Page 55 of Wicked Prince of Shadows
I tried to speak, to offer comfort, but my words failed. What could I say?
Baza picked Osric up then. Osric twisted around to keep his eye on me, then Baza surged upward, wings flaring. Five of the guards went with him, their downbeats sending up a rush of dirt and debris that struck and hissed against the tablets.
My head sagged, breath rattling in my chest. “Don’t want him to see. Or hear.” Each slurred word was an effort, scraping out of me raw and uneven.
“I know,” Vetle’s voice dropped low. His shadows coiled tighter around my thigh, cold and solid, ready as soon as Osric was out of the way. His hand cupped my cheek, his thumb pressing against my lips. It actually felt warm this time. “He won’t. The palace has been secured within. He’ll be safe.”
“How bad—” I tried to ask.
He shushed me. “The garden is all but destroyed. Most of our food stores as well. But we will survive. That includes you.” Hecast one more look up into the sky, then drew in a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
His shadows pressed tight into all of my wounds, focusing on my thigh.
Pain exploded through me, white-hot and vicious. I screamed, my body arching off the ground. It felt like ice and fire at once, like his shadows were burrowing into my flesh, sealing it from the inside out.
“I know. I know it hurts.” Vetle’s tone had shifted—still stern, but there was a thrum of desperation beneath it. His hand slid beneath my head, cradling it close against his chest as if he could absorb some of the pain. “Stay with me, Sabine. Don’t fade. Keep your eyes on me.”
I clawed weakly at his shoulders, my teeth clamped so tight my jaw ached. The storm raged above, lightning streaking across the sky, but all I could see was him. His face framed in shadow, stitches tugging along his jaw, eyes bright and desperate.
Another wave of pain crashed through me, shattering my voice.
"That's it," he murmured. "Keep fighting. Keep your eyes open."
The shadows worked deeper, and I could feel them moving inside the wounds, sealing the veins shut to prevent further blood loss.
The remaining eight guards formed a tighter perimeter around us, their weapons at the ready.
The shadows finished sealing the worst of it, leaving me trembling and drenched in sweat, but alive.
Vetle exhaled, harsh and shaking. Then, without warning, his arms swept beneath me. One slid behind my shoulders, the other beneath my knees, trying not to jar the wounds that were still wrapped in his shadows. His chest was hard and steady beneath my cheek, his heartbeat pounding against my skin.
“I’ve got you, little thorn,” he whispered, his breath brushing my temple, then his lips. “You’re safe now. I’ll never let you go.”
My chest tightened and warmed at the kiss on my brow. Something was off though. I couldn’t let him take me back to the palace yet. “Vetle?—”
“Don’t talk.” He stood, wings spreading wide, commanding the guards with a single flick of his gaze. “We’re going to Rasoul. Move.”
I clutched at his sleeve. “N—no.” Something was off, something wrong about what had happened. We’d stopped right in front of the tablets, and the vines hadn’t killed Osric or me though they had the chance, even after the deathbeaks stopped them. The storm had stopped now too.
“No?” He scowled, tilting his head. “You’re delirious. We have to get you back before we’re attacked again. It isn’t safe out here.”
Something had happened. Driven the creatures into the garden. Dragged us out. This was the second time I had wound up bloodied and battered by these tablets.
As he started to carry me up the slope, I strained. “Vetle,” I mumbled, struggling to speak. I pointed at the tablets. “Take me—take me there. Tablets. Need to see.”
He scowled, his arms and shadows tightening around me. “Sabine?—”
“Please!” I swallowed hard, fighting for consciousness. “There’s something—something happened. I thinkitwanted us to be here.”
“It?” He echoed me, then looked around as if wondering whether I was speaking out of my mind from blood loss.
“Please.” My fingers tightened in his robe.
He nodded then and carried me over to the tablets. They were mostly as they were on the parchment—except half of the bottom three scenes was buried. “Sediment.” I forced the wordout. “Thousands years. Sediment. Builds up each year. Hides the rest.”
Vetle’s head canted. Using his boot, he cleared some of it away. The packed earth did not give easily. He grunted, then he gestured with his head to the guards, his arms cradling me tight to his chest. “Two of you, start digging.”
“What are we looking for?” one of the guards asked, his voice far away as a ringing started in my ears.
