Page 4 of The Curse of a Kingdom
With every step she took, her heartbeats became louder, the pounding of her headache increasing. The distance between Arkimedes and her was already affecting her.
The Commander held meetings during the day. She spotted him from afar, his long salt-and-pepper hair pulled up into a bun, his skin golden from being under the sun. He wore a forest-green linen shirt and sat at a table in front of the largest building in town, the Commissary. As he listened to the first person in line, he crossed his leg over, nodding every so often.
Roman wasn’t alone. Next to him was one of the law enforcement recruits who protected the village. Nava jogged to him, and her quick steps alerted them to her approach. Everyone was still on edge, even though it had been a year since Devon’s attack.
Roman’s rum-colored eyes met hers; his brow deepened as he took her in. “Nava, is there something wrong?” he asked, rising to his feet. He studied her face and then his eyes traveled down her body.
“The Dark Ones took Arkimedes last night.”
His face lost its color as he rounded the table to meet her. “What do you mean?”
The heaviness in her throat settled and her limbs grew numb. “They came to our home, and they kidnapped him. I need to find him. Arkimedes once told me he traced his kin to the Copper Kingdom. I know you are from there. I—”
“Nava, I can’t just go back there.” Roman’s brows pinched in the middle.
Her body broke into a sweat. “Why? I— We have to find him.”
“To do what?” He pressed his lips together tightly, his hand going over his face. “It was always going to happen. I told her they’d come for him.”
“You told who what?” A spike of nausea hit her in a wave that built up and weakened her stance. Light-headed with the information she could not follow, Nava swallowed thickly and took a step closer to the man. “It doesn’t matter. We need to go.”
Roman’s lips tightened. “I can’t leave the town, and even if I could, we wouldn’t make it there in time. It will take us months to travel there by boat. My small force here won’t stand a chance against the Copper Kingdom’s army. The king hates me, Nava. If I step foot in that kingdom, not only will Arkimedes die, but so will anyone who comes with me.”
Drops of sweat scoured her skin, and her world closed in. She steeled her back. Bees were coming to her in her panicked state, swarming with a loud buzz.
Roman looked to the darkening sky and swallowed. “Nava, please calm down. I can’t go with you," he repeated. "We need the defense against any potential residual attacks. You know that.”
They did. The village had been getting attacked in the subsequent months since Devon’s arrival. The soldiers who’d escaped had traveled to the West Village—finding allies among the wicked. No one was impervious to the kingdom’s gold.
She swallowed but pressed on. “There is much more than our lives at stake.”
Not that she didn’t understand his point. To him, it was just two people in an entire town. She didn’t want to divulge that their destiny was greater than politics and wars. It was even more significant than her love for her soulmate.
“If it was on this island, we would lift every rock to find him. But this is across oceans. To a force stronger than what I offer.”
She drew a step back. “I will find another way.”
* * *
It wasn’t a grand plan. There was one other person in the world she knew who had knowledge about Arkimedes’s past and power beyond what was expected from a sorcerer, however scary he was. Devon Black had been a brother to Arkimedes once upon a time, and he was her only other choice.
She walked toward the building that held the prisoners. It was an asymmetrical construction built inside an ancient tree. The trunk was hollow but reinforced with many layers of magic.
Nava peeked from behind a home as the guards chatted in front of the rusted iron gate. Lunch hour crept in, and it always took them a few minutes for their replacements to come back. Arkimedes complained about this lacking system often, mentioning there would be a time someone would break in. Roman’s answer was always to say no prisoner could escape on their own.
She swallowed, trying to keep herself from fading as her legs and arms turned heavy with the passing time. The soul bond affected every inch of her body with each breath she took, demanding to be near her mate. The Copper Kingdom had to be much farther than she’d originally thought.
Nava had to make it inside the building somehow and then find Devon’s cell. Arkimedes had visited him often, ever since they moved to town. Her soulmate seldom spoke on the matter with her; she supposed it was normal since she wasn’t Devon’s biggest fan.
The bees hadn’t stopped circling her body ever since she’d left Roman’s company. Nava could sense Ari nearby, waiting for her to do the most stupid thing she’d ever done in her life. Judging by her failing health, there was little time to come up with a third idea.
The guards, one man and one woman, walked away, their long gray tunics billowing with each step they took. The male's laughter trailed behind, masking the sounds of their heels over the stone ground of their path. Nava took a steadying breath and followed their retreat. After what she was about to do, she would forever be the enemy.
Her home for the last few months, the only place she’d ever fit in. She pressed her lips together tightly and allowed herself to wallow and then ran toward the building.
The heavy gates were unlocked, and they screeched as she lifted the lever and pulled it wide enough to squeeze through the hole. This would be a perfect opportunity to use her transferring Beekeeper spell if she wasn’t feeling so weak.
Nava had transferred once before, only a few feet.
