Page 2 of The Curse of a Kingdom
Nava was losing sight of Arkimedes behind the shapes of her insects.
No,no.She pushed her hand through the shield that enveloped her. Bees covered every inch of her body, constricting her movements. Her power blinded her, even as it tried to protect her from harm. But she didn’t want this—she wanted to see Arkimedes, to help him.
Nava waved her arms around, the scorching sensation in her soulmate mark intensifying. The bees lifted her body in the air. The buzzing grew louder as a desperate cry left her lips. Was Ari controlling the bees? Was the second Beekeeper nearby? “Arkimedes!”
The bees uncovered her face, and the humid air of the summer night hit her skin. From the ground below, his face lifted, staring at her with pained eyes.
And then he was gone, disappearing in a billow of mist.
“No!” she gasped, and heat spread through her veins and her skin. The bees flew away from her body, and she dropped a few feet down. She landed poorly, but even as she stumbled, a deep hollow pain in her chest grew like a festering wound, making it hard to breathe.
Nava made it to where Arkimedes had been but a few moments ago. The weight of his body depressed the grass. She dropped to her knees and ran her fingers over the blades of grass. They were warmer than the cool ground. He had been here, and they had taken him away from her.
She heard something land behind her, but she didn’t need to turn around to see it was the creature who was bound to her and Arkimedes. Aristaeus’s presence had become second nature. Her friend, companion, and the first Beekeeper.
“He is gone,” he said.
She lifted her head, and the raindrops were warm in contrast to her icy skin. Her chest seized as tears ran down her face. “Where?”
“The Dark Ones’ kingdom, I presume.”But she couldn’t form a cohesive idea as she gasped for air like she was drowning. Aristaeus tilted his head, wood groaning at the movement. “Sleep, dearest one.”
The hard sticks that were his fingers wrapped around her shoulder, the touch numbing. Her vision became spotted and the stale taste in her mouth was replaced by the sweetness of honey, and then there was darkness.
* * *
Nava squinted in the warm morning light. The storm had passed, giving way to a sunny morning.
The shapes of trees and twisty branches hung above her. Her body ached from sleeping on a bed of leaves. Nava sat up and took in her appearance. Her white cotton nightgown was stained with greens and browns. Mud crusted her bare legs and feet.
It wasn’t her appearance or the fact that she’d slept outside that gave her pause, but the sinking inside her chest. The slow ache reminded her of all that had happened the night before.
Nava brought her shaky hand over her soulmate mark. Her chest caved in, and the wrecked sound that escaped her lips was empty. Not a dream. The shadows had taken Arkimedes.
She stared at a lost point between the trees as her body shook with the intensity of her sobs. The sparse grass made the puddles more visible.
Her body was numb and heavy like lead. She had not an ounce of energy to move, and her thoughts were muddled. From her vantage point, the movement between the trees called to her.
Ari’s wooden frame appeared in front of her, thick trunks and branches covered in lichen and moss. He took her in with a gentle, ebony gaze. It was hard to read his expressions since he was a creature made of wood. But the underlying pain through their strange bond was present.
He’d used his magic to put her to sleep the night before. Had settled her on this pile of garden brush that Cameron had refused to throw away before he left for his travels with Gavin and Violet.
Her younger brother had taken an immediate liking to both sorcerers as soon as they’d moved to the village earlier in the spring. It had surprised Nava that Violet liked children. For someone who’d been so standoffish the entire time they’d traveled together, she had warmed up to her younger sibling rather fast.
“You put me to sleep.” Her voice sounded broken to her ears, wobbling at the end.
“You were about to faint, and my magic has numbing qualities that would allow you to rest.”
Nava rushed to sit down, and the hard edges of wooden sticks buried into her back and sides. “We should’ve followed the Dark Ones. Find Arkimedes and help him. I didn’t need to sleep, Ari.”
The Beekeeper tilted his head, slowly blinking. “And how were we supposed to? Did you master your transporting skills overnight?”
Her Beekeeper had been spending too much time with her little brother. His sarcasm levels had shot to the sky during the past few months.
Nava took a deep, calming breath. “I don’t need the attitude right now,” she huffed. “You know I haven’t mastered it yet.” It was imperative she learn to harness her Beekeeper’s magic and transport, the way Ari could move around the forests. Magic connected them to nature, and thus they could become part of it. She rubbed her chest, going over the memories of the night before. Something came up. “Yesterday, you said you presumed he was in the Dark Ones’ kingdom?”
The Dark Ones—the name people liked to call Arkimedes, the reason the entire town had was so afraid of him months ago when she and Ark had been in the village for the first time, battling Devon’s army.
Arkimedes had once told her that everyone else but her always saw him surrounded by his power. Something wicked and dark. She hadn’t understood what that would look like. Why would people be so afraid? Today, she knew better.
