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Strange sounds floated around me, but I couldn’t make sense of them. Blood slicked my arm and back and warmed my clothes. Each breath expanded the wound, and each cough ripped me in half. Death wasn’t a peaceful walk into a pale fog or a deep forest, like the stories suggested. It was agony and terror, and I fought it with every fiber of my being.
I opened my eyes, blinking against the tears. I had inhaled a bit of dirt, and the taste and grit pulled my mind ever so slightly away from the pain.
Blades clashed. Blurry shapes lunged at each other.
I blinked again.
Rafael swung a blood-stained sword at the bull-man. The clashing sound was his blade hitting the beast’s horns. Hector whirled his hands in the air, and Everence stood perfectly still, singing. The fae men moved so fast their hands were hard to track.
The snake lay unmoving on the ground. My dagger, coated in my own blood, lay beside me, within reach. A moan of mingled relief and despair fell from my aching lungs as my fingers scraped across the dirt toward the blade. I was nearly under their feet, dust flying in clouds around me. I tried to crawl away, but the strain pushed more blood from the wound in my side.
Rafael attacked like no man I’d ever seen. A passion of rage blazed in his movements. He pressed the bull-man backward, away from me and toward the shadowy forest. Then the beast dropped to his hands and charged. His horns knocked Rafael sideways, but he grabbed hold of the horns, bringing the beast’s face around.
The creature’s bare feet were close to me. In fact, he was standing in a puddle of my blood. The bull-man stepped backward, struggling against Rafael’s strength. As his other foot lifted, my eyes widened. It was coming down on my face unless I moved. With a last burst of adrenaline, I wrapped one hand around the beast’s uplifted ankle and rolled. My side ripped apart and smeared into the dirt as the creature dropped all his weight on top of me.
But when he didn’t move to get off of me, even as my vision blurred and the world faded into darkness, I knew I’d held the dagger true. Rafael descended on him, stabbing the beast from above.
Warm blood washed over my hand, but I still held the knife as I drifted into unconsciousness.
31
Talia
My side throbbed. My head felt like an overfilled waterskin.
I tried to open my eyes—but they wouldn’t obey. I tried again, and my eyelids finally pried apart, revealing a hazy, shadowed space. My vision cleared only briefly, but I recognized Rafael’s dark hair and broad shoulders. Hector and Sinsorias stood nearby as well. My eyesight blurred again, and my eyes drifted shut. I strained to listen to the men’s voices.
“…longer can we afford to rest?” asked Hector.
“She’s too weak to ride,” said Rafael.
“The coronation is in five days.”
The bed I was in tipped gently as a heavy weight settled beside me. I was too tired to open my eyes again.
“If you are not present, you know what he will do.”
A cool item touched my burning side and worked tenderly along my skin. Instantly, the pain preventing me from sleep slipped away, and with it, my awareness.
* * *
When I woke again, the walls glowed golden from sunlight, and an inconsistent breeze fluttered over me. I heard bees. Blue sky glowed happily outside my bedroom.
I tensed my muscles, trying to sit up, but I couldn’t. Pain flared at my side. I glanced toward the beehive wall. Beside the bed, curled up on the rug, lay a large bear. His side heaved in a slow, steady rhythm. Under one massive paw was a book, as if he’d been reading when the sun came up and hadn’t moved since. Sleeping, he appeared utterly harmless.
I rolled, and the movement brought immense pain. I let out a sharp gasp, then clamped my mouth shut. The bear lifted his massive head. His eyes were level with mine as he stood by the bed. His fast breaths moved the hairs at my temple, and his deep brown fae eyes shone with both panic and pity.
He’d saved me, again. But was it only to keep me whole, a spotless lamb ready for the altar?
For a moment, he returned my stare. The hairs on my arm stood on end. This was the beast who wanted to press his curse upon me. As if sensing my fear and confusion, the bear turned his long snout away and ambled out the open wall into the garden.
I followed him with my eyes. After a moment, Everence stepped through the door and offered me water. But as I drank, I couldn’t pry my eyes away from the bear still watching me from the sunlight outside. I’d thought he wanted me. I’d been so entirely, grotesquely wrong.
“You should not have fled,” came Everence’s sweet, soft voice beside me.
Chastisement was not what I’d expected from her, given that I’d almost died. I narrowed my eyes and tried to speak. My throat was hoarse, but eventually I called up my voice.
“What were those things?”
