Page 45 of Cage of Darkness
“Get out of mybedchamber.”
Soma spit a mouthful of blood on thefloor and then waltzed out of the room.
Kerdan slammed the door closed andlocked it. “There’s blood covering the front of your shirt.” Hehurried around the room, lighting several candles. “Let me see.” Hesat next to her on the couch.
With shaking hands, she pulled up thefabric of her tunic to examine the wound. “It’s not deep,” sheassured him. “But it hurts far worse than it should.”
He sucked in a sharp breath and jumpedoff the couch, heading to the bathing room. He returned a momentlater carrying a small tin.
“What’s that?” It remindedher of Soma’s poisons.
“Exactly what you think itis.” Sitting next to her on the couch, he examined the cut acrossher stomach. Under normal circumstances, she would never allow aman to see her exposed flesh—especially in such an intimateenvironment. However, if the dagger had been laced with poison,time was of the essence.
His fingers hovered over the wound.“Definitely poison.” Her skin started burning, and tears filled hereyes. “This is going to hurt,” he said. When he opened the tin, anodd smell filled the room. “If I don’t counteract the poison,you’ll be dead in less than ten minutes.”
Allyssa nodded and clutched onto thecouch, holding it as tightly as possible.
“I’ll treat your armfirst.” Kerdan shook the tin, pouring the fine powder onto her cut.Without hesitating, he quickly moved to the larger one on herstomach, completely covering it with the powder. It soothed herskin, taking away the sensation of being on fire.
“Thank you.” Shesighed.
“Don’t thank meyet.”
She was about to ask himwhat he meant when the powder coating her wounds started to bubbleas it interacted with the poison and her blood. It felt like ananimal’s claws were shredding her skin to pieces. The bubbles grewto the size of grapes, breaking and reforming over and over.Bloody hell. Her skinturned bright red as black spots filled her vision. Kerdan took thetin, sprinkling the powder over her cuts once again. She thrashed,trying to escape the horrific pain.
“I’m here. You can do this.Don’t give up. It’ll be over soon.”
She clutched onto Kerdan’s hand,squeezing. It felt as if her skin was being peeled off her bones.She screamed, and everything went black.
***
Allyssa woke up in bed, a fire roaringin the hearth. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had theluxury of sleeping in a bed, even if the sheets were a littlerough. The memory of last night and the poisoned dagger cameflooding back to her. Her stomach felt as if it had been kicked bya horse. Her arm ached like it was broken. She groaned, turning herhead to the side. Kerdan was sitting on the edge of the bed, acouple of feet away from her.
“You’re awake,” hemurmured. His hair stuck out in several directions, and his eyeshad dark circles under them.
“I feel like death.” Hervoice came out hoarse. It hurt just to swallow. She couldn’tbelieve Soma had tried to kill her last night.
“Your body has beenfighting off the poison.” He rubbed his exhausted face. “I wasn’tsure you would make it. You’ve been unconscious for almost tenhours.”
She was about to respond when a knockresounded through the room. His eyes widened with surprise. “No oneever comes to visit me.”
“Kerdan, darling,” thequeen crooned from the other side of the door. “Are you inthere?”
His entire body went rigid.
“Kerdan?”
“Hang on,” he called out.Leaning close to Allyssa, he whispered, “Stay in bed.” Hestraightened and removed his shirt, revealing his bare, musculartorso.
Her face flushed. “What are youdoing?”
“Shh.” He loosened thestring of his pants and glanced about the room. Rushing over to thecouch, he grabbed the blankets, tossing them into the bathing room.He took a deep breath and pulled open the door, leaning lazilyagainst the frame, looking like he’d just rolled out of bed.“Stepmother,” he said in a groggy voice. “To what do I owe thishonor?”
“Isthat…girlhere?”Jana asked with a haughty voice, peering around the side of him andinto the room. He moved his body to block the queen’s view of thebedchamber.
Allyssa pulled the blankets up aroundher neck, wishing she wasn’t so vulnerable with the evil womanclose by. It dawned on her that Jana had probably ordered Soma tokill her last night. Jana was here to see if the job wasdone.
“Bythat girl, do you mean PrincessAllyssa?” Kerdan asked.
