Page 49 of Burn Bright
We'd left the other two guards at the clearing, to scrape through the flames and see if they could find the firebird's 'heart.' Evaron was unconscious, his pulse a thready flicker in his throat. Only Casimir stood aswitness.
He knelt beside me, cradling his prince against his chest and looking at me as though he knew I could save hisfriend.
I just hoped I lived up to the promise I saw in hiseyes.
"What do wedo?"
"Hold his mouth open," I said, cupping water in my hands and filling them withwater.
It dripped from Evaron's slack lips, and as soon as I thought he had enough in his mouth, I clamped his jaw shut, pinching his nostrilsclosed.
"We're either going to drown him, or save his life," I warnedgrimly.
"What is this place? Is the watermagic?"
A laugh tore free. "You wouldn't believe me even if I toldyou."
Evaron started to choke, his chest racking as I held his airways closed. Somehow he swallowed. Light raced through his veins, lighting up like silver lines upon amap.
Cas sucked in a sharp breath. "Is that supposed to behappening?"
I didn't know. I'd been somewhat out of it when I drank my own share of the well'swater.
"An immortal prince,"Galina whispered,"is a dangerousman."
"I know hisheart."
And a king who was a religious fanatic was only slightly less dangerous than the Darkness. That poison would spread as quickly as the Darkness'smight.
Evaron convulsed, and we both knelt by his side helplessly. His spine arched obscenely, his mouth and eyes wide in shock—or perhaps horror, I couldn'ttell.
All of those racing silver lines gleamed beneath his skin, surging along his arms and face and disappearing beneath hisshirt.
I tore his shirt open, just as the silver light centered on his heart. It pulsed in the middle of his chest, like some fist of puremoonlight.
And then he collapsed on the cobbles, the breath deflating out of him like a pricked bladder ofwater.
"Ev?" Cas demanded, shaking his prince's shoulder. "Ev?"
The prince groaned, and both our shouldersrelaxed.
He wasalive.
"Vashta's tits," Evaron rasped, trying to sit up. His arms quivered, reminding me of a newborn foal trying to pitch itself onto all four legs. He pressed a hand against his smooth chest, feeling the skin there as if he could sense some momentous change within him. "What in the Darkness did you just do tome?"
I released the breath I'd been holding, smiling in relief at Cas. Heat filled my eyes. He'd survived. Our prince was pure enough, afterall.
The ladies in Caskill might have something to say about that, but when it came to intentions... he would probably make a very goodking.
"Welcome back, your highness. You can now say you have the blood of a unicorn running through your veins—as well as a firebird's tears," Isaid.
Evaron looked at me dubiously. "Is that some sort of backwaterjest?"
Only Cas looked at me as though he knew I told the truth. He probably did. I could see his nostrils flaring, and flushed at the thought of what my scent was telling him right now. The other two soldiers had believed my story about the firebird granting me herprotection.
Cas was nofool.
"What happened?" Evaron demanded, struggling to his feet. Cas caught him as he staggered. "Where’sHussar?"
