Page 60 of Nightingale

“Rian-” Vrea started for him but he waved her off before she could gain four inches in his direction.

“I’m fine,” He panted through clenched teeth, stretching his back until he stood up straight once more, whipping his sword over his knuckles and catching it back into his grip with his thumb. “Come on, Vre. We can’t pause or I fear we’ll become lunch.” He pointed his blade behind and she didn’t dare look to see if he was right or not.

There was no need.

The canyon shook softly as more Blacklegs poured from the tunnels, racing for them as the main spider held its ground at the very back, blocking any sort of escape in that direction. Not that either of them were particularly fond of the idea of retreating towards the caves, back towards the way they’d started.

They were more than halfway to the camps, enough so that Vrea could make out a couple of figures standing and watching their escape.

An idea popped into her head.

“Rian, start waving!” She commanded him, flinging her arms over her head and swinging them back and forth as she started up again. As she jogged along the path, she continued to wave.

Out of the side of her peripherals, he did the same. Wincing, and dropping his wounded arm back to his side as he tried to keep up with only one.

Vrea contained her spark of concern, the interesting care for the male she’d known for some time. It was different, seeing him outside of the palace. As if he didn’t have to hide who he was, as if he were a completely different person. Suddenly she wondered if perhaps the pressure of being the Golden Heir, the selected sovereign to take over had molded him into someone he didn’t want to be. Maybe she’d misjudged him from the start, from the role he had to play in order to gain his father’s approval.

But it was undeniable that her heart twanged for him. And even if she scolded it for the impertinence and horrible decision regarding a lover, there was nothing she could do to dissuade it.

ShelikedRian.

Shewantedhim.

And not in the one and done sort of way that her brothers often engaged in, taking pleasure for the night and finding it again in a stranger’s bed. No, the sort that lingered after the wrings of a well-earned climax, the desire to stay wrapped in each other’s arms.

Vrea never stayed in anyone’s bed, never let herself get close to anyone in that sort of way before. It was dangerous, in a world where anything, anyone, could be taken away. A weakness, in a realm where one couldn’t have any. Especially not as a Greenvass heir.

But there it was, as they ran side by side.

An undeniable flicker of attraction, of a starting emotion that might have been a scarier one. Shewantedto tangle up with Rian in the sheets, to see what made him moan, to cry out hername. And even more terrifying, was the small sliver of wanting tostayafterwards. To have his toned arms fall over her naked and spent body, to have him pull her into his warmth and to hear the soft rise and fall of his chest as his laboured breaths sent him to sleep.

Not to kill, even if that temptation was still there.

But for her own sake.

Her own comfort.

Vrea had gained a weakness, when not even her own brothers could be classified as that. Not even her mother earned that sacred place in her heart.

She was a fool.

A stupid, childish fool.

Rian was her enemy.

She couldn’t care for him, not like that.

Not if they intended to survive this, to live to see another day. Not if he was truly going to take her home, to see her personally escorted to Vasthold and stand before her mother. Vrea was worried, and she was drenched in fear at the idea of what her mother and brothers would do to him.

Rian shuddered, his knees bucking and she darted for him, a fourth of the mile left.

“Come on you stupid bastard,” She said and took his arm, draping it over her shoulder as she hefted half of his weight into her. He wasn’t light by any means and she was strong, but it was an additional load that slowed her significantly.

“For someone so determined on wanting me dead, you sure seem to enjoy saving my life.” He mumbled, and with a horrifying understanding, Vrea realised that the Blacklegs must have carried a venom in their veins.

A paralytic poison to slow their enemies down enough to wrap them in their spider-soft silk and consume them. His limbs were becoming heavy, as if he couldn’t bear to hold them up anylonger.

“Don’t you dare give in.” Vrea bellowed at him, struggling to avoid the four Blacklegs that trailed behind them. They weren’t far, and if she had to continue to support the Prince for the remainder of the way, the spiders would eventually catch up.

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