Page 6 of Queen of the Wildwood
I stared at him, gaze roaming over the lines of his face. I moistened my lips with my tongue. “I have no other choice.”
He shook his head, eyes haunted yet unrelenting. “We always have a choice, and yours should be to find another way.”
I trembled under his gaze, under his touch. When he lifted a hand and brushed my black hair out of my eyes, my heart pounded so hard I thought he might hear it. His finger lingered on my cheek, trailing a line down to my neck. His gaze flickered from my eyes to my mouth, as though asking permission to kiss me. I opened my mouth to respond and felt something bite down on my foot.
Panic seized me, and I slammed my palms into Aelbrin’s chest, shoving him away from danger. Waves of magic poured out of my fingers, blasting into the creature whose jaws clamped down on my ankle. Hot pain rippled through me as the creature let go with a hiss, but it was too late.
I growled when I saw the snake, thick as my arm with a diamond-shaped head as big as my hand. A chant rose in my mind, and my lips moved soundlessly. My fingers curled, twisting the snake into knots.
“No,” I faintly heard Aelbrin’s strangled cry.
My ankle throbbed as I lifted a rock and smashed it on the adder’s head. When I faced Aelbrin he stared, slack-jawed.
He scraped his fingers through his disheveled hair, making the ends stand up even more. “What have you done?” he whispered.
I glared from him to the dead snake. “Don’t tell me this was your pet.”
I’d heard of such oddities; the wild creatures of the wood would tame poisonous and dangerous beasts to do their bidding.
Aelbrin shook his head. “Not mine, the Dark Queen’s. She will demand payment in exchange for his death.” His eyes went cold, lost in a fated horror.
“I am aware, but it is still my choice,” I protested.
“We will worry about that when the time comes.” His gaze trailed down to my bare leg. “For now, we need to worry about you.
Weariness overcame me, and I suddenly felt faint. I reached for the nearest tree because the explosion of magic had exhausted my already spent body.
Aelbrin pressed his hand to my waist to steady me. “Listen. Night falls quickly in the woods. We should seek shelter before the orc-kind take over. My watch post is not far from here, and the Dark Queen does not expect my report for a few more days. Let’s rest there and get rid of the venom.”
I wanted to disagree. We should press on so I could save the villagers as soon as possible. But another wave of tiredness passed over me, and my vision went fuzzy.
The poison. I needed to draw it out of the wound before it spread through my entire body.
I lifted two fingers. “Do you have a knife?”
His grip on my waist tightened, and his lips turned down into a frown. “Are you mad? If we cut open the wound here, we are done for. The creatures of the night hide in the shade. Once they smell your, you will be finished. We need to make for shelter.”
“But the venom will set in,” I protested. I attempted to push him away, but my limbs shook with weakness.
“Your magic is spent,” he said gently.
Before I could object, his powerful hands swept me up into his arms, and he set off through the forest.
The poison affected my vision. I knew we traveled uphill and at one point. Aelbrin began to climb, his breath coming hard and fast as he worked. The corded muscles in his back moved under my hand, and a surge of emotion. I wanted down. It was inappropriate to travel in a man’s arms and went against everything I’d learned from the Sisters of the Light.
My willpower faded when we reached a hidden cave and ducked behind the branches of a willow tree to enter. Somewhere, I thought I heard the music of water, perhaps a nearby creek.
Aelbrin placed me on a pallet and set to work. He opened my wound, bled out the venom, and closed it with an herbal paste. I lay still, eyes too heavy to open even a sliver, lulled by rough fingers softly caressing my face.
“Sleep, my beauty,” Aelbrin whispered, his voice so close I felt the heat of it on my lips.
Without a fight, I surrendered to his command.
Chapter 4
The whispering sound of music woke me. I jerked, struggling to sit up. My gaze tore around the room, and then I recognized it, the gentle, aching lullaby.
I pushed heavy blankets away, noting the cool air, and pulled the cloak more securely around me. When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw Aelbrin. He sat at the edge of the cave at an angle that allowed him to watch both me and the outside. His eyes glowed faintly in the dark, like those of a wild cat. He held something long in his hands, and when he put it to his mouth, that low tune came out again, a mournful melody. A prayer. A wish.
