Page 1 of The Curse of a Kingdom
CHAPTERONE
NAVA
Nava had been waiting for a while for Arkimedes to join her in the bath. She stared at her pruney fingers, moving her arms over the milky water. What was taking him so long? Surely getting wine from their kitchen wouldn’t have meant leaving her alone for the evening. Not when he’d been kissing her senseless recently.
“Ark?” she called, frowning at the water around her that now cooled her heated skin.
Her heart skipped a beat at the silence. She lifted out of the water, and there was a heaviness in her stomach that hadn’t been there before, something that made her pause.
She got out of the tub, reached for her nightgown, and draped it over her body, not caring that it would get wet.
Thunder rolled, and the pitter-patter of the rain fell harder against the glass window. She walked to the door, unsure why she tried to keep her steps weightless, but the uneasiness grew more assertive.
The prick of panic settled in the back of her mind like a whisper. Nava’s steps slowed down as she tried to understand what was happening. She stilled her hand, then extended it to the doorknob. The only sound other than the rain was her loud heartbeat.
Out of nowhere, a stab of pain rattled through her. Her soulmate mark was aching like someone had branded her with burning iron. A loud bang roared from downstairs, followed by the cracking of wood.
She couldn’t move and her vision blurred with tears as the scent of cayenne wafted around the room. Magic always carried a spicy note.
Devon, the member of the Society of Crows who attacked the village a year ago, had frozen her under a spell similar to this one in the middle of a battlefield.
Her body glowed as her magic awakened. Bees made of light formed over her skin, giving her the power to snap out of whatever had her frozen. She and Arkimedes were under attack. Her fingers twitched, and Nava focused her attention on them and closed her hand into a fist, grasping at the door and stabilizing her body weight on the frame.
Arkimedes had taught her earlier in the year how to battle a paralyzing spell by focusing on each part of her body and funneling her magic to it. Her muscles spasmed before she regained control.
She rushed down the stairs, her power around her like a shield. Candlelight illuminated the first floor. The sound of soft crackling came from the fireplace. The door that led to their garden swung with the loud wind from the storm outside.
Nava studied the space. The green glass of the bottle of wine on top of the wooden table mocked her. Her stomach churned.
Arkimedes. She tugged on their mating bond like a string, but panic tasted bitter in the back of her throat at the lack of response.
She ran past the threshold of the door and out into the rain. Her bare feet pounded the ground as she followed the pull toward him. Arkimedes held his head in his hands, kneeling and hunched over. A gasp of pain escaped his full lips. Her heart wrenched as she felt his pain vibrate through her body.
Their bond was aching, unable to contain this anguish any longer.
The darkness of the night veiled them, but she knew this area well and could roam it almost blindly. The scent of wet grass and summer rain enveloped her in a humid embrace, the tall trees of the Grey Forest their constant companions.
Nava was closer to him. His white knuckles tightened around his brown hair, pulling harder. “Ark—” She reached to him.
Arkimedes’s head snapped up, and his wild green gaze came upon her. “Stay back, bee.” He forced the words through tight lips. His handsome face was usually bright and healthy, but it had lost all its color.
Shadows of mist and smoke billowed around Arkimedes. It had to be the aura of his power. But these were wrong, like an evil presence of torture—ghosts made of dark magic and ancient, raw power.
Her heart lurched as an icy caress went down her spine, and she stopped panting for breath. Her body broke out in a thin layer of sweat. The aura around him resembled Arkimedes’s power when he was in a fight.
The smell of magic and a mix of smoke enveloped her. The weight of the shadows’ stony gazes made the hairs on her arms stand. Nava watched with horror as Arkimedes’s face contorted, his lips opening in a silent cry. She took a step closer, but he shook his head in a plea.
“No!"he shouted in her mind."Stay. Back. Nava.”
The bodies became sharper, almost taking the appearance of a human. Tall, with slim waists and broad shoulders, something wicked blooming behind their bodies. Wings. She couldn’t tell their shapes in the darkness of their yard, but the clear silhouette of feathers became apparent, so similar to Arkimedes’s.
She counted seven, maybe eight winged creatures who flickered in and out of focus. Her chest burned, and she tried to swallow the thickness that had formed in her throat and made it hard to breathe.
The tendrils of a dark spell approached her. They grew like a weed over the ground, fingers extending at a rapid pace. Nava took a few steps back as a distance buzzing tickled the edge of her mind.
She was quick on her feet, backing away, focusing upon her soulmate. The ache emanating through their bond distracted her.
The bees surrounded her, but for the first time since Nava had learned she was a Beekeeper, they did not offer relief.
