Trusting people doesn’t make you a fool. Just an optimist. It’s one of the things I love most fiercely about who you are in this life. The world hasn’t broken your faith yet.
Yet.
I think that’s the key word. Because every violent altercation whittles it away little by little.
That might be one of the kindest things you’ve ever said to me, I say.
Pain is dulling your memory, my love.
My heart pangs at the endearment. Don’t call me that.
Fine, he says. Then how about my fierce queen, my exquisite mate, mother of my future children.
I grimace. Definitely not that last one. Need to get my hands on some contraceptive potion to make it so.
You’re giving me so much ammunition to use against you the next time I’m teasing your pussy.
Memnon, I say, horrified. I know he’s saying this to distract me from the pain, but crap, it’s working a little too well. You wouldn’t dare use that against me.
I feel his amusement, though it’s tinged with worry. If only I were an honorable man…
Memnon!
In the distance, another engine rumbles on the road. It sounds like it’s moving slowly, and instead of zooming by the grassy hill I’m on, it slows, then idles.
I hear a door creak open, then the heavy tread of feet against the roadside gravel.
Is that you, Memnon?
I’m not there yet.
Fuck.
Someone is, I say.
And the odds of them being a good Samaritan are vanishingly small.
On the other end of the bond, I feel Memnon’s alarm. Then it’s gone, pulled back so quickly that the sorcerer must be deliberately shielding it from me.
Do you have any weapons on you? he asks. This is something he used to make sure Roxilana had on her.
No, I say softly.
He shields me from whatever reaction he has to that news.
Meanwhile, the stranger below me is climbing up the mountainous incline, wild grass crunching beneath their shoes.
Call on your magic again, Memnon orders me, sounding like the warlord he once was. While there’s no compulsion in his voice, I’m bending to the order without question.
I reach for my power, even as those footsteps draw near. It’s there, swirling beneath my skin, but I am utterly disconnected from it. And despite magic being semi-sentient, it’s showed no interest in healing me all on its own.
It’s still not working, I say to Memnon. I try to suppress my growing panic.
Hold fast, Empress. I’m coming.
There is nothing I can do but hold fast. I have no usable magic, no weapon, and no mobility.
Wait—
I wiggle my fingers and test my arms. They both feel pretty banged up, but my right arm can move okay if I hold the rest of my body very still.
Cautiously, I grope around for anything I might use to defend myself with. Even the slight movements of my arm tug at my side, and I have to bite my lower lip to smother a cry. But my fingers brush a rock partially embedded in the soil. I dig my nails into the earth to work it free.
The action causes the grass to rustle, and I have no magic to mask the sound. I almost give up then in favor of staying quiet and still.
If they’ve come this far for you, they’re going to find you, I remind myself.
So I yank on the rock until I pry it free. It’s no bigger than my palm, but it’s rough and has a sharp side to it.
Good enough.
Now the only thing to do is lie in wait.
Those ominous footsteps make their way over to where I lie on the coastal hillside, drawn to me like I’m a beacon. When I first catch sight of the figure, all I can make out is a dark, hooded shape.
It steps in closer, and I get a glimpse of a humanoid face and a pair of unseeing eyes.
I jolt in surprise.
I thought I had annihilated you back in the Everwoods.
The clay creature, the one I shattered apart with a spell only a few weeks ago, is whole once more, and now it’s returned for me.
CHAPTER 34
For several seconds, the creature stares down at me, and I’m curious what it’s thinking—if it even can think. That head of its was hollow when I crushed it beneath my foot.
Maybe it’ll do the same thing to me; stomp my face into oblivion now that our roles are reversed.
Eventually, it bends down, its hands reaching for my body.
I wait until it’s close enough, and then I lunge forward, swinging the stone in my hand, a pained cry ripping from my throat as the action makes my injuries scream. As soon as the stone connects with the monster’s cheek, I hear the sound of pottery breaking.
The creature rears back a little, but that’s the extent of its reaction. Then it’s reaching for me again.
My torso is on fire, but I pull my arm back and swing a second time, aiming for the being’s wrist.
The appendage snaps off a split second before the creature’s other arm comes around me and drags up.
Seven hells, the pain!
It’s everywhere—my ribs, my legs, my back and neck. Clouding my vision and ripping me open anew.
The monster grips me the best it can, crushing my torso to its and heightening my agony. Then it begins to walk.
A ragged scream bubbles up as my broken legs drag against the ground, the agony overwhelming. The darkness at the edges of my vision now swarms in and blessedly, I black out.
Selene! Memnon bellows down our bond. Selene! Answer me, please, my queen! Thick, coagulated fear presses in with his words.
I barely have time to register it when the agony returns.
I can feel your pain! Memnon continues. What’s happening?
Abducted…there’s a creature…
Bile rises faster than I can stop it, and I just have time to turn my head away from the creature dragging me to retch.
The monster doesn’t slow, and my broken, bloody legs trail over the hillside, the wild grass we pass sticking to my open wounds, the sensation making me vomit again.
Hold on, my fierce queen.
I don’t think I get a fucking choice about that. I have to endure this, whether I like it or not.
I think I’m sobbing, writhing. I feel like the pain is consuming me. And maybe it is because the night darkens once more…and then it swallows me up entirely.
PAIN!
I wake to it. I am engulfed in it. Perhaps I’m dead. Perhaps I’ve gone to hell and I’m bathing in its fiery halls.
I force my heavy eyelids to open. I’m swaying, spinning, slipping as the world moves.
Am I still flying?
But no, there’s a drop ceiling above me and something cupping my back and thighs.