Page 12 of A Baron of Bonds
Thump, thump.
Thump, thump.
A monstrous heart beat steadily, hanging heavily from the cave like a grotesque abscess born from wrath and ruin.
For that’s what it exuded. The unmistakable feeling of anger, deep and destructive, seeped through each beat, as the heart cast a dull, crimson glow through the cavern.
I stood for a moment, staring at what hung enormous before me. Each pulse beat with me. Each echo of the throbbing mass of blood and flesh reflected inside my own chest.
I told myself I didn’t care.
I convinced myself that I couldn’t stop, couldn’t process what this meant or whose heart this was.
I had somewhere to be, and it was not here. It was not in this cave, even with realization pouring through me and more questions forming at its presence.
It could wait. Everything could wait, and I refused to stay any longer.
I continued forward, stumbling over the jagged, rocky ground, slick with algae. I looked for an entrance to another tunnel or door of some kind, my resolute heart refusing to contemplate the constant beating I knew well.
I spied what looked like steps upward, and following the ridge, I saw their end at the entrance to the surface above. I ran to their base, taking a moment to breathe, reminding myself that I had a long way to go.
I took each step with care, whispering, “I will get out. I will find him. I will get out. I will find my way back to him.”
I repeated the words over and over, never stumbling, never slipping on the endless stone steps. I would not falter and I would not fail.
As I neared the top, I looked down onto the growth still beating, still mocking me in its steady, unyielding pulse.
I shivered, my resolve releasing just a moment before I caught myself again, refusing to stop any longer. I took each step quicker, still careful, still cautious of my feet which tended to trip on the simplest of things.
The fresh air above me became a welcome wave of cool salvation. I gripped the edge of the hole above as I finally reached my destination and pulled myself up completely, ignoring the last few steps.
I curled my fingers around wet grass, pulling at their roots, a cry escaping my throat as I let myself sob. I pulled my legs to my chest, my face lying against the muddy ground.
It was there, in the first rays of dawn, that I let my body release its fear, its anger, and its repulsion for what I’d just seen and been through. My tears fell, unheard and unfaltering, as they soaked through the ground that fed the heart of the Blight beneath.
Chapter 11
Karus
I counted the minutes passing.
Five. Fifteen. Thirty-three.
I hated what I had done, and even more, I hated that I had chosen to do it. In all my years of living, I had made some terrible choices and this was one of them.
If the Blightress really wanted to speak with me, she could have done so from that hole. I could have gotten help for the lumens, and we all could’ve…
My head pounded with the choices I could have made. Revich’s scream of my name replayed over and over as I flipped onto my back, shivering on the wet ground.
I closed my eyes and imagined his heat pressed to mine, his soft lips grazing my neck as he trailed his hands to my legs, lifting them to wrap around his waist.
I decided I didn’t deserve him.
Our companion ceremony was only weeks away and I would be bound to a man I could not live without who deserved a woman with more sense than me.
I struck the palm of my hand into the soggy earth in anger and ripped the grass from its weak roots. What was the use of allmy magic if I could not simply create my own portal and travel back into his arms?
I finally sat up and looked around. My memories of his warm breath on my skin forced blood to pump steadily through my stiff limbs.
