Page 58 of The Sunbound Princess
“Look familiar?” Nikolas asked, holding one up.
I huffed as I slipped a knife with a serrated blade into my boot. “Don’t remind me,” I said, recalling how he’d taken several of the blades from Viraxes’s tower.
We removed the rest of the hunter’s weapons, then dragged his body deeper into the woods.
“Too bad this dickhead wasn’t carrying a shovel,” Nikolas grunted as we used the broadswords to dig a shallow grave. Bythe time I patted the last of the dirt into place, we were both dripping sweat.
“What now?” Nikolas asked, wiping his sword on his trousers. “Back to Saldu?”
I shook my head. “It’s not safe. Viraxes tracked us to the brothel. He knows we were there.”
Nikolas frowned. “Or Corvus tracked Ezabell there. Those men could have just as easily been his.”
We stared at each other, the reality of Ezabell’s peril heavy in the air between us.
“Corvus stole her throne,” Nikolas said. “He can’t risk letting her live. What if she finds the sunstone? He’ll always be looking over his shoulder.”
The weight of Ezabell’s predicament grew heavier. She faced dangers from all sides—Corvus’s assassins, Viraxes’s bounty hunters, and who knew what else lurked in the forest.
And now she was alone, her only protection a temperamental sunsprite.
“We have to go after her,” I said. “Even if she hates us, we have to protect her.”
Nikolas nodded, his brown eyes resolute. “We’ll follow at a distance at first. Maybe some of her anger will wear off, and she’ll agree to talk to us.”
A great deal rested on that “maybe,” but I kept my doubts to myself. Moments later, we set off down the road.
The magic in my chest pulled steadily, drawing me forward like an invisible thread connecting me to Ezabell.
“It’s working,” I said, relief sweeping me as I rubbed my chest. “I still feel her.”
Nikolas smiled. “Well, that’s one good piece of news.”
Pain struck out of nowhere, driving me to my knees. Agony bloomed everywhere. Hot pokers slid through my veins. I tried to scream, but only a wet gurgle emerged.
“Dain!” Nikolas’s voice seemed to come from far away. As my vision went hazy, he was an indistinct shape at my side. The world tilted, then crashed around me. Somewhere in my mind, I realized I’d slumped onto my side.
“Dain!” The forest shook. No,Nikolasshook me, but I couldn’t feel his hands. The pain consumed me, blocking out even the shadow of comfort.
I tried to speak, but my mouth refused to work. Burning chains wrapped around my chest and squeezed. Fire pumped through my veins.
Between one breath and the next, I stared at the sky. Nikolas’s face appeared above me. He’d tipped me onto my back. He wrenched my shirt open, and the color drained from his face.
“The curse,” he rasped.
Darkness crowded the edges of my vision. Nikolas gripped my shoulders, his expression pleading. His lips moved, but no sound reached me. He was worried. Nikolas almost never worried. He was the planner between the two of us. The talker. He always found a way out of trouble.
Don’t worry, I tried to say. But the words wouldn’t come. We’d run out of chances. Out of luck.
The darkness spread. My last thought before everything went black was of Ezabell—not as I’d last seen her, furious and betrayed, but as she’d been in the predawn light, her golden eyes bright with hope as the Dokimasi pulled us together.
Blackness fell. Then nothing.
Chapter
Fifteen
EZABELL
