Page 47 of The Princesses of Ruin
Iksah chitters and rubs his mouth against the top of Ahnkeen’s thorax. His thoughts are fast and pained, pleading even. My throat tightens as he begs his love not to make him choose.
“There is no future for you here. You and the child will die.”
“I do not want a future without you.”Iksah moans, rubbing himself against Ahnkeem harder. The smaller spider nuzzles into him, smearing liquid from his mouth onto Iksah’s pedipalp.
With the two preoccupied, I snatch another pair of leaves from the medicine bundle with my spindles and shove them in my mouth.Relief from physical agony is instant. This herb is most certainly getting its own greenhouse. I stuff several more of the leaves into my pouch for later analysis.
Ahnkeem pushes the bundle of softly pulsing silk in the cradle of his legs to Iksah.“Find a way to live, please.”
“As long as the child lives, I will.”Iksah accepts the bundle and the two embrace over it.
Finally, Iksah turns to me and reaches out with a forelimb.“I will carry the man, and you will carry the child. It must stay warm. I will give you Sheesahng’s fangs, and you will feed the child. You will care for the child if I expire. If you betray me, your mate will die.”
White magic encircles his leg and rests on the hook of his foot. Even in my shit state, I recognize it for what it is.
A god-bond.
Only beings of powerful magic can make them, and deviation from the pact swiftly enacts the consequences.
If we can’t replicate the venom, Zane will die.
If we don’t get the venom, everyone will die.
Iksah pushes closer.“Agreed?”
My heart grows heavy. I didn’t want to condemn him to my fate…I didn’t want anyone else to suffer, but this is the only way.
I grasp his leg in my bloody hand.
“Agreed.”
Chapter seventeen
Alastair
“Fuck, fuckity, fucking ballsacks!” Liliana shouts at the freezing wind.
Her voice is muffled by the wrap around her face, but I can sense the words clearly. They are her favorite, after all. I wish I could pull her close, but we have many more leagues to fly.
We used modified harnesses based on Kazimir’s design for Alyse to carry our companions and supplies, though I am carrying the lion’s share. Liliana’s wings are too new, too fragile. Adrik is enough of a burden as he is.
I throw another ward out in front of me, blocking a punishing gust and pushing it below us. Captain Alejandra shivers against my chest as she clutches the supplies hanging off her front.
“How do you do that?” she asks, her teeth chattering.
“Do what?” My voice is deep and rough, making Alejandra shiver again, as my bestial presence usually does—save for with Lily.
“Use rune-script like that?”
Visions of Liliana splashing me with water at our camp play in my mind, wiping out the wall of white before us. She pulls and pushes, the soaked tent canvas getting drier with every flick of her fingers.
She told me how she did it, but her reasoning didn’t make any sense. It didn’t feel right. It took me several weeks of scribing midair to find a method that suited me.
“I envision that the world is a canvas, and I’m a painter.”
Alejandra laughs. “She said…you were a poet.”
She’s freezing. Liliana must be, too.
