Page 47 of Tethered Thrones

I cradled his body closer, sinking down to wrap around him, hoping to offer him a small bit of my warmth.

His head lolled back, limp as the rest of him.

A breath shuddered from my lungs.

Was this it? I wondered. Would it all come to an end now in the dark? Sun and I alone, cradled together helplessly.

I had to admit, there was some poetry to it. The noc king and the top human warrior, reduced to nothing, not even seen as they faded from life together.

“Sun,” I whispered, and there was an unexpected ferocity in the sound. Anger that I hadn't noticed coursed through me, a last-ditch desire to fight. “Don’t you die on me, Batu Sun. My life is in your feeble hands…”

But even as the words left my mouth, the anger faded, revealing itself to be a facade of what I truly felt: despair.

Sun's body felt too cold against me. Any minute now, he would be gone and that... That was so damn unfair. I'd only just–

“I've only just started to know you,” I found myself saying to his deaf ears. “And you've only just started to knowme.”

Not as the king of the nocs, not as the great Alhadya, not as his enemy. He had just started to seeme, and I was only now realizing that no one ever had before. He was the first to look beyond what was presented and see what lay beneath and I wanted more. It was so unfair to get a taste of what Clem, Bracken and Kiar all got just before it was all taken away.

I'd fooled myself into thinking it was about sex. That I wanted to claim him and to own him but that wasn't it at all, was it? I wanted Batu Sun to want me. I wanted our bond to mean more than a means to an end.

It had happened so fast. One minute I had been ready to destroy him, then he'd looked straight through me, challenged me, made me want him and now… now I would do anything I could for just a bit more time. I would beg.

“Please. Stay. We still have so much to accomplish together...”

I shut my eyes, feeling foolish, but out of ideas.

“Goddess of the moon, Tsuki,” I whispered desperately. “Please. Don't let him go like this.”

My voice felt heavy in the silence and of course nothing happened. I had never been the praying type. I didn't think I had ever done it before, but here I was, praying to the goddess at the very end and expecting results.

Was it really too much to ask though? Hadn't she chosen us? Hadn't she brought back that monstrosity of undead horses at that battlefield, and for what? For Sun to be so distracted that he was fatally wounded?

“This is your fault!” I suddenly bellowed into the silence. “Do something!”

My voice echoed back to me, full of vitriol.

Suddenly, there was light.

It was dim, even in the pitch black of the tunnel and coming from somewhere on Sun.

Shaking,hoping, I searched frantically through the layers of Sun's new robes, trying to find where it came from.

When my hand closed around a cool, round stone, I laughed, unable to believe it.

“That couldn't have worked,” I said aloud, but sure enough, I pulled the moonstone from Sun's pocket.

It was glowing weakly, the light flickering like it was barely able to remain lit. Of course. Tsuki had used the last of her strength on those horses, hadn't she? That was what Clem had claimed, anyway.

For a moment, I held the stone, waiting for something to happen, for Sun to spring to life once more. Nothing changed. When I held the light close to his face, I saw that his jaw was slack and his lips were pale and parted. There was no color on his skin. He already looked like a corpse even though I knew he still clung to the last threads of life.

“Wake up, Sun.”

I held him steady, stroking loose strands of hair back as I crouched there, searching for any sign that he was recovering.

Frustrated, I clenched the stone in my fist.

“What do you want me to do with this blasted thing?” I asked Tsuki. Surely, she wasn't activating it for entertainment.

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