heartless | nikolai lantsov

\\ Chapter Five \\

It must have been hours since the pair began walking, making their way first back to the tracks, then following them South toward the border. Rani's every step is excruciating but she pushes on, pretending she can walk without the King's help even as it becomes harder and harder to hide.

If he pulled away, she could do nothing to stop him. He could leave her here in the snow. He should.

At some point the King began speaking, perhaps trying to distract her, Rani isn't sure. The time he began to speak was around the same time Rani stopped listening.

Breathing is becoming harder, each shallower than the one before. Spots dance in her vision, the patches of darkness like splotches of ink marring the scene around her.

"-Tara-"

"Oh, will you stop it with that!" Rani snaps. The sound of the name breaking through her disinterest.

"Did you have a different name in mind?"

She grits her teeth as her foot catches on a root, forcing a hiss of pain past her lips, "Make something up."

Nikolai's arm quickly snakes beneath her shoulders, pulling her back up, pushing them forward. Rani desperately wants to shake it off, to reject his help. But it's getting harder and harder to pretend a stumbling, shivering girl being pulled along has any volition of her own.

"I feel as though I should clarify, I don't-" The King has the decency to look slightly abashed as he clears his throat, "have amours, with my soldiers. Today was not my finest hour."

Rani sends him a vicious look, trying to head off any more discussion. Of amours or otherwise.

"Look, I know that you hate Ravka-"

"No."

The King looks at her sharply.

Rani is having a hard time speaking around the pain radiating up her chest.

"I could care less about this Saints forsaken country."

And it's true. Ravka is not the problem.

Their King is.

Snow bleeds ice into her veins as she crumples to her knees. The cold has overtaken even the pain now, leaving nothing but bitter disconnect through her entire being. She never thought Saints forsaken snow would be the thing to end her.

"No, no. No time for that."

The King scoops her from the ground into his arms, the sudden motion sends another wave of pain erupting through her, too terrible to even scream.

Rani lets out a shuddering breath. Pain is making the images flash back through her mind, clawed hands and darkness. Fighting back the exhaustion that's clawing away at the edges of her mind, turning her vision to smears of light.

"Where did that thing go?"

Nikolai's sharp intake of breath is clear in her ear.

"It flew." Rani's eyelids flutter as she tries and fails to focus her eyes on the King's face, "I saw it."

"It know." The King looks away. "It's gone now."

Rani is fading now, fighting with every breath. She can not pass out again before this royal, not again.

With the darkness overtaking her she can't see his eyes go dark as he whispers, "It's gone."

///

Lights are flashing in and out, just as time is, as if she's watching the world through the gaps in train cars.

A moment of snow followed by inky darkness where Rani can't feel anything but the pain splitting her side.

A glow of light warming her eyelids. The smell of cedar smoke and spices, barely breaking through the haze of her mind.

Voices follow, though their words will forever be a mystery. The light fades, though the warmth does not, slowly thawing her frozen body.

Darkness envelops her again, this time without respite.

///

When Rani comes too again, she's laying in an unfamiliar room, sprawled on a bed atop the covers as if she's just been laid there.

Through the haze of delirium, urgency breaks in. She has to move quickly. There may not be another time where the King is so foolish as to leave her alone.

Ignoring the flash of pain that breaks through her as she kicks her feet over the side of the bed Rani stands.

She makes it only a few halting steps toward the window, arm wrapped around her torso, before her legs refuse to hold her any longer. She crumples to the floor, excruciating waves traveling through her body.

Gritting her teeth, she digs her fingers between the floorboards, dragging herself forward. Again and again, a singular thought in her pain-addled mind. She has to run. If the King manages to get her back to the capital, if Li finds her, she'll be as good as dead.

She has to get out of here. Has too. Has too.

The tips of her fingers brush the wall. Rani scrabbles desperately against it, trying to pull herself up as stabbing pain thrums through her nerves. Sweat is beginning to bead along her brow as heat rolls through her.

Stretching as far as her screaming muscles will allow her, Rani's fingertips graze the window's latch. She pushes against it and her grip slips, her fingers slick with blood from holding her side. She hadn't noticed.

Fingers shaking, Rani reaches up again. Something creaks deeper in the house, voices growing louder.

Another pang of urgency lances through Rani. She reaches out again, straining even further, her side screaming. Her hand fumbles against the latch, snapping it open with a creak.

A freezing gust of wind rolls through the room as behind her the door crashes open.

"Tara!"

Hands scoop under her arms, pulling her up.

"Not Tara." Rani's voice is rough, drowning in pain, "Let me go."

She tries to hit the King but the shift in her position has sent blackness crashing over her vision again.

She can hear other footsteps pounding into the room. New voices mixing in.

"Oh Saints, what was she doing?"

A woman's voice this time, though Rani can't see her.

"Must have been confused, tried to get some fresh air." Nikolai's voice is different, the normal charm shot through with false worry.

Pain crashes down again as she's lifted back onto the bed, sending her reeling back into unconsciousness.

Someone brushes the hair from her brow as the world disappears.

Favorite trope? I'm a fan of guy falls first.