Page 79 of Pawns of Fate
Rose closed her eyes and expanded her consciousness to the aural plane. Everything seemed normal enough for a quiet mountainside lake until she noticed a dark, reptilian energy in the bushes behind them. It felt… familiar. Rose couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d already encountered this life force.
Alarmed, she announced, “There’s something in the brush.”
“What?” Nicholas drew his sword.
“It isn’t the mage. But I think it’s a small monster. Maybe a lizard… or a snake?”
“I’ll still dispose of it.”
Rose felt a twinge of guilt. The creature was hardly attackingthem.
A rune on the blade of Nicholas’s sword started to glow, and bolts of electricity danced around his blade. A handful of the bolts were pinkish.
Nicholas pushed the brush out of his way with one arm, sword raised in the other. He shouted as a massive, black snake rushed out of the underbrush and snapped at his leg. Dodging the attack, Nicholas released a lightning spell. Bolts of silver electricity erupted from his sword, racing for the creature.
But the bolts were swept away by tendrils of shadow. The snake lunged for Nicholas again, this time puncturing his calf with its fangs.
Nicholas bellowed with pain and rage, but Rose found herself unable to speak as a gloved hand covered her mouth. She struggled, but her attacker was faster and stronger, hastily pinning her body with his arms.
“If you struggle, I’ll have Kagon bite you too,” a light, masculine voice said in an almost playful tone.
Nicholas fell to his knees, and his skin turned a horrifying shade of red. Rose’s stomach dropped. The snakebite must have been venomous.
Her attacker removed his hand from her mouth to grip her chin instead.
“Look, he’s dying,” the sadistic man said as he forced her to watch Nicholas struggle.
Her thoughts jumbled; the blood in her head rushed to her limbs. The world froze.Nicholas was dying!
“Please, please,” she sobbed. “I’ll do whatever you want.Just save him.”
“That was too easy. I expected you to struggle more.” The voice sounded bored. “Kagon, tie him up, then give him the antidote. I’ll handle our precious Rose.” Her skin crawled at the sound of her name on this man’s lips, but the relief that Nicholas would be alright overrode everything.
Rose’s eyes darted to the black snake. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that this creature was familiar, somehow. Then she saw the golden eyes—this was the creature that had saved her from the twiddletoads!How long had these two been following her?
The snake nodded at her attacker, which would have been bizarre enough on its own, but when its shape coalesced in on itself, then reformed into the silhouette of a large man, Rose thought that maybe her nightmares were coming to life.
“A shapeshifter?”
“Yes, well, technically Kagon is a druid,” her attacker replied.
Rose watched Kagon pour a small vial of liquid into Nicholas’s mouth before binding his ankles and feet with ropes. Her husband’s color started to change as the antidote neutralized the venom.Thank the gods.
Her relief was short-lived. Tendrils of shadow wrapped themselves around her entire body, rendering her motionless. Her attacker pulled his arms away and stepped into view. Rose was completely unsurprised to see that it was the man who had tried to kidnap her in the library.
“You!”
“Yes, me.” The mage raised an eyebrow. His hood was down now, revealing long, lavender hair, half pulled into a ponytail,and half freely flowing down his back. A cruel smirk painted his unfortunately handsome face.
“Why? Why are you doing all of this?”
“Lysander.”
“What?”
“My name is Lysander. I can’t have you calling me ‘you’ for the rest of our time together. We will be working very closely for a while, darling Rose.”
Rose thought she might gag.
