Page 83 of Of Nine So Bold

I stared at her, shaking like a leaf with only one thought making a damned bit of sense in my mind. “I’m sorry. I’m so,sosorry. I was horrible to you in the forest. I never should have snapped at you or left you or?—”

Her lips found mine, cutting off my fumbling words. Ecstasy and relief flooded me, stealing anything else I would have said. I could only stare at her in shock when she pulled back again.

She smiled. “I forgive you.”

My eyes stung and my breaths turned ragged. A new kind of pain radiated through me, like something was cracking inside my chest and it hurt.

Hurt…

I spun, cursing myself. The other giants were still in trouble, and I?—

But they weren’t, because my vines hadn’t stopped. They’d coursed across the ground to wrap every guard in the hallway, pinning the humans to the walls like flies caught in a web. Beyond them, Casimir stood with Ruhl at his side, smoke still vanishing into the vampire’s form like he’d just gotten here,while nearby, the other giants were climbing to their feet, gaping at the guards, the vines, me and Gwyneira alike.

Snarling with rage, Norbert started toward one of the humans, pulling his foot back as if to kick the man into paste on the stone wall.

“Norbert, stop!” I called, my voice rough from all the screaming.

He threw me a dirty look. “Fuck off, pipsqueak.” He swung.

The vines caught him, yanking him off balance and sending him crashing onto his ass.

Norbert snarled, trying to scramble upright again, but the vines wouldn’t let go. He tried to lunge for me, falling short when a vine tugged him backward.

I trembled. Everything hurt so much, like I was made of paper and glass and both were on the verge of crumbling. I hadn’t eaten more than a few scraps of moldy bread in ages, hadn’t slept much in that long either. I couldn’t keep this up forever.

It was a miracle I’d done this at all.

Gwyneira pushed to her feet. “Niko just saved you, and this is how you thank him?”

Footsteps thudded in the tunnel. My heart climbed my throat, choking me, only to tumble down on itself when Dex and the others raced into view.

Things had been such a mess when last I saw them. But here they were anyway, rescuing me.

Gods, how did I respond to that?Thank youwould make me seem like an entitled ass who thought he deserved the risk they must have taken to find me.

I retreated a step as my friends skidded to a stop in front of our princess.

“Dammit!” Clay cried, glaring at Gwyneira. “You were supposed to stay behind us!”

Wait, why was he yelling at her? He shouldn’t treat her that?—

“Niko was in trouble,” Gwyneira snapped back. “Another minute and he might’ve died.”

Clay floundered, raking a hand through his hair and then freezing when he seemed to register the other giants. At his side, Lars was watching the larger Erenlians too, his whole body tense. At the edge of our group, Byron had become like a statue, his eyes locked on Ignatius. I couldn’t even tell if the scholar was breathing.

“Okay, well…” Dex’s voice pulled my attention back to him. He cast the princess a grim glance and then gave a more relieved look to me. “You good?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I—” Reality caught up to me. “Well, no. We’re not the only ones down here. The Aneirans have prisoners. Kids. But?—”

“Kids?” Dex repeated, while nearby, Casimir’s head snapped around to lock a deadly expression on me. At the vampire’s side, Ruhl snarled, making a few giants recoil.

Ozias’s voice was a growl. “Where?”

“Back that way.” I pointed. “But they’ve got these bindings on us, suppressing our magic.” I gestured to the bracelet on the ground. “We can’t remove them, but she did, so first we need to?—”

“Wait, she—” Clay gave Gwyneira a quizzical look. “How’d you do that?”

When she hesitated, Ozias spoke up again. “Painfully.” He glared at her.

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