Page 34 of Queen of the Wicked
It’s him. It’s really him. The same steady eyes. The same bronze skin and familiar warmth.
“Adelasia,” he breathes with the same disbelief. He runs to me, falling into a crouch and cupping my face with his remaining hand. The missing one is wrapped in cloth, bound to his side with leather straps.
“You’re alive,” I sob. “I thought those wolves killed you. I thought—” I throw my arms around him, holding tight.
He holds me just as fiercely. “You’ve changed.”
“I know.”
His voice is gentle. “Not just your body. Your soul. It’s hurting.”
I pull back, swallowing the lump in my throat. “It’s a long story…the Well did something to me. Changed me for the worst. I…I don’t know how much of me is left, so we’re going back to try and fix what’s been broken.”
“You’re still in there,” he whispers. “I still see you.”
I start to cry again.
He turns to the remaining hunters and raises his blade. “Fall back,” he commands. “These people, they are not your enemy. Not today.”
They hesitate, but Saddiq holds steady in his gaze, and one by one, the hunters lower their blades. Then, mercifully, they disappear back into the trees to give us a moment.
The forest falls silent, but the electric kind that gives me a new hope. Saddiq looks at the state of the three of us, desperately clinging to each other and our sanity.
“Let me help you. Our camp is nearby. We’ll get you shelter. Rest. You’ll need it before you reach the Well.”
I take his hand and follow him deeper into the forest, with Rowan and Kaius following behind.
At his camp, the fire cracks softly, bravely filling the chilling silence. Saddiq’s hunters are taking watch, patrolling the perimeter of the small camp while Saddiq hands us supplies to make a small makeshift bed.
At dinner, while the men eat their rations, we sit close to the fire. I pull my legs up against my chest and watch the flames twist and flare in front of me. It almost looks like the magic inside me, violently flicking and reaching for more.
My hands are freezing despite the heat.
Kaius sits behind me on a log, rubbing the knots out of my tense shoulders with his strong hands. Rowan stands further away, as if he’s keeping watch too, not of the camp, but of me. Saddiq is directly across from me, firelight catching his unruly beard and bronzed skin.
“You’re quiet,” Saddiq says gently, meeting my eyes.
I blink at the fire. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” Kaius murmurs.
“But I want to. I want to feel like myself again. Something inside me is breaking, or maybe it’s already broken, and no matter how much I fight it, it’s like…it’s winning.”
Saddiq leans forward, holding his hand near the flames. “You think you’re alone in this. You’re not.” I look up at him through the fire, meeting those familiar eyes. “You’ve always carried the world on your shoulders, Adelasia, even before all of this. Even when you were just a girl sneaking bread to a starving man while the demons weren’t looking. You have a heart that was made to burn for others. That hasn’t changed. Not even now.”
I don’t realize I’m crying until Kaius uses his thumb to brush the tears from my cheek, soft and careful.
“You haven’t lost yourself. You’ve just buried parts of her to survive,” Saddiq says.
Kaius wraps an arm around my chest, and I hold his forearm with my blackened hands. “And when you forget who you are, we’ll remind you.”
Saddiq agrees. “All of us.”
I lean into Kaius. “I don’t deserve this…this kindness from any of you.”
“Wrong,” Rowan says from the shadows quietly. “You deserve more than this world knows how to give.”
Saddiq looks at Rowan like he’s seen an old friend. “You never told her, did you?”
