AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’ll get out of here,” Draven said.
“With what? Wings?” I rose, needing to move, to get away from them and the blame eating me up like that wretched worm waiting to devour us. Guilt writhed inside my chest, around my heart. My veins itched.
I paced to the cave opening, picked up a few stones, and flung them onto the sand. The creature, if it was there, didn’t respond. The stars twinkled and the wind hissed. The moon had dipped lower now, making way for dawn’s blush across the horizon. The air smelled of baked rock, but the view, for all its savagery, was breathtaking.
War was a land of harsh delights, until its wildlife tried to eat you.
I dropped my gaze to the suspicious plateau of sand in front of our cave. If I walked out there, would the creature swallow me?
It might come to that. In three days, thirsty and starving, we’d have no other option. One of us would have to bait the beast, while the others escaped. One of us would die.
It would obviously have to be me.
CHAPTER3
Lark
With daybreak came the heat.It crept into the cave like hot molasses, driving us to the cooler back wall. And there, we waited. The world outside rippled through a haze. Arin dozed against Draven’s shoulder while Draven stared into the daylight, as though the weight of his glare might be enough to hold the heat at bay.
Azure skies stretched to the horizon.
I’d never missed the rain before. But I craved it now.
“Why did you try and make a stand in front of the worm?” I whispered, careful not to rouse Arin.
Draven’s cheek gave a flicker. He dropped his gaze to Arin, probably checking he remained asleep. “I had hoped to distract it, giving you more time to escape.”
A plausible explanation, but also a lie. I’d seen his face when I’d grabbed him. He hadn’t been thinking about saving us. He’d stared up at that creature with no intention of saving anyone. He’d known it would crush him, and still he’d stayed.
“Why did you come back for me?” he asked, switching my focus off him.
“I told you why.” I smiled.
“My cock is not so great a member that you’d risk your life to sample it again.”
“You undervalue yourself. It is a mighty cock. One of the most impressive crotchschlongs I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen more than two. When you die, they should display it in a museum for all to witness, such is its magnificence. Women will swoon at its wonder, men will instantly harden—if they did not do so before. Truly, the most amazing of wangs, a glorious sight to behold.”
He huffed a soft laugh. “Does nothing escape your wit?”
I lowered my gaze to the prince asleep against Draven’s arm, then flicked it back to Draven’s face. I’d gone back to save DravenforArin. Losing Draven would have broken Arin’s heart. I’d told him as much as he’d stood there, staring down a beast fifty times his size. “If you die here, so does Arin.”On hearing those words,he’d woken from whatever nightmare he’d been trapped in.
“Thank you for helping me see sense,” the warlord said, glancing away.
“You’re welcome.”
I’d seen Draven’s gaze in those almost-final moments, and he’d had the look of someone without hope. I’d seen the same gaze in my own reflection countless times. It was that of a man coveting death—one who had nothing left to live for, or one who despised himself so much that death was the final punishment.
But why was Draven so lost as to seek an end to it all? There was much about the warlord I didn’t know, but he hadn’t seemed the sort to take his own life. Was it an old pain driving him to consider it, or something new? Some future he did not wish to face?
My thoughts drifted unanchored around the warlord as the sun made its leisurely arc across the sky. I dozed a while too, drenched in sweat and caked in sand, until the sun dipped out of sight and the shadows grew long again.
At dusk, Arin shifted awake, muttered about relieving himself, and staggered to the corner of the cave.
“We need to do something,” I rasped, finding my tongue parched. “If we stay any longer, we won’t have the energy to save ourselves.”
Draven nodded. He knew another day like the last would be our end.
Then we only had one option left…
