Page 53 of Promise of Darkness
Behind us, I can make out the distant howl of banes discovering what’s left of their fallen comrades. If I don’t find shelter shortly, I’ll be dealing with more of the creatures, and this time I’m on my own.
The blizzard sweeps cold curtains of snow across the world until I can barely see the path anymore. Every step I take grows harder, my boots sinking into the snow and the weight of the prince growing heavier.
“Curse you, Your Royal Arrogance,” I breathe, pricks of cold slashing my cheeks. “You trapped me with this treaty, dragged me out here,kissed me, and then bled all over me. Don’t you dare die on me. Don’t youdare.”
Only silence answers me.
“My mother will dance on your grave,” I tell him, turning and gripping the cloak with both hands as I haul him. “And I will dance with her. I swear I will. I’ll tell the whole world you were eaten by a bane. The almighty Prince of Darkness felled by a mutt.” I squat at his side, feeling for his weak pulse. It’s still there, but the flicker of it worries me. “I’ll make up poems, have them sing ballads about your inglorious end…. What rhymes with Thiago?”
Curse him.Blood wells through the makeshift bandages I applied, melting the snowy slush that settles on his chest. He’s definitely getting heavier.
I blink, and don’t recognize where I am.
Each step seems slower, heavier. Shaking my head, I find the trail and push on. This has to lead to the cabin. I won’t consider any other possibility.
“Don’t you dare stop breathing, you stubborn, infuriating bastard.”
Or else I’ll never know why he saved me.
“You owe me an answer. You owe me…”
Another kiss.
I’m almost about to sink to my knees and rest, my entire body aching with both desperation and exhaustion, when something catches my eye.
A darkened blur looms out of the forest in front of me. The forest clears suddenly, and ahead of me I can just make out the sharp ridgeline of a roof. Taking a small faelight out of my pack, I lift it up and shake it to stir the magic. Pale silvery blue light washes over the gables of an old, weather-hardened cabin. Carved wyverns and leering goblins hiss down at me from the gables. My knees almost give out.
Thank the Darkness.
A sob catches in my throat. Against all odds, I’ve managed to lead us directly to the cabin.
My fingers are so stiff I can barely open the latch. The dark, musty scent of an unopened room meets me, but I don’t care. It’s warmer in here. Dry. And I can bar the door against the monsters tracking us, though hopefully they’ll lose our scent in the storm.
Thiago stirs as I haul him over the threshold. I slump to the floor with him half-nestled in my lap, desperately trying to see if he’s awake.
“Your Highness?”
I shake him.
Nothing.
“Thiago?”
The faintest flutter of his lashes makes me release a pent-up breath I didn’t realize I was holding. The prince stirs again, a faint groan coming from his throat.
“Vi?” he whispers.
I’m so relieved I could kiss him. “We’re safe. I found your hunting lodge. Are you in pain? Are you cold? Can you feel your fingers? Your toes?”
His head lolls to the side, his eyes rolling up in his head, but somehow, he catches hold of my fingers. The faintest smile graces his hard mouth as he rouses again. Then he winces. “Told you… that you couldn’t keep your hands off me.”
Of all the things….
I rest my forehead on his. “I swear to Maia that I will drop you in the nearest snowdrift—”
“No, you won’t.”
I half-laugh, half-sob.No, I won’t.
