“I’mso close, Nik. It’s like I canfeelit. Please, just give me a few more days. A week or two, tops. Thora won’t even know if you don’t tell her!”
Nik’s frown gets more pronounced at the mention of his captain. His decision feels like an ax through my last shred of hope. “No.”
Fine. Fuck my spells, then. I’ll do this without them.
I snatch my pack up so suddenly I startle the horses. Nik’s sorrel screams as I dart past it, breaking for the side of the inn as fast as my legs will carry me. He’s got me on strength, but I’m fast and know this area like the back of my hand. If I can get to the old mine, I can lose him.
Nik’s heavy footsteps follow, hot in pursuit before abruptly stopping. I don’t dare slow down, don’t dare look back.
Something tangles around one foot, then the next. In one disorienting moment, my legs snap together before I topple, hitting the ground with a grunt. My pack helps break my fall, but the corner of my cook pan against my stomach knocks the wind out of me. I barely get a chance to glimpse the weighted bolas wrapped around my ankles before Nik’s on me.
With his shackles ruined, he resorts to rope now. “Swear to the gods, it’s like trying to hold a feral cat.”
I grunt as he pins me down before binding my wrists in front of me, keeping a long train like a leash. Then he hefts me to my feetand over his shoulder. My ankles are still wrapped up, so I can only squirm like an unruly sack as he carries me back over to the horses. He’s only a little taller than me, butfuckis he strong.
I fight him every step before he unceremoniously drops me onto the muddy ground. He undoes the bolas from around my ankles before he leaves me in the dirt and wordlessly mounts up, wrapping the other end of the rope binding my wrists around his saddle horn. He grabs Mo’s lead rope to pony him along as he says, “I’m giving you a minute until you find out how serious I am about dragging you.”
“Fucking prick,” I snarl as I scrabble against the wet earth. He barely lets me get my feet under me before he nudges his horse to a walk.
He half-drags me anyway as he pulls me onto the road. I swear as I’m yanked forward by the persistent tug of the rope. Unlike the soft hemp the Crux has, Nik’s rough jute is bound to scrape the hell out of my wrists.
Yet it’s not until he’s dragged me well out of town and I’ve already stubbed my toe ten too many times on rough patches in the road that I finally speak up.
“I can ride a godsdamned horse, you know. And you sure as hell ain’t using mine,” I snap.
“You would have started on the horse if you hadn’t tried to run.”
“Wouldn’t be trying to run if you’d just fuckin’ listen to me!”
“I have listened to you,” Nik says, voice as flat as ever. “And I’ve decided I’m taking you back to the Crux.”
“Can’t spare a couple godsdamned days, huh? In such a big fucking hurry to get back to menacing wizards around the Crux? Even this little power trip can’t keep your dick hard for long, can it?” I spit, flapping the rope that leashes me to his saddle as all my anger pours out.
Nik lets out a long sigh but otherwise ignores me. And the fact that he won’t even acknowledge me makes me see red.
I’m not going back. Not yet.
I pull back with all my strength, tugging the leash connecting me to Nik’s saddle taut. The rough rope cuts deeper into my wrists, but I barely feel it. My hands wrap around the leash, and for a second, everything seems to slow.
It’s like the rockslide I diverted in the Hobokins all over again. Like that strange half-awake moment when I broke Nik’s shackles last night.
My thoughts stop, and something else takes over.
The heat of anger condenses in my chest before it explodes outwards. It travels down my arms like a second pulse, the fire coursing just under my skin. My ears ring as I force the heat into my hands, through my fingers.
There’s acrackso loud that it makes my ears rattle. The rope binding me to Nik’s saddle snaps apart with the smell of burning fiber, and I stagger to a stunned halt in the middle of the road.
But Nik’s too busy to even notice. His horse screams and rears at the unexpected sound. Mo whirls, tugging his lead rope out of Nik’s hand before he rushes into the woods to our right.
My pulse roars in my ears as I watch Nik wrestle his horse back under control. I take a staggering step towards the woods, set to run, but my whole body feels cold and leaden, my breath coming in short gasps as if I’ve just sprinted a mile. I shiver uncontrollably, my ears ringing like a bell.
My vision swims before Nik appears in front of me, his face a mask of fury, but his barked order seems to reach me through water. Around me, the forest goes unfocused, my vision tunneling in. I sway where I stand as Nik’s warm hands grab my shoulders to shake me. His lips form my name, but I don’t hear him, don’t hear anything but the roar in my ears.
“-ey, HEY!”
I shiver as my eyes flutter open to see Nik hovering over me. His anger has been replaced with wide-eyed concern, and all at once, I realize I’m on my back. Nik’s on his knees beside me, his face close to mine like he was checking for breath. He seems to realize it, a flush rising to his pale cheeks.
Yet as I look up at him, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed how blue his eyes are. As dark and deep as the Lenear Sea.
