Page 20 of A Kiss of Embers
One of the vines dug through his open chest and cut his heart from his body, squeezing it in front of his face.
Fading…fading…fading…
Darkness pulled him beneath the waves of consciousness, but instead of the pain dispersing, agony continued to course through him like a curse that refused to break.
And then he started falling through the ground. No matter how hard he willed his broken body to clutch onto tree roots or fallen leaves, it refused to obey him.
He landed hard on compact earth before dirt rained over his head, burying him alive.
It covered his lower half and then his chest, followed by his face. Panic clawed through his open chest as he fought for breath. But the dirt was too heavy, and all he managed to do was choke.
Bastien gasped in a sudden gust of air, his chest heaving as his eyes snapped open.
His gaze darted around frantically as he tried to make sense of his environment. Forest trees surrounded him in the morning light, creating a protective barrier between him and the terrifying creatures lurking within the woods. The scent of earth and pine wafted beneath his nostrils with each inhale of breath. The pop and crackle of logs brought his attention to the flames billowing upward several paces away.
And behind those flames…
Green eyes stared at him, the expression behind them showing no emotion, only guarded emptiness. The woman’s legs were crossed, her dress falling to the side to reveal the long slit that reached her upper thigh.
Weariness flushed through his body, and he glanced down to find himself still intact. His heart beat within his chest. His ears were no longer stuffed with vines. Breath entered shaky lungs and exited as tremoring rasps.
He was alive.
Warm moisture dripped down the side of his face, and he tried to move an arm to find out if it was tears or blood. But his body was once again completely immobile.
With his head turned to one side, more warm moisture dripped from the corner of his eye and over the bridge of his nose before plopping on the ground.
Tears, he decided.
And he couldn’t stop them no matter how hard he tried.
“I thought you said you wouldn’t torture me,” he mumbled as a frosty breath escaped his mouth despite the fire billowing before him. Autumn lurked around the corner, and the nights were getting colder. His entire body shivered, whether from the images still haunting his mind or from the morning chill, he wasn’t sure.
“You attempted to kill me,” Seraphina replied after several moments of silence. “I think I was well within my rights to protect myself by any means necessary.” Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted her holding up a silver and black woven band around her finger to the light of the sun. An onyx gem rested in the middle of the jewelry, soaking in the sunlight like wet hair desperate to dry.
“Of course, I tried to kill you.” He coughed, flinching when he expected excruciating pain to jolt through his lungs. But it didn’t. Rather, only a deep ache burned his shoulder. “You said you planned to kill me eventually.”
The woman smirked. “No loose ends. I’m sure you would do the same in my place. Down with the queen, no? Or, in your case, down with the heir.”
He snorted and turned his head away—the only thing he could move. The tears on his face turned with him, and he only wished he could swipe them away rather than put them on blatant display.
“You know nothing of our culture if you think they would let me sit in the chieftain’s chair. I would meet an untimely ‘accident’ long before then.”
Her hand dropped to her side as she returned her stare toward him. “Then I’m glad I didn’t ransom you to the council but rather to your friend.” A glowing amber surrounded the pupil of her eye like the fire separating them. “At least you matter tosomeone.”
He remained quiet instead of engaging her. It seemed she was intent on dragging him the entire way to the Burning Cliffs because she refused to give him even an arm back. And if she was planning on stubbornly keeping him as her limp potato sack, then he planned to annoy her until she snapped.
By any means necessary.
He adopted an air of levity rather than one of hatred and disdain. “It’s a shame you have to resort to dragging me across the entire forest. It would be much easier if you at least gave me the use of my legs.”
The woman tipped her head and gave him a pointed look. “And offer you a chance to either run or strangle me with your thighs this time? I’d be a fool.”
Smoke drifted into the sky, followed by ahissas she extinguished the flames, and he watched them with longing as they disappeared. The frigid morning chill seeped into his crusty, bloodied clothes. The wound must not have been deep. Otherwise, the bleeding would have been worse. But he still feared infection. If he could only find an antiseptic plant to help ward it off…
But as he glanced around the immediate vicinity, he found nothing other than a few clusters of wildflowers and several patches of vines climbing through the earth and scaling the trees.
He tried to shy away from the vines, but his body refused to move.
