Page 136 of Bound to the Shadow Prince

But she’s still my family, and knowing that something has happened to her has made me frantic.

I find the wreckage of a child’s bed in one corner of the room, the pale blankets covered in mud and footprints. I pick up one corner, and as I do, I see rusty-colored splatters on it. Hastily, I drop it again and back away. The air in Erynne’s room doesn’t feel like enough. I can’t breathe. Frantic, I race to the window and stare out at the view. Erynne always had one of the best views in the castle, with the sea crashing onto the cliffs below. Now there’s nothing to see but more wreckage and the broken hull of a ship on the rocks.

There’s nothing left of my kingdom. Not even a single solitary soul. Nothing but broken bits and torn-apart remnants.

In this moment, I feel as destroyed as the ship that bobs in the harbor down below, the one with the hole in the hull so big that I can see it from up here.

“There’s a body in the hall,” Nemeth tells me, and I hear the rustle of his wings as he approaches. “It’s old, but it’s unpleasant. I covered it with one of the window hangings.”

“Woman or man?” I ask tightly. If someone’s murdered my sister and left her here to rot, so help me…

“A soldier,” Nemeth says, his voice soothing. He moves behind me and puts his hands on my shoulders. “If you are asking if it is your sister, no. My brother is many things but he would not murder a woman in cold blood.”

“Not even if she was the enemy’s queen?”

“Not even then.” He rubs my arm. “Are you…all right?”

It seems a ridiculous question. Am I all right? Of course I’m not all right. I’m very, very far from all right. But I understand what he’s asking. He’s inquiring because this place has been our goal for so long, the answer to all of our problems, and it’s empty and abandoned, just like the rest of my land. “I don’t understand why no one is here,” I say softly. I want to yell and scream. I wantto rage at him and every other Fellian that did this to my people, but the truth is that Lios started the war. We’re just as much to blame. If the kingdom was destroyed because we lost the war, that’s on Lionel.

So I can’t be angry with Nemeth. I cover his hand with mine, and then I’m clutching his fingers tightly, as if he’s a lifeline. “I don’t know what to do,” I admit. I’m tired. I’m cold. I’m hungry. I’m out of medicine. None of those things will be changing anytime soon, because Lios is destroyed. There’s no one to help us. No one to feed us.

We’ve left the tower for nothing. We’ve cursed the world because we didn’t want to starve…but it turns out the world has been destroyed anyhow.

He enfolds me in his arms from behind, wrapping me in his solid, supportive presence. I want to scream and rage at him, too, but…I still love him. He’s on my side, and I need to remember that, no matter what I’m feeling right now. “We’ll travel to my people instead,” Nemeth says. “To Darkfell.”

Painful laughter bubbles up out of my chest. “The last place I want to go right now is Darkfell.”

“Do you have a better idea?” he asks quietly.

I don’t. I don’t know what to do at all. “Will they kill me when I arrive? I’m one of Ravendor’s descendants.”

“They will not,” says Nemeth firmly. “Because first and foremost, you are my mate. You carry my bite.” His hand slides to my stomach. “You carry my child. They will not touch you.”

I’m not so sure. But we don’t have many other choices. “How long will it take to reach Darkfell?”

He doesn’t answer. His grip tightens around me, and I suddenly realize the answer. Too long. Too long, and I don’t have any medicine left.

“We’ll stay here tonight,” he tells me. “Look for survivors and supplies. Find a decent room to sleep in. And we’ll take it from there.”

“You should go without me?—”

“Never,” he says, sharp. “I’m not leaving you.”

“But you can fly,” I point out. “I cannot. I only slow you down, and without my potion, I’m as good as dead anyhow.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Nemeth says again, and his voice is calm. Steady.

It would be better for him if he did, but I’m still foolishly glad. I turn in his arms and hug him, burying my face against his chest.

My kingdom is gone. My sister is gone. And here we’re deciding to head straight for those that destroyed them.

It feels like a never-ending nightmare.

Chapter

Sixty-Nine

We make the royal library our temporary camp. While it’s been ransacked just like every other room in the palace, the ceiling is whole, the books undamaged by the endless rain. Nemeth makes a fire in the large stone fireplace at the far end of the vast hall, and I spread out our blankets and clothes to dry them.

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