Page 3 of Tortured

Too late, my ears pick up a final twang.

A premonition did not alert me.

An arrow lodges next to my heart and pierces my lung. I stumble to my knees. My vision swims, but my ears prickle as I narrow in on the enemy.

He secluded himself behind a tree. As he draws his arrow back for the kill shot, I react. Something deep inside my physical makeup contracts as it calls on Niawen’s light, and a swell of energy rises in me.

My muscles move on their own, faster than I can blink. I sprint—more like blur—across the gap between the man and me. After ripping the arrow from my chest, I shove it into his, and he crumples to the ground, all before he can release his arrow.

With blood pouring from my wound, I collapse, believing I’ve become inhuman.

Chapter 3

The pain in my chest grows, pulling my mind into a place separate from reality. I imagine Niawen moving through a heavily wooded forest. Her vivid green eyes and her radiant hair distract my thoughts from all others and color the darkening gloom in my mind.

I will stay with this vision of her for as long as I can.

Maybe I will bleed to death on the ground, all because seeing her turn and watching her hair and her skirts swirl about her instills such peace in me that I’m not sure I can make myself wake.

Niawen, I love you.

Dying is bliss, and I will embrace it because she is with me.

My pain leaves suddenly.

Where is she? A voice—frail and irritated—intrudes on my mind.

Caedryn. He’s in my head. Niawen warned me that he might use our bond. The bond that was his and Niawen’s until she gave me her light and I became bonded with him instead.

With him.

The thought sickens me.

The benevolent light of an emrys can be a cruel tool because of the way bonds unite two beings.

Especially two enemies.

Agh. My pain surges back. A heavy weight presses on my chest. You. Caedryn. Get out of my head. This is the first I’ve heard him. The first time since we’ve been connected through Niawen’s light. I’ve kept such careful control of my thoughts. I painstakingly erected barriers in my mind to block him. How are you breaking through?

Caedryn grunts. Pain is a great tool, dear Kenrik.

It sounds as if he is feeling the pain of the arrow too. Good.

In that lies the drawback. Because of my chest wound, Caedryn found a way into my head while I was unconscious. I won’t let him rile me.

Sounds as if you’re in a lot of agony. Leg pains keeping you in bed? I hope you’re enjoying your recovery. I can still hear the way Caedryn howled when I snapped his femurs in half during my escape with Niawen.

Even though Caedryn is a half-emrys with some light, Niawen told me the amount is trivial. Without a proper emrys healer, his broken legs will take weeks to mend—almost as long as it would take for a mortal.

Nothing you can do will keep me from exacting revenge, he says. I know she’s not with you. Your efforts to conceal her whereabouts will fail. I will find her.

I jerk as pain ripples through me. Strangely enough, not just in my chest, but in my legs as well. He’s pushing his pain through to me.

Curse you. I didn’t realize being bound mentally, emotionally, and spiritually would allow us such in-depth access to each other.

Curse me all you want, Caedryn says. I am unstoppable. I’ll get what I want and everyone you love will suffer.

Leave me!

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