Page 14 of A Kiss of Embers
He attempted to spin around, but his surroundings swayed with the movement. In one moment, he stared at a dark forest. In the next, his body crashed to the ground as his limbs failed him.
His tongue refused to work as he attempted to cry out. His body lay limp even when he tried to lift himself from the ground.
A flutter of wings jolted his heart into a frenzy, but no matter how hard he tried to thrash, no matter how frantically he urged his hands to reach one of the weapons attached to his belt, he could do nothing but lay still like a man trapped beneath a guillotine.
A breath of wind caressed his face, followed by the faint sound of footsteps swallowed by the pine needles littering the ground. And then suddenly, the noise ceased altogether.
His breath faltered in his lungs as he took in a pair of bare ankles and followed the path up to a slender calf and then a knee. Legs.
And then he looked into the face of the woman with the attractive, shapely legs. Straight, black hair tumbled over her shoulders. Black-red lips matched the hue of her hair. Light green eyes with an orange flame-like center stared down at him with hatred burning in their depths.
Oh, shite!His lips tried to form the words, but they felt numb and useless. An Ember Fae. Not just any Ember Fae, but the Ember Queen judging by the small horns protruding from the side of her face and the patches of black scales that adorned her body like armor.
The orange ring in her light green eyes flickered and danced in tune with the fire now crackling through her fingers.
He attempted to struggle away from her, but his body refused to obey him, and his lips remained motionless. Rather, he found himself eyeing the flames casually dancing across her skin. A weapon capable of immense destruction.
A single bare foot kicked him onto his back and pressed against his chest, pinning him to the ground. The woman leaned closer until her hair brushed against his cheek. Heat burned his ear as she traced the pointed tip with her finger.
“Not quite Forest Fae. Not quite Sun Fae. You’re him. The chief’s heir.”
He might have laughed if his mouth could move, but all that managed to escape his throat was a strangled noise of mixed amusement and fear.
A grin pulled up on her red-black lips. “You are going to get me my little sister back.”
Then she pulled a dagger out of the belt cinched around her waist.
The blade moved lightning-quick as she stabbed him in the shoulder.
Strangled agony caught in his throat, unable to escape in the form of a cry but rather an unflattering garble. Tears of pain leaked from his eyes, the only response his body allowed with the Ember Fae’s poison inside him. Hardened eyes glared down at him as she pressed her fingers to his wound, inciting more agonized tears to trail down the sides of his face. Her fingers came back bloodied, which she promptly smeared across the grass beside him.
“Your friends can hear me.” The weight of her foot crushed his ribs further before she addressed the other two. “If you want your heir back, you will exchange him for my sister in our territory on the Burning Cliffs. If you hurt or kill her before the exchange…” Now her foot ground into his wounded shoulder. A shout escaped as a garbled moan. The fire in her eyes danced with hate. “I will torture him. And then I will end his life.”
With unnatural strength, she closed her fingers around his ankle and dragged him away from the others as if he weighed little more than a potato sack. He reckoned his blood smeared for several paces, at least until the fae woman spread her large wings and leaped into the air.
Bastien’s surroundings distorted with a stomach-churning dip as he dangled upside down. She methodically weaved around trees and through tangles of boughs, a tactic he recognized as trying to lose not only their scent but their tracks as well should someone spot his drops of blood.
He fought against the poison in his body with all his might but lost in the end when it continued to render him immoveable.
After several minutes of flying, the woman dipped suddenly, and he released a slurred cry moments before they both splashed into a frigid river. The only mercy she showed him was holding his head above the surface as the water’s icy claws dragged them downstream.
When his body shivered involuntarily, only then did she drag him back out of the river, down a grassy bank, and then stopped when they reached a small clearing. She dropped his leg and glared at him.
“Is my sister still alive?” she asked, black hair dripping with water to make it appear even darker.
His only response was a moan.
She sighed and knelt beside him. She unclasped the pouch on her belt, pulled out a smooth, black volcanic rock, and rubbed it along his head, face, and lips. His skin crawled with tingles, and then the numbness disappeared altogether. But only for his face.
“What in the blazes is wrong with you?” he coughed, wincing when the action tugged on the stab wound. “You did all this for the Ember Fae trapped behind the bars of our prison? I was her only ally. And now she has no one.”
“Quiet!” she hissed, anger blazing in her eyes at the mention of her sister.
But if his lips worked, he refused to remain quiet. “What do you think the council will do? Trade her for me?” He laughed, ignoring the stinging pain shooting through him. “You made a poor bet on me. I’m half-Forest Fae. Essentially an outcast in Attleglade. They won’t care to come after me.”
“No?” She leveled a pointed stare at him. “That girl will. The one snuggled up with the fae male. I sense a deep bond between the two of you. She’ll do whatever it takes to keep your life intact.”
Curses.
