Page 106 of The Curse of a Kingdom
The king’s jaw tightened, and his bright blue eyes met hers from the side. “This is impossible. You shouldn’t be able to do magic. The bracelets are active. I can sense their magic. The only way they wouldn’t is if . . .”His eyes widened, at a loss for words. He lifted the two keys hanging from a pale twine and threw it across the room to where Arkimedes was.
When Ark’s eyes met hers across the king’s shoulder, her body was inundated with a warm swirling sensation that took over. Something that felt a lot like awe and a touch of adoration made her stomach swoop.
He took a deep breath and reached for the keys with a shaky hand before struggling to get on his two feet, his black wings disappearing from view a moment later.
“What are you planning to do, Orion? Run away and forsake our whole kingdom again?” the king asked.
“We didn’t forsake the kingdom, Father. You did.” Arkimedes’s lips tightened into a thin line as he wiped his shiny forehead and took a step toward the door, his gaze never deviating from her. “You won’t chase after us, and you will stop trying to kill Nava.”
Devon appeared in the doorframe, holding his sword high. Arkimedes backed away in his direction and handed him the key, which he used to remove the bracelet from his pale wrist.
The jewel hadn’t finished hitting the marble ground when the air crackled with static and a black portal started to form next to the Crow. Like a dot of spilled ink suspended in midair.
“Orion.” The king’s distressed voice broke the silence, and Nava held him tighter, the blade biting his skin deeper. “You can’t leave us with the Zorren at our doorsteps.”
The Zorren. She hadn’t forgotten about those, even if the king had chosen to ambush his son instead of fighting them today.
“We will be in touch,” Arkimedes said just as the portal became large enough for them to walk into it. Devon crossed it first, and the whole circle shook with energy, closing a fraction. Her soulmate stared at her, and she knew by the stubborn set of his jaw that he wouldn’t leave with her still so close to the king.
Her body became lighter as her legs floated in the air, then her body and her arms, and just as her fingers started to become transparent, the king turned to her, his face pale.
“What are you?”
A Beekeeper, a sorceress—his son's soulmate.
Nava brought her face a bit closer to his ear, riding the wave of adrenaline still running through her. It was time he knew who he had been trying to kill. “If the queen’s tree is anything to go by, I’m the future queen of this kingdom,” she said before she disappeared, rushing toward the closing portal.
The whole room went dark, ink and mist exploding in the air as Arkimedes crossed the portal, but none of the king’s concubines’ powers hit her transferring body.
“Stop!” The king’s voice echoed in the room, and she didn’t know if it had been directed at her or his women. The portal narrowed to just the size of her hand, and the wind picked up speed, pushing her across the black hole before it snapped close.
* * *
The shadow land was empty and quiet, like all life and sound was sucked away from a never-ending room. Nava’s shapelessness morphed back into her body, and soon it wasn’t all quiet, but her fast breathing was almost as deafening as the pouncing of her heartbeat.
Floating with no gravity, she blinked, and the glow of her skin illuminated her surroundings. Moats of particles hung in the air, and a faint scent of smoke wrapped around her like a cold hug.
“Beekeeper.” The voice was like the drop of melting ice on her skin. His voice held pent-up emotion. A mixture of mischief—or was it excitement? A long shape of a creature—no, it wasn’t a monster or a demon, but a man—came closer.How could he walk in such a place where bodies weighed nothing?
His shifting expression was confusing. Her stomach churned with dread, and she knew she had to leave there as soon as possible. When she crossed this land before, there had been two entities, the one who’d claimed his prize, her memories . . . and this one. The one whose touch burned.
The closer he got to her, the clearer his face became with the glow of her skin. His features changed to the man she loved. It was the same wide nose, the shape of thick lips and bushy brows. His alabaster skin was jarring with the color—or lack thereof—and his moonlight hair hung down his back, swaying as he stepped closer, long like the king she had been fighting but a moment ago.
She flailed in her spot, trying to move away from this man, floating a few inches as he advanced to her. He looked like her soulmate, but he was her worst nightmare. Panic gripped her throat.
“Nava? Nava . . . ? Where the hell is she, Devon?”
She heard Arkimedes's voice from somewhere nearby. A small hole crackled in the distance and was closing. At first she hadn’t seen it because, on the other side, it was still dark, except for the distant lights of a city.
Her skin broke out into a cold sweat as this other entity pursued her. She had forgotten she was supposed to be crossing, not staying here. The soft, earthy scent of her magic spiked as she moved with swimming strokes over the air, and the creature—man—began to run toward her.
He was fast, but she was so close. Her skin tingled the closer she got to Arkimedes, the real one. The city behind him became so clear and large, she could smell the faint scent of dew and food in the air.
“I don’t think so, Beekeeper.” A hand wrapped around her arm, thin long fingers coated in a charcoal layer. A scream escaped her lips as an agonizing, bone-melting ache ran through her arm
Her eyes watered as she focused on that lovely face she knew so well, but up close, his features were wrong, wrinkled and translucent like an old piece of wax paper. She focused on her trembling body, her racing heart, then took a sharp breath and brought her own hand on top of his.
She was fed up with these white-haired men trying to suffocate her. Her magic blazed through her veins, and he hissed, ripping his hand away from her. A flash of branches formed over his fingers, much too similar to the way the Zorren had become a tree that day she, Aristaeus, and Arkimedes was in the forest.
