Page 73 of The Exile's Curse

A fact to note. She had played the sweet and amenable fiancée most of the time leading up to the wedding, but now that she was queen, perhaps she was going to let a little more of the spine he'd sensed beneath the smiles out. Which was good. She was a queen. She needed to rule. To be ruthless when required.

Chloe would make a good queen. She'd never had a problem standing up for herself.

The hunt moved off again. The morning’s sunshine had vanished, leaving them with skies much the color of his horse, the clouds low but fast moving. Storms rolled in quickly here in the mountains. The summer storms he’d witnessed during his first visit has demonstrated that, though thankfully he’d only seen them from the inside of the palace.

The others were still talking calmly as they rode toward the trees. Still, he reined in his horse, moving farther back in the pack to be closer to where Chloe rode with the women. Honore, Theo, and the others were all good riders from what he'd seen so far. They could take care of themselves.

The riders had barely made it past the tree line into the dappled light of the forest when the first boar lunged out onto the trail, startling the lead horses. The riders split quickly, one group, including the king and queen, giving chase as the boar plunged away into the undergrowth. Lucien’s horse snorted and danced in place, but he held him in check.

To his left, another series of crashing snorts heralded the arrival of another boar. The creature was large, mottled brown, and displeased to discover humans and horses in its territory. It charged at the nearest horses, and another chase began.

Two boars so close together suggested there were beaters in the forest, chasing the animals back toward the hunt. The pigs he'd hunted before had been shyer than these, though perhaps that was from living somewhere less wild.

He followed the rest of the hunt deeper into the woods, twisting in his saddle to check on Chloe. She was near the front of the remaining women, watching what was happening ahead. He turned back before she saw him. As he did so, he thought he heard thunder rumbling across the sky, but with the sound of the cheers and yells of the riders pursuing the two boars in the distance and twenty-odd horses moving around him, it was hard to be sure.

Neither of the first two groups had returned by the time a third boar stumbled onto the path about one hundred feet ahead of them. It turned on its heels and bolted. The riders around him surged forward. He didn't check the reins fast enough, and the gray got away from him, pounding after the others.

Thunder cracked above his head, loud enough to be clear this time, and he fought his horse back under control, trying to turn and loop back around, unwilling to leave Chloe alone in a storm. As he struggled with the horse, spooking now at the storm, and looked for a safe way back through the denser undergrowth off the path, Chloe passed him, leaning low over her horse's neck, smiling as she galloped with the others.

Fuck. She was caught up in the hunt. He'd thought she'd have the sense to stay back.

He urged his gray back onto the path but ended up with several horses between him and Chloe. Heedless, he threw his magic toward her, setting the illusion of a tiny star on the brass buckle at the rear of her saddle. The forest had been dark to begin with, and with a storm gathering, the light was fading quickly. The horses were running faster than was sensible. He could sense the strain in the gray, the nerves twitching beneath his skin. The horse tossed his head as the thunder crashed right above them, the noise like the sky roaring fury.

Lightning arced down through the trees, striking one just ahead of Chloe. For a minute, chaos reigned as horses reared and twisted and bolted in several directions. The flaring light dazzled him, turning the tree—which thankfully didn't fall or burst into flames—into pinwheels of light, and it took time to blink the spots away while wrestling the gray so it didn't bolt, too. When his eyes cleared, there was no sign of Chloe amongst the riders still in sight. His stomach coiled with fear. Wherewasshe?

He cast his sense wider, seeking his illusion.

There. Off to the right. A tiny pulse of familiar magic.

He pushed harder and saw a flare of what he thought was his flame between the trees.

Chloe. Disappearing rapidly deeper into the forest. She must have lost control of her horse.

He kicked the gray into motion, aiming it in the direction she'd taken, just as the heavens opened and rain poured down as though someone had turned the sky into a waterfall. Madness to keep riding, but he wasn't going to let Chloe vanish into the forest and the storm, never to be seen again.

He cast another illusion, this time over every piece of tack the gray wore, lighting it up, to give himself a chance of seeing where they were headed as he tried to keep his senses tuned to the illusion on Chloe’s saddle. It didn't help much. The rain blinded him, and the thunder, deafening now, made it impossible to hear anything else.

His horse ran like there was an army of rogue sanctii at its heels. Lucien had no idea how it managed to keep its feet and not throw him tumbling to the ground as they pelted after Chloe. At some point, a branch whipped his cheek with enough force to make him rock back in the saddle, but his face was too cold to really register the pain. He just crouched lower and held on, all the focus he could spare on his magic.

He had no idea how long the nightmare ride lasted, but eventually they broke through the trees and back onto a plateau. Though not, he thought, the one they'd entered from.

The rain was worse in the open, and lightning split the sky, making him too aware that out there, away from the trees, he was probably the tallest thing around. But the light let him catch a glimpse of Chloe and what he thought were mountains rising up ahead. Which brought to mind the map he'd studied before the hunt and the horrifying remembrance that, if he was right and they’d come out at the far end of the forest, the plateau ended in a cliff a hundred feet or so high. But he couldn't see to know if he was right, and all he could do was spur his horse on. The gray was beginning to flag, but he was bigger and stronger than Chloe's horse, so they had a chance to catch her.

He had to catch her. The thought of her plunging over a cliff....

No. He wouldn't lose her.

He sent his power ahead, reaching desperately. The tiny light of his illusion flared. Then, to his horror, he saw it arc upward before plummeting down and winking out of sight.

The cliff.

Fuck.

He dragged his own horse to a halt that was more skid than stop and threw himself off, running forward, uttering every prayer he could think of. The lightning came again, and he saw a lump of black on the ground.

Please, goddess, let it be her.

His boots squelched and slipped over mud, but he reached her before his heart stopped entirely from the fear.

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