Page 11 of Vicious Is My Throne

Tavion reached me first, catching the reins, then Tristan stumbled out of the darkness, the shadows clinging to him as if they didn’t want to let him go.

He vomited, the still-healing scars on one side of his face pulling as he wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. “Gods, what the fuck is that?”

Our horses were coated in thick oily residue up to their knees, reeking of… “This stinks of Corvus’s magic. Like something dragged up out of the depths of the Great Beyond,” I muttered, dismounting and reaching down for my mare’s leg so I could inspect her hoof.

“Don’t touch that,” Tavion warned with a growl.

“Too late, I’m afraid.” I held out my burning, black-encrusted hand. Tavion blanched as I wiped the sticky residue off on the leaves and only managed to get them stuck. My cheek was on fire, as if a glowing ember was searing its way through layer after layer of skin.

“There was a stream we crossed a ways back. We ride there, get this poison rinsed off, wait for Zor and Raz to catch up”—Tavion studied the silent, advancing darkness—“then we’ll find some other way around.”

We waited, backing up one cautious step at a time as the darkness advanced like a wall of black, swallowing up trees and ground and sky.

I craned my neck, fear prickling at me like needles. “They should be here already.” We peered through the ruined trees but there was no end to the shadows. No birdsong, no wind or rustling of leaves, but beneath the silence I swore something was watching.

And whatever peered out at us was hungry.

“How far inside this gloom are they, Tavion?”

“Not far, less than fifty feet if they kept moving.” I took another step and Tristan caught my reins. “You can’t save them, Anaria. You go in there and this will swallow you too.”

“Bullshite.” I slid out of my saddle, my boots sinking into the soft ground. “Bull fucking shite.”

I led my horse to the very edge of that blackness and drew a line with my heel through the loamy soil, then watched rot creep over my pathetic barrier at an unnatural rate. And no matter how hard I peered into those shadows, there was no sign of movement.

“Raz,” I yelled. “Zorander?”

The darkness pulsed back as if the shadows were breathing.

Princess. I swore I heard the word whisper out of the darkness.

“We have to get this off the horses, Tavion.” Tristan inspected his mount’s fetlocks. “They’ll go lame, and as fast as this is moving, we’ll never stay ahead of it on foot.”

Something rustled overhead and Tristan trained his arrow on Simon as the owl alighted on a branch, golden eyes blinking. He hooted then swiveled his head toward that impenetrable dark.

“Something’s wrong. We have to go in there and get them.” I swung my leg up over my saddle, reining my horse around. “We can’t do nothing.” But my poor mare stumbled on her first step then almost went down, her body trembling beneath me.

My hand was on fire. Tears streamed down my burning cheek.

Like when I’d had Corvus’s venom inside me.

“Tristan’s right. We either clean them up or we’ll be walking, and once we’re on foot, we’re dead,” Tavion warned, jerking his head back the way we’d come. “Lead the horses to the stream. I’ll go find Raz and Zor.” He jumped down and unfastened his cloak, gaze fixed on that spreading darkness as if he could somehow see beyond the gloom.

Not a sound emerged from that shifting shadow, the edge creeping faster, greedily gobbling up fertile soil and crisp red leaves, veins of black spreading across the soil, worms and bugs boiling up out of the fertile loam then decaying right in front of me as I took a halting step back.

“What are you doing?” Tristan shook his head. “You think your wolf’s paws will fare any better than horse’s hooves? Don’t be an idiot, Tavion. You won’t make it back out.” Tristan dismounted and stripped off his cloak in one deft move, yanking his shirt over his head and tossing them both to me.

I awkwardly caught everything one-handed since my other hand was pretty much on fire.

“I’ll fly in low and stay above the mist until I find them. Get the horses cleaned off in that stream and wash that shite off your hand, Anaria. Now. I’ll be back with whomever I find first. Be ready.” He eyed the trees then strode to an open spot before he transformed.

I lost my breath when Tristan shifted, as awestruck as I’d been the first time and no less terrified.

Heat rippled out of the wyvern’s flared nostrils and spilled between his jagged teeth before he took to the air, every wingbeat thundering as he lifted off, sending my horse—and his palomino—skittering backward before Tavion caught the reins in his gloved hand.

Simon lifted off a second later, vanishing into the darkness behind the wyvern.

“Follow me.” Tavion took off at a breakneck gallop, weaving through the trees like a madman, and I followed, my mare wheezing as she tried to keep up. The horses bellowed and snorted with every painful stride.

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