‘That’s her father.’
My throat tightened. ‘I know.’
‘He’s cursed.’
Walking Emily back to her room on the far side of the fourth floor, I couldn’t stop thinking about the cursed prince.
He had been bewitched to kill his mate and then himself. I couldn’t imagine a curse more cruel. It was even worse than mine. To save him, they had to keep him away from her. They wouldn’t risk letting him near Isla, and who could blame them? No child should see their father locked in a cage.
I turned a corner and was hit with enough force to send me flying backwards.
Bones rattled as I slammed against the floor.
My ears rang, my balance gone.
Before I could recover, something wrapped around my throat and squeezed.
It squeezed hard. Too hard.
I clawed at it, but my fingers slipped through. It was water. I was being strangled by a water-wielder.
Panic threatened to drown me. My fire wouldn’t answer at first. It was the thought of never seeing nature again, never seeinghim, that sparked it. Tiny flames flared, steaming the noose until it hissed away.
He lunged, knife drawn. I summoned his blade, wrenching it from his grasp, but it slipped from my hand and clattered across the tiles.
Pain exploded in my chest. My ribs had cracked again.
‘Outside! Now!’ Anya’s voice thundered in my head.
I tried, but his hands closed around my throat. No air. No power.
The world went black.
Unease spread through my body, gripping my limbs and threatening to tear me apart. I stirred awake to someone gently caressing my forehead.
‘No, stay down,’ Michael’s voice cut through the haze. ‘Don’t move.’
He steadied my neck as I tried to focus. It wasn’t broken, but breathing burned again.
Across the hall, someone lifted my attacker by the throat. The man writhed, clawing helplessly. Then crimson flames engulfed him until he was but a scorched corpse. I didn’t need to see to know whose flames they were.
Darkness claimed me again.
When I woke, I was on my bed. River sat beside me in one of my brown lounge chairs, eyes sunken and jaw tight.
‘You know,’ he began, rubbing his face, ‘when I said I had a praise kink, I didn’t mean it as encouragement to go find trouble just so I could repeatedly save you.’
I blinked at him. He was gone for days, and now he waltzed in, acting like nothing had happened. Granted, he probably saved my life again, but still. What a douche.
‘Where were you?’ My voice was hoarse, each word scraping my throat.
‘There were things I needed to take care of. I went to see my father.’
That didn’t explain his sudden departure. ‘Why didn’t you say anything? Or goodbye?’
‘Because then I wouldn’t have left, and I needed to.’ He sighed, running a hand through his messy hair. Stubble shadowed his jaw. ‘There are things I’ve been suspecting about your mother. My father knew her long before I did.’
‘What is it?’ I pushed myself upright to meet his gaze.
