leaned there comfortably while Valla’s two soldiers stood idly by, glancing around the room, and then Kade moved toward me far too quickly.
At fae speeds, he grabbed my chained ankles first, and somehow he undid them in record timing before he moved to my wrists.
His skin sizzled as he grabbed the irons and yanked my wrists free.
I was so weak, he wrapped his arms around me, and I couldn’t stop myself from falling into him.
I didn’t want to rely on him for anything.
This was all just a competition to them: who could bring the Peacebringer home to their father.
“Time to go, Bunny,” he said as he lifted me into his arms. I squirmed to get away from him, but his hold was too strong.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Prince?” one soldier said while they both grabbed for their swords. Kade leaned me against the bars. I had to grip them to hold myself up.
“You know, it would be a shame that the Peacebringer escaped while Valla’s soldiers were supposed to be watching her. Don’t you think?” Kade quipped as he grabbed for a small dagger he had on his hip.
“What do you think you’ll accomplish with that puny thing?” the other scoffed.
“Your deaths,” Kade said as he threw the dagger at the soldier on the left, piercing him through the center of his throat. He grunted and gargled on his own blood as the other soldier attacked with his sword. Kade easily dodged him as he tried to strike again and again.
“You won’t make it out of here. You don’t have your bending in this room, or a sword.”
“I don’t need either to kill you,” Kade boasted as he dodged his next attack and grabbed the man’s sword with precision and knocked it out of his hands.
In a blink of an eye, Kade’s hand shot forward, and the man grunted before his body fell to the floor while Kade held his still beating heart in his palm.
He let it fall next to the man’s body. He grabbed his dagger from the other soldier’s throat, wiping the blood on his pants before sheathing it at his side again.
Shifting his attention to me, he turned around.
I went to run, but he grabbed me. I hissed as his grip tightened on me.
I reached for the dagger he had sheathed at his side and yanked it free before shoving it into his leg.
He growled from the pain as he released me just enough from his hold for me to get away.
My body thudded against the metal, but I stumbled to my feet and began rushing toward the exit.
He tackled me to the ground. I squealed out in pain as we crashed to the floor together.
I pulled back my leg and kicked into his chest, throwing him off me as I gathered my strength and made it back to my feet and took off out of the door.
“Emelyn!” he whisper-yelled, but I didn’t look back.
I moved through the halls quickly, being sure to double-check my surroundings.
I didn’t hear the shouts of men running their ship, which meant they’d probably left to get a break from being on the water.
My strength slowly began returning now that I wasn’t in that cell.
I could feel the water that surrounded me as if it had waited for me like a friend.
I went down a few halls, trying my best to lose Kade, but I was sure any fae could scent me from a mile away. Most of the bleeding had stopped, but I was still covered in blood and grime.
Valla’s ship was slightly larger than Kade’s was.
Some of these halls I didn’t recognize from before.
I turned down another that I believed led to the deck of the ship.
When I took the corner, I ran into a muscled chest. Kade’s chest as he leaned against the wall nonchalantly as if he had been waiting here for me the whole time.
“If you wanted to go for blood, Bunny, you could’ve just said so.
I’m sure they are more fun ways to go about it,” he taunted me, and I summoned every drop of water from every seeping wall and hole in this ship and blasted him with it.
Flames burst to life from his chest, blocking the blow of my power as steam billowed off him from the last of my water evaporating. He held his hands up.
“Listen to me, I will not hurt you,” he grunted out as we began a dance of fists and feet.
He blocked every blow, but he didn’t fight back.
He was only protecting himself as he continued to speak.
“You have two choices, Bunny. You can come with me and the trip to Ember would be more pleasant, or you can stay with Valla until she kills you before we arrive there. It’s up to you. ”
“Neither,” I grunted as I struck again. He grabbed me and pushed me back against the wall, pinning me there.
“You will not make it on the Islands of Ash, not with Valla’s small army out there patrolling for anything that moves.
We are days of travel away from any other land, and if you try to bend over Draynua, you’ll either die from being eaten or drown from exhaustion.
Let. Me. Help. You.” His jaw flexed as he growled out every word.
“I’d rather drown,” I spat, and this man stifled a chuckle.
“Liar. Your heartbeat is rather quick for someone who would rather bend oceans to get away from me,” he countered as he leaned in. His scent was intoxicating. I shifted my head so I wasn’t looking at him, and then voices began coming from down the hall. Kade grew serious.
“Emelyn, I know you have no reason to trust me, but I’ve never intentionally put you in harm’s way while you’ve been in my care.
I need you to trust me when I say this. You will die here if you do not come with me.
” I searched his gaze and found nothing lacking the truth in his eyes.
I knew he was right. I’d be stupid with whatever choice I made, but at least I knew that if I went with him, I’d live to see another day. With Valla, I wasn’t so sure.
I made the stupid choice that made the most sense.
Kade saw my shift of acceptance, and the faintest hint of a smirk graced his lips before he shifted his gaze back down the hall to where the voices were coming from.
“Hide.” He nodded toward a door a little farther down the hall.
“I’ll find you in a second. Let me deal with them first.” I moved, but he grabbed my forearm.
“Oh, and don’t change your mind because I will always find you,” he added before he released me, and I made haste toward the room he’d told me to go into.
I shut the door lightly behind me and placed my ear next to the door.
Their footsteps grew closer before I finally heard Kade speak to them.
“Hello, gentlemen. I believe my sister was looking for you both, though I’m not sure where she ran off to in such a hurry.
It sounded urgent.” He lied disgustingly well, and I heard their rushed footsteps take off in the direction they had come.
Kade moved quickly, opening the door, and he grabbed my wrist and tugged me along until we made it to the deck of the ship.
The sun was sinking in the distance. How long had I been in that cell?