Page 51 of The Sunbound Princess
“That snake!” he hissed.
“That was my first reaction, too,” Ezabell said, her face falling.
Helios’s expression softened. “I’m so sorry, Ezabell. I know you loved him.”
She glanced at me and Nikolas. “I… Maybe I was wrong about that. I was young when I met Corvus. Being away from him has changed my perspective.”
Helios stared. Then he slanted a suspicious look toward us. “Did it, now?”
Nikolas bit into his apple. “What are you looking at, sunburn?” he asked as he chewed.
Helios drew himself up. “Watch your mouth, thief, or I’ll singe your pretty eyebrows off.”
“Enough,” Ezabell said, turning her gaze to the road. “We need to keep moving.”
Nikolas stared at Helios with an arrested expression. “You think my eyebrows are pretty?”
Ezabell started down the road. “Come on,” she called without turning around. “I want to cover as much ground as possible in case the Dokimasi fades again.”
Helios cast Nikolas a dark look before swooping to her side. Nikolas and I stared at each other. He tossed the apple core into the grass.
“Let’s go,” he said quietly, sudden tension rolling off him. We followed Ezabell and Helios, becoming a party of four once again.
We continued down the road, the forest thickening on either side of us. The pull in my chest grew stronger with each step, becoming a constant, insistent pressure that made it difficult to think of anything else.
But as we walked, a more pressing problem gnawed through the pain. Solbarren was the very last place Nikolas and I should go. He was quiet beside me, his features grim.
I caught his eye.This is the way to Solbarren.
His scowl deepened, his eyes flashing with irritation.You think I don't know that?
Have you come up with a plan?
His jaw tightened, a muscle twitching beneath the dark stubble he’d lacked time to scrape away.I'm working on it.
The sun climbed higher. The forest around us grew denser, the trees older and more gnarled, their thick trunks indicating centuries of growth. Birds called from the canopy above. Occasionally, something rustled in the underbrush beside the path.
By midday, we were all tired and hungry. Ezabell’s pace had slowed, although the determined set of her jaw told me she wouldn’t be the first to suggest stopping.
But when we came upon a small clearing beside a stream, Nikolas declared it time for lunch.
“Wait here,” he said, disappearing into the trees before anyone could argue.
Ezabell sank onto a fallen log, her face flushed. She pushed the scarf off her hair and swiped at her brow. “Where is he going?”
“To find food,” I said, sitting beside her. The magic in my chest twisted like a blade, and I hid a wince. “He won’t be long.”
“Will he hunt for it?”
I stretched my legs before me. “Depends what you mean by hunting,” I said carefully.
Helios snorted.
As I predicted, Nikolas returned shortly, carrying two loaves of bread and a wineskin. He placed them on a tree stump, took out his knife, and started slicing a loaf.
Ezabell frowned, looking from the bread to Nikolas. “Where did you get this?”
“Little cottage down the road,” he said, spearing a slice on his knifepoint and extending it to her.
