Page 44 of Bound to the Shadow Queen
My ring flared as if it wanted me to answer him. Or perhaps it flared because it wanted me to return to her. Her crystal-blue eyes flashed in my mind, shadowed by thick navy lashes.The ring flared again, another tug of the ever-present chain that connected me to the liar in my bed.
I resisted its pull and forced the thought of her away. She was alive. For now. She was safe, but the kingdom was not. The frostbeasts were bleeding it dry.
Today, those monsters would learn fear. And they would learn it from me.
Everly
It was nearlyan hour before the ice around the door began to thaw. An endless, pain-staking hour of infinite questions that came without any answers.
The hallmark of my life.
As exhausted as I was, I couldn’t stop my mind from racing over and over the scattered memories of the cave, and wondering what in the hells was happening with my clan now that I was gone.
Did they think that I was dead? That I had left? Had anyone been left alive in that cave, and if they were, what the hells kind of stories were they telling now?
I ran my trembling fingers through the tangles in my hair, each one catching like another question that tugged painfully at my skull.
Would my uncle come looking for me again?
If they found the cave, did they see all the blood I’d left behind? Was my mother burning the wisteria for me in truth this time?
Bile coated my throat.
I even thought about Kaelen, whether he was alive. Whether he knew his brother was a sadistic predator. Had there evenbeen a small part of him that knew what Kyros had planned that night?
But before I could begin to go down that road, the faint scrape of metal pulled my attention toward the door. Like the sound of a chain scraping against stone.
I froze.
Draven’s mana had receded from the palace around the time his ice melted away from the doors, and even if it hadn’t, he would never use a key for his own rooms.
Golden eyes flashed through my mind. A sadistic grin. The smell of ancient stone and blood. So much blood.
I shot up in bed just as a pale green figure slipped into the room, a key in one hand and a steaming tray of food in the other.
It took me a moment to reconcile the male. Eyes and hair like forest moss, pale green skin like Spring grass. A neutral expression, if not almost kind.
Not Kyros.
Healer Amias.
He must have come to check on me. Logically, I knew that.
And yet, it didn’t stop my heart from drumming so loudly against my chest, I was sure it would break through.
I fisted my trembling hands in the blanket, trying not to let on about the sheer and unreasonable terror that had overtaken me at something as simple as the turning of a key in the lock.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty,” he said in his gentle tone, his deep green eyes widening. “I should have announced myself. I am more accustomed to taking patients in the infirmary.”
I nodded my head, not yet trusting myself to speak.
He took a careful step forward, his eyes watching me cautiously, like I was some woodland creature he was afraid of startling. Which was fair, all things considered.
But as he drew closer, the scent of warm, rich food curled through the air, making my mouth water. My stomach betrayedme with a loud, humiliating growl. Or perhaps it should have been, if I could still feel things like humiliation or shame.
Amias grinned, setting the tray across my lap. Bone broth sloshed gently around the ceramic bowl, darkened with herbs and cracked pepper. Steam curled along the surface in soft ribbons, and plump dumplings bobbed like pale moons.
The last time I’d eaten, Kaelen had been beside me, torchlight from the dining hall catching in his golden eyes.
