Page 71 of The Sunbound Princess
Viraxes continued circling, his eyes raking over Ezabell like a predator studying its next meal. My jaw clenched. One step closer and I’d put a knife through his throat.
“You’re a long way from home, Your Highness,” Viraxes said, stopping in front of her.
Ezabell gave him a bored look. “What do you want?”
The sorcerer’s lips curved. “I want what is rightfully mine.” He gestured to me and Dain. “These fools broke something that belonged to me. Something precious.”
Dain rocked on his knees. Sweat dripped from his chin and splatted on the shiny black floor. He moaned softly, and I knew the sound cost him.
My fault.It was my idea to steal the Pyrikion. I’d dragged him into it, just as I’d dragged him into countless heists. And now he suffered because of me. My chest tightened. I ached to touch him, but I didn’t dare. The moment I showed kindness, Viraxes would use it against me.
Ezabell folded her arms, her gaze on the sorcerer. “If it was that important, maybe you should have taken better care of it.”
I bit back a groan. Taunting Viraxes was like waving a torch over a powder keg.
The temperature in the chamber dropped. Viraxes’s features smoothed, his unlined face a perfect, emotionless mask. It was worse than anger. Worse than screaming. Because that was real. This was…unnatural, like a doll come to life.
But he kept his distance, and I held my breath even as the curse’s fire spread over my tongue.
“I mark everyone who enters my tower,” Viraxes told Ezabell.
Shock tripped through me so quickly that I couldn’t stop my flinch.
Viraxes noticed, his smile reappearing even as he kept his eyes on Ezabell. “Your companions pride themselves on their excellent thievery, but their research wasn’t quite as thorough as it might have been. Otherwise, they would have known this before they stole from me.” He spread his hands, the wide sleeves of his robe brushing the floor. “At first, they were easy to find. But then something blunted my ability to track them.”
Ezabell licked her lips. She moved her head just a bit, and I knew she worked to keep from looking my way.
Viraxes waved his hand, and an image shimmered in the air. The innkeeper from Saldu stood behind her counter, her eyes widening as I slapped a stack of coins onto the counter.
“For the inconvenience,”I murmured, winking. She stared after us as we left. Viraxes waved his hand again, and the same innkeeper spoke to a pair of men in black armor, their eyes glowing ominously behind their visors.
My stomach dropped. We’d been watched. Hunted.
“Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was the heir to the Summer Court blocking my mark,” Viraxes said. Another wave of his hand, and Ezabell and I rushed inside the crumbling village inn and flew up the stairs. The sleeping man at the bar lifted his head and stared after us.
Viraxes waved again, and a lamplighter stood in the shadows outside the inn, watching the window above as Ezabell, Dain, and I joined hands. Light whipped around us in an unbroken circle.
An ache shot across my heart, anger following. That moment was private. It wasours.
Viraxes closed his fist, and the vision disappeared. The look he gave Ezabell was almost apologetic. “I have spies throughout Saldu Kuum. Very little escapes my notice. But you’ve given me a pretty chase, Princess. The challenge has been more invigorating than I expected. I might actually miss it.”
Ezabell’s stare was unflinching. “You talk a lot. Some of the lords on my council are the same. They speak often and say little.”
For a moment, rage blazed in Viraxes’s eyes. Then it snuffed out, and his mask returned. “Your father is dead. You’re after the sunstone, are you not?”
She stared at him stonily. The curse continued to burn through my veins. Dain rocked harder at my feet, his face contorting with pain.
Viraxes looked at us, and his expression turned thoughtful as he continued addressing Ezabell. “At first, I thought your value lay in your ability to find the sunstone.” He returned his gaze to her, and an unsettling sheen glinted in his silver eyes. “Now, I think you might be worth more than the stone.”
The curse flared hotter. My tongue throbbed like I’d swallowed a thousand nettle ants. Agony stabbed through me, taking me to my knees. I hit hard and cried out. Dain pitched forward, catching himself on one palm. Smoke wafted from under his collar.
“Stop hurting them!” Ezabell cried.
“Na-preski-na,”Viraxes said.
Magic snapped in the air like a whip crack. The pain stopped.
I sucked in a breath. The curse was gone. For a moment, I couldn’t process its absence. My body still braced for agony that was no longer there. Then relief crashed over me. The fire in my veins extinguished, leaving behind a bone-deep ache but nothing like the torment of seconds before.
