Page 276 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“I guess they won’t fight anymore now,” Dajan commented.
“...Keep searching,” Kassein muttered in a broken voice.
Now he knew why Alezya had been up there. She’d dug out the man responsible for this war. She had killed her father, the one responsible for all this, the one who’d caused her so much hurt. But at what cost?
Kassein glanced up, his heart turning to stone as he contemplated the height. The horrible, gaping height from which her father’s body had fallen.
Suddenly, a sound reached his ear, immediately followed by Kein’s louder growl above. Kassein blinked, staring at the snow, wondering if he had hallucinated when he heard it again.
A high-pitched, weak sound.
“...Niiru,” he muttered.
Kassein threw himself into the snow, scooping and pushing through armfuls of ice and rocks. His fingers were turning purple from the cold and painfully numb. His arms were gradually covered in bronze scales, but he ignored all of it and kept digging, his heart in his throat.
Niiru’s weak whines were scarily faint. Kassein realized he was shaking violently, but he wasn’t sure if it was the cold or fear; it felt like a block of ice had settled in his stomach while a dangerous blend of despair and hope kept him moving. Tears were pricking his eyes too, but he ignored it all, the pain and the fear, and he kept going.
It felt like miles of snow between him and the baby dragon’s wails despite all the men who were also digging around him.
The snow was turning into slush at their feet, slowly licking their ankles, but they didn’t stop.
Finally, Kassein’s fingers grazed something more solid, and he froze. He kept digging more cautiously, and a little bundle of black scales appeared, trapped between two cold, white limbs. His heart stopped.
He forced himself to take one breath in and dug even further, cautiously sweeping the snow off her arms and shoulders. Finally, her face appeared. Kassein let out a strangled sound. Her eyes were closed, her expression incredibly serene, like she was sleeping. He pulled more of the snow that was trapping her, and eventually, her limp body slowly fell into his arms; Alezya didn’t react.
She had never been so pale nor so cold. His hand that was holding her head returned covered in blood, and only then did he notice the gash on her head, the blood soaking her dark hair.
“Call a medic!” Dajan shouted. “C-Commander, is she alive?”
Was she? She looked so pale and so cold, but it took Kassein a second to realize that Alezya had turned white not because of snow or cold but because her entire body was covered in thin white scales. Every bit of her limbs had turned reptilian, cold and rigid. He had never seen this amount of scales on someone before. He forced himself to check her body, his trembling fingers moving very cautiously. She’d fallen from the same height as her father, but because of the scales, it was hard to assess the damage. The wound on her head was horrifying, but it was the only obvious one, and the sight of her blood made Kassein sick.
“We should take her to–”
“Don’t touch her,” Kassein growled, his instincts taking over.
He could barely think; the sight of that wound on her head and the stillness of her body was dragging him down into a pit of darkness. He felt numb and terrified, and nothing but hisinstincts could make him move at that very moment. Kassein couldn’t think, he couldn’t formulate a single thought, but he knew he didn’t want anyone touching her. She was his. It didn’t matter what was left; she was his. And like a dragon, he guarded his treasure, threatening anyone who came near to take her away from him.
Very slowly and cautiously, moving his arms as little as possible, he gently put her down and lay next to her, his warm and large body shielding hers. He ignored the voices around them, his confused men, and those who looked with pity in their eyes. He heard, but he didn’t care what it looked like. What Alezya looked like. And he didn’t want to think about that. He didn’t want to think about anything.
All he wanted to do was lie there, next to her, and wait. He would wait, no matter how long. He would wait.
“Kassein, what–”
His sister’s voice trailed off as she came to an audible halt somewhere nearby, and gasped.
“Fuck,” she hissed. “Is... Is she...?”
“We don’t know. He-... The Commander wouldn’t let us come near...”
Kiera let out a long exhale.
“...Leave them alone.”
“But–”
“With that wound on her head, it’s either too late, or there’s nothing we can do. We shouldn’t move her at all. Just... leave them there. Focus on the tribes and ensuring their surrender. We’ve got plenty to do already. Report everything to me and the generals. I need to hear how many men we lost and the state of the medical unit. Did you round up the surviving tribe leaders? Make sure Darak’s body is somewhere they can see.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
