Soul Bound

Chapter 10

Eva stared, eyes unseeing as she was dragged away from her home. It was gone. All of it. Its buildings. Its people. Her family? Gone. She surrendered to the numbness as they hauled her through what she assumed was the northern trail. A haze of smoke and embers clouded her vision.

Each step she took away from Brar was weighed down, as if someone had attached boulders to her ankles. She couldn't lift her feet, only dragged them through the trail. When they connected with a root, she tipped over. Her body quaked fiercely, racking through her limbs and seizing her joints. The world began to spin as her breaths came in short pants. Her undoing was the breeze that mercilessly curled around her, carrying the stench of the lost; her stomach revolted violently. She heaved right there on the trail, in front of the soldiers who had taken her world away from her. In front of that callous prince who laughed at her meltdown.

Impatiently, her captor tugged on her shackles, dragging her towards one of the many horses hidden in the forest. He mounted his steed then yanked on the chains, pulling her straight into the horse's hindquarters. She held her hands out to brace herself, but didn't have the energy to glare at him.

Tears ran silently down her face as they continued along the trail. With the pace their horses set, she was forced to pay attention and lift her feet over roots and rocks. The cold metal bit into her skin with every step. She hardly felt it. The only thing she felt was the searing agony in her heart, as if the wyvern fire had branded this moment on her heart.

Time had no meaning to her. They could have been walking for hours or days. It was all the same to her. Sweat trickled down her back and slithered between her breasts. Her feet were numb. Her stomach didn't protest its lack of contents. The world around her was a blur of bleak colours.

The vicious prince brought his horse up beside her, his black cape undulating with the rhythm of his horse's gait. "Cheer up, girl." His voice had the audacity to have a merry lilt to it. His nose didn't look as good as he appeared to feel after burning innocent people alive; it was mangled with crusted blood outlining his nostrils. "Think of this as a new beginning. I'm going to make something of you. Soon everyone will know and fear your name. You'll have everything you've ever wanted."

She stared at him blankly. She had no energy left to bother with a retort.

Her silence appeared to amuse him; he smiled and shook his head, like she'd told a clever joke. The son of a bitch...

A newly lit flame of rage ignited within her and burned through her veins.

A lightning bolt pierced through the night sky, illuminating the forest around her, and struck the ground before her.

Hope surged through her.

Another bolt forked through the trail, bouncing from one soldier to the next, burning through their armour and lancing their hearts. The last branch cut through Eva's chains, freeing her from her captive ahead. She laced her hands together then swung them for the soldier behind her, connecting with his helmet. The force knocked him off balance, she took advantage and rammed her knee into his groin.

Arkon landed near her, unleashing a roar that rattled her bones. The horses and some of the men ran--against their prince's orders. The dark prince dove for Eva before she could run. A cool blade was at her throat in the next second.

"Call your dragon off!" he hissed in her ear, watching Arkon rip one of his men in half.

She sneered at him. "Or what? You'll kill me?" He'd already proven he didn't want to do that.

Sensing Eva was in danger, Arkon swivelled his massive head in their direction and loosed a second roar. Feeling the intensity of his aura, the prince released her out of sheer, primal terror. Eva spun, connecting the heel of her boot with his stomach, sending him staggering back into a tree.