Page 172 of Bound to the Shadow Prince

This one, I feel.

“Ow,” I manage. My lips feel heavy and tingly. “Not…spose…to slap…the dead.”

“You’re not dead, fool,” comes Erynne’s acerbic voice. “Wake up.”

“Can’t,” I mumble. “Dead…just like Meryliese.”

“Yes, well, she’s not dead either,” Erynne retorts. “So quit playacting at being a corpse and wake up.”

Not…dead? Hm. Vague memories flicker through my sludge-filled brain. Of a woman dressed in scarlet who looks a bit like Erynne and a bit like me. Of Ivornath’s dead body, still marked with plague and stinking of rot. Of Nemeth at dinner.

It was the truth, but it was not all of the truth, Candra. I swear it.

“I’m not dead,” I manage, and I’m honestly surprisedthat I’m not. My mouth feels strangely tight and when I try to lift my head, I can’t. My neck is stiff. All of me is stiff. I can twitch a finger, but nothing else, and the realization makes me whimper. “Can’t move.”

“Stay still,” comes a kinder voice. Riza. A hand brushes my hair from my forehead. “Drink this and wait for it to pass.”

A warm vial of something bitter is pressed to my lips. I cough and sputter and some of it runs down my cheek, but I manage to drink most of it. Riza makes soothing noises and continues to stroke my hair and face. I close my eyes, drifting and dizzy.

“What if it doesn’t work?” Erynne whispers.

“I don’t even know how she’s alive,” Riza murmurs. “The cook said that they dosed her with enough to kill her twice over, yet she lives.”

“It’s our Fellian blood,” Erynne says. “That potion doesn’t work as well on us. I drank it when I got here. I was furious when it didn’t kill me. It’s because somewhere in our ancestry, someone married a Fellian. That blood is still in our veins.”

And I have more Fellian blood than most. I have Nemeth’s blood in my veins, too. Maybe that’s how I lived. Does he know what they did to me? Was he in on it? I have to think he wasn’t. He wouldn’t have given me his blood ahead of dinner if he’d known what had been planned.

What Meryliese had planned.

My bitch of a sister is alive.

“I hope that’s it,” Riza says in a low voice. “I don’t know what we’ll do if she can’t walk.”

“I can hear you,” I whisper. “I’m right here.”

“You’re not asleep, then.” Riza’s tone is brisk as she pats my shoulder. “Good. That means you’re recovering quickly.”

“Cold,” I manage. Everything feels like ice.

A warm hand takes mine and rubs my fingers. “I know,” Riza says. “Not too much longer, and when you can walk, we’ll leave the root cellar together.”

“Is…that where we are?”

“Aye. They can’t exactly dump you with the rest of the trash or the humans will rise up. So they’re waiting to dump you when no one is looking.” Riza pauses. “Or to burn you in the ovens.”

Well that’s chilling. I try to move my feet, to hurry things along. My eyes feel heavy but I can keep them open with effort. “Meryliese,” I manage. “How…”

“I had my suspicions but nothing confirmed.” Erynne hovers over me, her face blurry. “I’ve been hearing strange things for a while. People kept saying they would see me with Ivornath when I was not. Or they would catch sight of a dark-haired woman. I thought they were tales, but then Ajaxi started to call me ‘Meryliese’ in bed and I put some of it together.”

Riza makes an unpleasant sound in her throat.

Erynne just laughs. “Oh, yes. It’s as bad as you think it is, but I’m just waiting for the right moment to kill him. Never fear.” She rubs my hand harder, as if she can work her frustration into my veins to warm them. “Our bitch sister brought down Lios by activating the goddess’s curse. She thought she’d be safe here in Darkfell, but I think the goddess’s wrath has followed her under the mountains. I’ve heard some of Ajaxi’s mumblings in his sleep. He’s wanting to overthrow Ivornath and claim the throne for himself, but he’ll have to get rid of both of his brothers first, and something tells me Meryliese doesn’t want that.”

I whimper, trying to sit up. “Nemeth?—”

“Safe,” Erynne says even as she puts a hand on my shoulder. “Ajaxi has him imprisoned in the palace. I don’t know how he managed it, because Ivornath wouldn’t approve, but?—”

They don’t know? I groan, trying to force my unresponsive body to work. “Dead. Ivornath is dead.”

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