Page 30 of Spirit Rites
The man gives me a stern look. “He is my king.”
I extricate myself from Kaldar, and the bigger man takes my place. Rysden and the other guy make quick work of carrying Kaldar to the couch. Hector is there a minute later, and they rip Kaldar’s shirt open. “What happened?” Another warrior asks me. This voice is not nearly as gracious as the last guy.
“Kinsley,” I hear Farrah say. “Why don’t you sit down, and we can tend to your wounds.” I hear her, but I can’t look away from the motionless Kaldar on the couch. His face is so pale. His chest is covered in blood, and yet, I know that’s not the most severe of his injuries.
Bonded One, let us in.
The voice in my head nearly brings me to my knees.Veyra!
Let us in. Jespar needs to be with his bonded.She pauses.And don’t let anybody near him. He is...unpredictable in this state.
I’m moving before she finishes talking. “Kinsley?” I hear someone call out, but I ignore it. I’m almost to the front door when it shudders. My eyes widen, and I race forward and fling the door open to a snarling jaguar. Jespar rushes past me, and I whirl around in a panic and race after him.
“Stay out of his way!” I shout, heeding Veyra’s warning. When I get to the main room, the men have all backed away from Kaldar and eye Jespar warily. Jespar snarls at the men when he gets close to Kaldar. He sniffs all over Kaldar’s body and stops at his wrist and then goes back to his chest. Jespar licks Kaldar’s chest a few times. I watch as he sniffs his hand again, and then watch in amazement as he licks Kaldar’s hand. Again and again, Jespar licks Kaldar’s hand. A strange sense of emotion overcomes me, and I cross my arms over my chest. I feel something against my body and reach out instinctively to Veyra. I rest my hand in her fur as a feeling of deep gratitude wells up in me.
I missed you. I don’t know how it’s possible to miss you when I only knew you such a short time before I left.
We are bonded,she states simply as if that explains everything. And maybe it does.
Chapter 16
The room is almost completely silent, and I can’t focus on anything but Kaldar’s chest. I just need it to rise and fall. Nothing else matters in this moment. It takes a few more minutes, but then I finally see it. His chest rises, just the smallest bit. I feel like my entire body releases the tension it’s been carrying. “He’s breathing,” somebody says. Jespar continues his work, but he’s breathing. That’s what counts.
“Kinsley, you need to sit down before you fall over.”
I hear Farrah and finally look over to her. She and Harper are standing next to each other a few feet away from me. Gratitude overcomes me, and I sag in relief.We made it. Kaldar’s not going to die, and we survived the Spirit Rites.My body suddenly remembers what all it’s been through, and I sway a moment. I hear the slide of metal but it doesn’t register fast enough, not until somebody grabs my arm and places a knife at my throat. I go very still.
“Reika, no!”
“Stop!”
“Hey!”
Before I realize it, weapons are drawn. Rysden stands the closest to me, and he’s got his sword out. His arm at his side for now, but I know how fast he can move. Farrah and Harper both have knives in hand. Lox is standing off to the side, looking calm and relaxed, but I don’t miss the knife in his hand. Then there’s Kaldar’s men. The big, bald guy who took his weight from me is wielding some kind of axe that looks deadly. There’s the guy that has dark swirls all over his arms and even darker hair and eyes.He seems to glare at me, and I wonder what I did to make him mad.
“Reika, knock it off.” One of Kaldar’s warriors strides over to us with no concern for her own safety.
“What are you trying to prove?” the big burly guy asks.
“We don’t know anything about this woman.” I’m surprised to hear a woman’s voice behind me.
“Are all warriors from your kingdom this stupid?” Harper asks in a calm voice, like she’s asking about the weather.
“Harper,” Farrah hisses.
The knife tightens on my throat. “Release her,” Rysden says in a low voice that reflects just exactly what he will do if that doesn’t happen.
“I’m not going to release this woman. She tried to kill our king.”
A host of rebuttals ring out, but the knife doesn’t come away from my throat. And just like that, I’ve had enough. Of everything. I’m tired of almost dying; I’m tired of being scared. I’m tired of fighting for my life in the Trials and then again in the Rites. I’m tired of people dying...or almost dying. Anger burns through me, and in a move that Ryden has made us drill over and over and over again, I yank hard on the hand holding the knife. I spin and jerk her hand around, knee her in the stomach and crack her arm over my knee, forcing her to drop the knife. I snatch my own knife and hold it to her chest a second later. “I didn’t try to kill Kaldar. The next time you accuse somebody of something and hold a knife to their throat, maybe get the facts right.” The anger in her eyes makes me almost regret what I did; I have a feeling I might have just made even more of an enemy. But I can’t bring myself to regret it. I turn around, making sure to keep her in my line of sight and kicking her knife further away from her in the process. “The same goes for the rest of you. Ididn’t hurt your king. He was bitten by a mireling; that’s why he’s not conscious. The poison was spreading through him.”
Jespar is holding off the poison from completely taking him until the antidote can get here,Veyra explains through our link.
“Jespar is helping to keep him stable until we get the antidote. If Kaldar were awake, he would tell you what happened. Until he is, you have to take my word for it. Jespar and Veyra are mates, and Veyra is my bonded. As I’m sure you know, the second I touched your king, we were sucked into the Spirit Rites.”
“Kaldar already entered the Rites,” the woman that held a knife to my throat says.
I level a cool glance at her. “Yes, and this time was my turn. But he held on to me, and it sucked both of us in. Now, that is the truth. Don't make me repeat it.” I hear a sound and glance over to see Farrah and Harper both staring at me wide-eyed. Farrah looks like she swallowed something. “What?”
