The Princess and the Warlock

Chapitre Vingt

Panic. Complete, unaltered, unbridled panic had tucked its fingers around his heart, squeezing it tight, tight, tight. Breathe. Wind tore at his hair, at his clothes, at his arms as he ran. Breathe. The quiet body in his arms didn't make a noise as it jostled against him. Breathe. Black lashes didn't lift from a pale cheekbone when he called her name. Breathe. Breathe.

In the middle of the Wildwood, a small, rundown shack was sitting perfectly between four trees, just off the side of the river. He felt his skin tingle as he ripped through the barrier, felt his body absorb the glamour that the wall contained. A part of him rejoiced at the feeling, a euphoric shot of adrenaline to his body, but it was quickly overcome by his fear.

The front door to the shack opened when he was mere feet from running into it, fully prepared to break it down to get inside. A girl stepped out from behind it, tall and slender, with black hair and wide, wide blue eyes that recognized him immediately. "Kaius?" Her face screwed up as she took in the sight of him, and then her eyes drifted to the body in his arms. "Amora? What happened?"

His breath was missing its fullness, so his words came out in a gasp. "Two dimkains," he said, pushing past the girl and entering the shack. For a moment, the dimness that his eyes teased him with disoriented him, and he blinked rapidly, trying to get the darkness to clear. "They tried to lure Amora outside."

Dimkains' were one of the duller creatures of the Wildwood, but Kaius remembered how frantically the dimkain pressed the music box into her bag. To his knowledge, no dimkains use enchanted music boxes to lure their prey. Most probably couldn't figure out how to work it. And that thought left an unsettling feeling in his stomach.

The girl was right on his heels, and he heard the click of the door shutting. "Well, it looks like they succeeded." Her words sounded light, but he could feel the fear that she was radiating, could practically taste it in his mouth.

Who was he kidding, he was feeling it. As soon as the dimkain released Amora and she'd fallen to the floor, he'd felt fear. And when she looked up at him, with her big brown eyes with pupils blown wide, speech garbled as the poison worked its way into her bloodstream, he was practically overcome by it.

He swallowed hard in his throat, trying to ignore the image of Amora falling into his arms.

The girl reached forward and touched at Amora's torn nightgown, shifting the fabric and touching her silky fingertips to the wound. She pulled back with a hiss, just as Amora jumped in his arms. "Shit, Kaius. Did you even look at this wound?"

Panic. That was what had been trying to claw his throat apart. "Of course I did, Freesia!" he shouted at her. "Why else do you think I brought her here? You're the best healer I know." Though technically she wasn't really a healer, he trusted her with his life. He just wished it was his life, and not the innocent girl he held. Desperately not her.

Freesia pressed her hands to her eyes, letting out a harsh breath. He could see her fingers shaking, could feel her nerves underneath his own skin. "God of the Skies and Seas, okay. Okay, okay. Um, put her on the dining table."

He immediately moved into the room, making a beeline for the oak table at the center of the room. There were placemats set on it, as well as glassware, but with one swipe of his arm all of it fell to the floor with a clatter, singing in the silence. Gently, he placed Amora on its surface, heart jumping into his throat when he saw her half-lidded eyes, the brown entirely swallowed by her pupils. "This is bad," he whispered, more to himself than to either of them. "Freesia—"