The Cursed Prince - Fire and Ice (Book One)

Moonlight and Starlight

Peeling back the wool from my shoulders, I winced at the bloody marks of the wolves and the open wounds from my journey. Shuddering pain seared up my arm.

The wounds... So deep. So raw. So visceral, robbing me of consciousness. No, I cannot black out again. Not again. Breathe. Just breathe. Breathing out the pain, I rolled over. The words of the voice still spoke to me from the Dark Forest. As soon as my flesh touched the earth, I gasped and whipped back my arm as shuddering pain bolted up my arm. The nerves. The nerves and muscles were exposed. Fresh blood oozed through my fingers as I clenched my arm to stop the horrendous sensations from buckling my body.

"What is it, girl?" The snarl echoed in the darkness of the cave.

I froze, begging the pain to stop. Every movement, every touch, robbing my body with pain.

The Ice Wolves. Hundreds of them nestled in this hole. With me. I was trapped in here- with them.

"My arm," I whispered weakly. From a cluster of mounds on the earth, a shape rose. The alpha slithered towards me.

"It will heal, girl. In time."

I crawled on my knees towards the wolf. A snarl emerged from the alpha's white teeth. "Not another step, girl."

He will not kill me. He cannot kill me.

"Please," I whispered, extending my arm to the wolf's face, praying he would not take a bite out of my arm. "My arm. Look at my arm."

The wolf looked at the torn flesh without emotion or pity. "What is it to me?"

I swallowed. His icy eyes seemed to glare into my soul. "Do you have a blade?"

The wolf shifted his weight from one massive paw to the other, in suspicion, or discomfort. It was hard to discern his feelings. "You will try and kill me."

I raised one eyebrow, the only one I had. On the other side, only the scar remained. "How? With the blade?"

"Yes."

"I will not. For did you not say you would inflict wounds upon me if I dared to kill you? Do you have a blade?"

A sigh heaved from his chest. "Very well. But I promise you I will gut you like a cow if you even think of such, girl."

"I would be dead of infection before I could use the blade to stab you."

The sound of brushing paws over the earth told me he accepted my word. Something gleamed in the blackness and his jaws loosened and a blade fell to the ground with a soft thud. "You will find water in the corner of the cave."

He has my weapons. If so, I may be able to escape from—Around me, it truly was a cave. Rocks arched over me, forming a roof and roots slithered from the cracks between them, still gripping clumps of earth. Dripping roots and black obsidian. And a deep pool of water. Crawling over, I dipped my hand into the cooling liquid. It was like glass, so clear I could see a deep tunnel travelling from the mouth beneath the cave ground. Too big for a wolf. Not for a human. 

Cupping my hands, I poured the water over my tattered arm, chomping through my tongue to stop myself from screaming. I prefer to poison this water with my blood and die of thirst rather than infection from inflicted wounds. I sliced a strip from the hem of my dress, and eased it over the skin, cleaning the wounds using the water and cloth. I examined the wound after the blood flow had been subdued from the pressure of the strip of cloth. Torn skin. Exposed crimson muscle, so deep I could see a speck of white bone. I shuddered at the damage.

Struggling to my knees, I rose to the balls of my feet.

"SIT DOWN." The snarl emerged from the gritted white teeth.