Page 137 of The Night Prince

“It’s my mistake to make.”

“Stubborn fool!”

“Obnoxious snake! Climb!”

He grunts as, inch by inch, he hauls himself higher. I bend over the side of the well, and stretch my arms as far as I can. He reaches for me. He starts to slip, and he roars as he swings and manages to grip onto my fingers. His hand is cold and wet. I cry out as I grab his wrist with my other hand. I pull with all my strength, but he is a dead weight. I reach for the frayed rope instead. I put all my anguish into it, and it mends, then strengthens beneath my fingers. He grabs my upper arm, and I hook my arms beneath his armpits. I scream as I hurl myself backward.

We fall from the well and collapse onto the ground. Blake’s body pushes me into the mud. I can’t catch my breath. The scenery dissolves.

We hurtle upward. I hook my arms around his back, and he presses his face into the crook of my neck. We break through the room with the woman and the rabbit, the torture chamber, the cell, and the darkness.

And we’re back in the amphitheater.

I’m on top of Blake. People fight around us, but it all fades.

His eyes blink open. A tear slips down my cheek. He looks, for once, as if he’s struggling to know what to say. He hooks his arm around my neck and pulls me into his chest.

“Thank you,” he whispers.

Even though I shouldn’t feel safe, he’s warm and solid, and I melt into his embrace. He holds me tighter, and my nose presses against his shoulder. Everything that has happened crashes, full force, into me. My strength wanes; my bones turn to liquid. Everything fades away.

I don’t know if a minute passes, or an hour, before I find myself scooped off the floor and held against a strong chest. The scent of pine fills my lungs as I’m carried away. I don’t know where I’m going. I have no strength left to care.

He’s alive.

James’s rough voice sounds distant. “So, she’s the Heart of the Moon.”

“So it seems.” Blake’s breath brushes against my forehead.

“Why you?” says James. “Of all the Wolves in the kingdom, why would you be her mate?”

“I don’t know.”

But he does. Blake knows why. I feel this with a certainty that tightens my chest. I try to cling onto it, but everything fades away once more.

Chapter Sixty-Two

There is something soft beneath me. The scent of pine hangs in the air and mingles with woodsmoke. The wind roars, but I don’t feel it on my skin. My body is like liquid, and my eyes feel as if they’re welded shut. With great effort, I open them.

I’m in a bed in a small room. A fire crackles in the hearth, its light dancing over the dark stone walls and the thin rug in front of it. I wait for searing pain to flood my senses, but it doesn’t come.

“Hello, little sister.” Philip sits in a wooden chair by the bed, his long legs stretched in front of him. His coppery red hair sticks up in tufts, and his skin is pale, making his freckles stand out more than usual. The last time I saw him, he was bleeding, shouting orders at the Wolves as that serpentine creature reared before them. There was blood everywhere. And Blake. . .

I take a shaky breath, release it.

“Where is...” I swallow. It’s strange that I feel disappointment that Blake is not here, that the first question I want to ask is his whereabouts. “Where is everyone?”

A grin crosses Philip’s face. “He’s dealing with the prisoners.”

I push myself into a sitting position and frown. “Prisoners?” My throat is dry, and Philip nudges the glass of water that sits on the bedside table toward me. Candlelight flickers across its surface. I grab it and take a couple of deep glugs.

“Blake had the surviving Wolves rounded up. He’s locked them in the Grey Keep dungeons.”

“Why? Haven’t they been through enough?”

The chair creaks as he leans back. Philip usually dresses in the height of fashion, so he looks strange wearing a dark shirt that’s too big for him. It hangs off his lithe frame, and a couple of swirls of ink creep up above his unbuttoned collar.

“There weren’t many left,” says Philip. “He’s given them a choice. They accept him as their alpha, so he can command them to stay quiet about you, or he’ll kill them.” He shakes his head. “The Blood of the Moon. Remind me never to get on your bad side again, little sister.”

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