Page 56 of Fate of the Sun King

Nadir. Nadir. I’m here. Find me.

I repeat the mantra every few seconds while I try to rally my power into something useful.

“Hey!” A gruff voice blasts through my thoughts. “She’s talking.”

Shit. My lips must have been moving without my noticing. I go still, but that is absolutely the wrong thing to do, because now they know I’m awake.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Heavy boots stomp closer as my breath cuts off, vacating my lungs.

The steps halt, but I keep my eyes scrunched out of fear and some entirely displaced sense of self-preservation.

If I don’t see them, they can’t see me. Right?

Gods, I’m so fucked.

After a derisive snort, a sweaty finger touches my cheek, and I flinch before my eyes fly open. I’m met with a sinister grin as one of the men leans over me. “How long have you been awake, darling?”

The words are soft, but there’s a definite edge of gleeful malice in his tone like he can’t wait to feast on the tender marrow of my bones. I see the shift of the second male out of the corner of my eye, and my stomach liquefies with pooling alarm.

“We can’t do anything useful with you until morning,” he says before he looks back at his companion. “What could we do to pass the time until then?” The meaning in his words is obvious, and why is the entire male gender so fucking predictable?

That’s when I start thrashing, bucking against my restraints, but I’m like a fish tossed onto the beach, baking in the hot, dry sun. I can’t do anything as I gasp for breath. The first man laughs.

“You’re stuck, sweetheart. No point bothering.”

Now I’m panicking. My entire body is seizing up with fear. Cold thorns claw over the back of my scalp.

No. No. No. This will not fucking happen again.

And that’s when I feel it.

Not it. Nadir. He’s close by. I’m sure of it. He’s become like an extension of myself. His presence brushes against me, and I know he’s here.

So I start screaming. I scream so loud my throat hurts and my ears ring, but I scream and scream, trying to get it out before these bastards silence me.

“Nadir! I’m here!” I scream and scream his name over and over.

It’s then that several things happen at once.

The door blasts apart, ribbons of colorful light searing across my vision. Debris goes flying, and I do my best to duck my head as shards of wood and glass rain from above. Shrieks and shouts precede the ominous thud of bodies falling. I hear the crack of bone, followed by more screams through a haze of black fog. Flashes of Nadir’s colorful magic and flares of velvety green.

A sharp pain at the back of my head blurs my vision, the edges smearing together like wet paint. Distantly, I register the sounds of fighting and the tang of blood filling my nose. It feels like forever and a minute before arms lift me up, cradling me against a warm body that smells like icy mountain winds and the crisp edges of frost.

We move swiftly, bouncing as Nadir flees with me to safety.

The pain in my head buzzes as I move in and out of consciousness, wishing my eyes would focus.

“This way!” comes a voice I recognize as Tristan’s, and despite everything, my shoulders release.

“You found her,” comes another voice. It sounds like Mael.

“We have to get out of here. Now,” Nadir says, his words hard as steel. “If they got a message out, this place is going to be swarming with my father’s men before morning.”

“We’ll go east.” It sounds like Etienne. “Hide in The Woodlands until it’s safe to travel.”

Then we’re moving once again. I moan, trying to wake up and make sense of anything.