Page 48 of The Dawn of the Cursed Queen

“It’s practically law, you know.” She placed a kiss on our joined hands.

I laughed and did not care for one second that pain shot through me. Everything in this realm and the next was bearable now because I had her.

Pain jolted my body awake and snapped my eyes open. The floor beneath me rose and fell in time to hoof beats. I turned my head and saw steel panels lining the walls. A violent bump shot an ache through my side. I heard a yell and the crack of a whip before we moved faster.

I realized I wasn’t in a cell. The smell of dirt and trees wafted through the air. It looked like I was in some type of transportation cart.

I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. I fell back, but my head didn’t hit the hard seat beneath me. Instead, I felt a large hand catch me, and I was staring into speckled lilac eyes the same color as his skin. When his lips pulled back, I saw the tips of fangs. Realization hit me, and even without seeing his pointed ears and long tail, I knew what he was.

Elvian.

I opened my mouth to speak, but he lodged a small piece of bark between my teeth and forced me to chew. After I swallowed, his hand clamped over my mouth. My hand gripped his wrist, and he hissed before whatever he gave me set in. My eyes clouded, sleep filling my head, and for once, my stomach didn’t roll with nausea.

I COUGHED AND SAT UP, WATER SPILLING DOWN THE SIDE OF MY FACE. I wiped the excess off with my sleeve as the world came rushing back. The same damn wagon rolled forward, the sound of hooves like drums. Groaning, I rubbed my temples, feeling as if my head had split.

“You’re awake,” a deep voice said. “It’s been days.”

Glancing up, I saw the same elf as before. He half perched on the opposite end of the wagon. He held a small green fruit and took a bite before nodding to the small, wrapped sack on the floor.

“Eat,” he said. “You need it.”

My back hit the wagon wall as I sat up straighter. “How do you know I can even understand you?”

A crooked smile formed on his lips as he dug into the dirty clothes he wore and pulled out his hand. He opened his palm to reveal my rings.

“Because I know who and what you are, Samkiel.”

My blood ran cold. “You have me confused with someone else. I found those on a corpse.”

He made a noise in his throat and placed them back in his pocket before taking another bite of his fruit. “Am I? But you speak Elvian fluently as if raised by a royal family who sent you to a royal school. You even use the proper dialect. Plus, that scar along your side looks as if a spear made of fire rammed through you. The rings with runes inside them are just like the ones Unir’s famed son wore. Above all, the wave of electricity that runs through your veins gives you away.”

He held up his wrist, and my handprint was burned onto his skin from where I’d grabbed him earlier when he shoved that bark down my throat.

“You’re delusional,” I whispered. “I merely work for The Eye. Everything you have and see is a product of what I’ve done for them.”

“I never heard of any member of The Eye able to produce electricity. Seems like a godly power.”

“Well, I suppose we all aren’t that smart then.”

He went to respond when the wagon came to an abrupt stop. The elf shoved the fruit back into the bag and hid it under the seat before lacing his ankles and hands back into the shackles.

“Regardless, keep quiet. I’ll play along with your little game, but do not fight the guards. They would gladly beat you and leave your bloody body here for the beasts to feed on. If you are him, these realms are going to need you.”

The doors were yanked open, and soldiers in dirt-smeared armor undid our chains before yanking us out into the blistering sun. I realized at once just what realm I was in and how far I was away from her and Jade City. Trees, crooked and bent, danced overhead as more guards emptied prisoners from the other wagons in the caravan. The elf stood next to me, and we watched all the activity before we were pushed forward.

“What’s happening?”

“We are stopping for the night.”

“Here?” I whispered as the guards pushed at us once more. “Do they know what lives between these trees?”

The elf glanced at me and shook his head. “They know, and they do not care. Some probably want us to be eaten. It would mean less sharing of food and work.”

The woods and land may look dead, but I knew what beasts lived here, what watched us even now. A yip sounded through the air, followed by another. The guards behind us chuckled.

FIRE CRACKLED AROUND THE FEW BRANCHES THAT STILL BURNED. WE sat huddled, the cold night air nipping at our skin. The blankets they gave us were thin, worn, and filled with holes. There were a few campsites set up in the small clearing. Prisoners gathered around each fire, sharing a bowl or two of whatever mush they gave us to eat. Only the elf and I were at our fire, the others staying far away. I wrapped my blanket around me a fraction tighter.

“Do gods get cold?” he asked behind the spoonful of mush.

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