Page 6 of The Sunbound Princess
I unclenched my teeth. “Hopefully not too long.”
“Sure, sure.” Helios fell silent.
I released a careful breath.
“But how do youfindit?” he asked, flinging his arms wide. “Do you just…feel for it? Does the Dokimasi come with a compass? How does it work?”
I stopped in the middle of the road, one hand on the strap of my pack. “Don’t you remember my lessons?” He’d been presentfor most of them, perching on the edge of the desk in the palace’s library while my tutors gave me instruction on everything the heir to the throne needed to know. Arithmetic. Art. Magic. Defensive magic. Sun-based magic.
Helios lifted a shoulder. “I must have been sick the day you covered the Dokimasi.”
A sigh built in my chest. “We spent a lot longer than a day on the Dokimasi. And you don’t get sick.”
He brightened. “That’s true.” His frown returned, and he scratched at his jaw. “Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention.”
“That sounds more likely,” I said, starting down the road again. He drifted beside me, and I let the sigh gust from between my lips. “The histories say I have to follow my instincts.” I brushed the center of my chest, where the tugging sensation had guided me along unfamiliar roads all day. “The sunstone knows I’m looking for it. As long as I’m careful to listen, it’ll call to me.”
Helios nodded, a sage expression on his round face. “That’s right. You have to follow your heart. It’s kind of romantic.”
Pain shot through my foot, and I winced as I bent and pried a rock from the sole of my boot. I tossed the rock into the tall grass lining the side of the road. Magic tugged, jerking me forward.
“It doesn’t feel very romantic,” I muttered.Romanticwould be dining in my chamber with Corvus, the two of us discussing the latest court gossip. We’d have dessert—something chocolate, probably—and then go to the balcony and look at the stars. He’d point out constellations. I’d correct him. He’d pretend to argue before pulling me into a kiss that made my blood sing. Then he’d back me to the bed and make me forget about gossip and constellations.
Thatwould be romantic. Adjusting my pack, I released another sigh.
Helios gave me a thoughtful look, but he said nothing, and we fell into a companionable silence as we continued down theroad. The landscape changed, the vivid greens and sunbaked golds of Summer fading into more muted tones.
And it wasn’t just the sunstone’s absence. As we rounded a bend, a hazy blue spread over the road and the surrounding fields. The air buzzed. Foreboding raised goosebumps on my skin. We approached the Covenant.
I slowed, my gaze fixed on the barrier, which shimmered roughly five hundred feet ahead. It stretched across the horizon like a blue fog. But this was no ordinary fog. The Covenant was the boundary between worlds, the magical wall that had separated elves and humans for a thousand years.
“We can’t cross that,” Helios whispered, his tone uncharacteristically subdued. He wrung his hands, the gesture producing a crackling sound.
“I know the history,” I said softly. Even the smallest child in Ishulum knew what the Covenant stood for—and why our people had raised it.
A thousand years previously, Ishulum and Andulum had been a land united, and elves had controlled every inch of it. Magic had spread across the realm. Elves ruled, and humans served.
The scholars said humans grew jealous of the elves’ magic and immortality. Eventually, the humans rebelled, launching a violent and bloody war. Elves had magic, but my people reproduced sparingly, and we’d been vastly outnumbered. Humans exploited the imbalance, hunting and killing us.
Pushed to the edge of extinction, the elders among the elves struck a bargain with the humans, creating a magical contract that split the realm in two: Ishulum for the elves, and Andulum for the humans. We took our magic with us, withdrawing behind the Covenant and leaving the humans to rule their own kingdoms.
The Dokimasi tugged hard, ripping a gasp from my throat and sending me stumbling forward. I stopped, but the magic tugged harder, yanking me until I stumbled again.
And again. I headed straight for the Covenant. Saldu Kuum, the southernmost human kingdom in Andulum, lay across the barrier.
“Ezabell?” Panic laced Helios’s voice as he zipped in front of me. Fire rippled over his form, his snug-fitting jacket swirling and then reforming. “What are you doing?”
“I—” A gasp caught in my throat as the magic yanked harder. My skirts tangled around my legs, and I hurried forward to keep from falling.
Helios kept pace with me, darting anxious looks at the Covenant as we moved even closer to the barrier. “We have to turn back.”
“I know!” I cried even as the magic forced me into a jog. The Covenant’s wall of shimmering magic blocked my path, its blue haze spreading over everything. I dug in my heels, but the pull was too strong. My boots scraped the road, digging furrows into the dirt. “I’m trying to turn back.”
Helios shot the boundary another worried look. “Well, try harder!”
I glared at him, my pack bouncing against my back. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Honestly? Like you’re not trying at all.”
