Page 46 of A Kiss of Embers
But the moment she thought his name, it fizzled out of her mind until her sole focus remained on the woman before her.
They fought in a dance of twisting blades and underhanded stabs. She blocked Ashryn’s next swipe by smashing her forearm against hers hard enough for the blade to fly out of her hands and clatter on the ground between two large boulders. She blocked the other arm and stabbed toward the woman’s unprotected side, but Ashryn twisted out of the way just in time.
Behind her, Pri gasped and sobbed, bringing her panicked attention away from the fight for mere seconds to find the girl bleeding through the fingers clutching at her throat. The distraction was enough for Ashryn to produce the spear from where it had rested against her back. She drew back with the weapon, and Seraphina’s eyes widened as she attacked with one of her knives. Though, she knew she wouldn’t hit her target before the spear pierced her chest.
“Ashryn, no!” Bastien screeched from across the river, and the other woman paused in her tracks. Seraphina couldn’t stop the momentum of her blade fast enough before it sank into Ashryn’s belly.
All the breath fled her lungs as Ashryn’s eyes widened, her hand flying to her stomach. The other woman yanked the dagger out and threw it to the ground moments before her legs collapsed beneath her.
Seraphina backed up, horrified at what she’d done, just as Bastien sprinted toward them.
She spun around and rushed to Pri’s side, where her sister now lay limp and unconscious. She sliced her dress at her knees with her remaining knife, bunched up the fabric, and pressed it to Pri’s throat. No sound escaped the child. Not even a grunt of pain.
“No, no, no!” she gasped, shaking her to try to wake her. Pri’s head flopped to the side, and another bout of panic raced through her when she thought she might be dead. But as she placed her fingers on the girl’s wrist, she managed to find a pulse. She was alive. But for how long?
“It was not supposed to happen like this!” Bastien cried, his voice cracking as he hefted Ashryn into his arms and held her close. “Why didn’t you wait for me?”
“You never told me where you were going!” Tears trailed down her face as she held Pri’s limp body in her arms, the cloth pressed tightly to her wound. She needed a healer. Otherwise, she feared Pri would pass away on the dry riverbed that had once held healing properties that could have saved her life.
She didn’t miss the look of absolute heartbreak he cast in her direction. And even in Ashryn’s delirious state, it seemed she didn’t either.
“Don’t leave like this,” she begged, but she knew he had no choice. Neither did she. The people they cared about were on their deathbeds, and they couldn’t stay any longer to tempt fate.
Bastien turned his back to her. “Goodbye, Seraphina.” His voice held a finality to it, a hollow permanentness that cut her to the core.
She watched with a heavy heart as he walked briskly away. “It’s emberweed poison,” she called out to him. “Do you know the cure?” He paused in his tracks and nodded his head once but didn’t turn around, even when she apologized. “I’m so sorry.”
And then he broke into a run and disappeared into a thicket of trees, racing out of sight and out of her heart. Because she knew he would never forgive her for what she had done.
She wasn’t sure she could ever forgive Ashryn, either.
Seraphina held Pri tightly as she stood, making sure to staunch the bleeding with the fabric the best she could. Before she could dwell on the heartache festering in her soul, she spread her wings and leaped into the sky, flying to her settlement as fast as they could carry her.
“I need a healer!” Seraphina shouted the moment she landed in Blackburrow and tucked her wings behind her back. Her two older brothers landed with her. One of them, Eben, took Pri from her. The other, Jude, waited for orders. “Secure the borders. No one outside the clan is to come onto our territory without my sole permission. Especially no one from Ebonywatch.”
Jude frowned as he fingered the hilts of his obsidian daggers strapped to his back. “What happened?”
Her brother followed as they rushed through the settlement, black leather creating a series of tents that ranged in size from small huts to enormous meeting houses. Her people exited their tents to watch them pass while wearing concerned expressions.
Lowering her voice, she answered, “Joram took me hostage. Tried to force me into a monogamous marriage with Zephyr to make him King. I managed to escape before the ceremony.”
“That idiot,” Jude growled, his attention turning to Pri’s limp form. “And what happened to our sister? Ugh, I knew I should have gone with you.”
“I had the situation handled. Until the end. I faced an…unforeseen hiccup.”
Bastien…
Never in a thousand years would she have imagined she would fall for a Forest Fae.
They rushed into a black tent made up of a series of leather flaps to separate the structure into divided rooms. Eben laid Pri onto a cot, and moving faster than someone his age ought to, the healer hurried to Pri’s side and began his administrations.
Her breath trembled with each exhale as she watched the healer work. He used a series of ointments on Pri’s neck until the bleeding promptly ceased. From this distance, she couldn’t tell how deep the cut was, but it was deep enough for stitches.
A sob escaped the blockage in her throat as Pri received treatment. Both Jude and Eben wrapped a comforting arm around her, always her rocks during the times she felt like a tempest might sweep her away.
But Jude didn’t stay, not when he still needed to secure the borders. And Eben left for several minutes, only to return with her two living fathers in tow. Each wrapped her in a bone-crushing embrace and helped the healer care for Pri.
They each loved Pri. Even though they weren’t her fathers. Did they know the truth? Or did they live in ignorance just like the rest of her clan?
