Chapter 15

CHAPTER15

It had been hours since I ran. Hours that my feet had carried me forward and the ache that had set in reminded me of that fact over and over.

Daylight should have shown its face by now. It should have peeked through the trees and greeted me like an old friend, but darkness was the only thing that remained.

I stopped and turned in a small circle. Every tree I passed looked eerily similar to the one I had just left, and I couldn’t make sense of where I was going. Evren’s voice had faded out quickly as the trees welcomed me into them, and the sound of the leaves rustling was the only thing I could hear.

Fear trickled up my spine, and even though I had feared Evren would catch me, the panic of the idea that he wouldn’t gripped at my chest. Because I was completely and utterly lost.

I leaned against one of the dark trees as I tried to tamp down my rising panic. My marks burned against my skin, a warning that I should have heeded.

A cautioning that hardened my stomach and made me jump at every possible noise.

I looked behind me and contemplated turning back in the direction I came from, but I felt so disoriented. There were no tracks from where I had just walked; the forest had consumed them as if I had never been there at all.

That fact could have been my savior but also my foe. The forest had helped me get away, but now, I didn’t know what I was thinking.

My hand clamped down against the bandage on my wrist, and I took a deep breath to harden my resolve. The forest was frightening, but nothing scared me more than being back in Gavril’s control.

Keep walking forward, I repeated over and over in my head as I pushed away from the tree. My body was tired, but I couldn’t afford to rest. Evren was fearful of what lay in this forest, which meant I was to be too.

I couldn’t let my guard down even as my body begged me to lie down just for a moment.

I had made it three steps when I heard a whisper of sound in front of me. My legs trembled as I searched the woods and prayed to the gods that I was alone. I reached for my dagger just as a deep, harsh voice echoed through the trees.

“You won’t need that here, sorceress.” The voice coiled around me as if it was carried on a phantom wind.

I still didn’t see anyone, and I slowly turned as I adjusted my grip on my knife. “Who are you?”

“Osiris. Although no one has called me by my name in a long time.” His voice made my spine straighten and my marks blistered against my skin in warning.

I couldn’t even see this Osiris, but he was a threat.

“Why can’t I see you?”

Laughter fell around me like a song before I caught movement near one of the large trees. Then there they were, stepping out from behind the shadows, and I gasped as my feet faltered and I almost fell to the damp ground.

She looked like she belonged to the trees, or maybe they belonged to her. Moss and bark grew along her torso as if it were a part of her skin, and a long gauzy skirt fell against her legs and trailed along the ground.

But none of that was what drew in my attention. It was her solid black eyes that trapped my breath in my lungs and forced me to stay where I was.

“I could heal your wound.” Her head cocked to the side and those strange eyes studied the bandage on my wrist.

I pulled it against me and tucked it beneath my cloak. She smiled slow and sinister before her gaze slid back to meet mine.

“You are the Starblessed destined, but for what?”

Fear crawled up my spine as she studied me with such an unnatural stillness.

“You are destined for far more than they realize.”

“I don’t understand.” I shook my head and took a step closer to her. “What am I destined for?”

“Your soul.” She spoke slowly as she studied me. “It is irrevocably attached to another.” Her gaze slid back to my wrist, and I shook under her stare even as my heart pleaded for her words to be false.

“What if I don’t want it to be?” Gods, I refused to be bound to Gavril for eternity. Was it because he had fed from me?

“You don’t have a choice, sorceress.” She said it so undoubtedly, but I refused to believe her.

“Stop calling me that.” My voice shook with a boldness I found faltering. “I’m not a witch.”

“Aren’t you?” Her eyes narrowed and my marks flared harder. “I can feel your magic from here, but I can feel his as well.”

Coldness dripped along my skin as if I was standing in a pouring rain. Everything about this woman warned me away, but I needed to know, I needed to hear what she knew.

“And what they say about me saving the kingdom?”

She studied me for a long moment before she spoke again. “Which kingdom is it that you’d like to save?”

She was speaking in riddles, and my anger started to overtake my fear. “I don’t understand.”

“Blood and magic have been woven together throughout our land for centuries, but you are the blade with which they will sever it.”

“You’re not making any sense.” I stepped toward her again, and her smile widened.

“Your stars burn brighter in the shadows, witch. But it is you who must decide which darkness you cling to.” She stepped back, and part of her body was shrouded by the trees.

I didn’t want her to leave. I thrust forward, desperate for her to stay, and her eyes tracked my every movement.

“You aren’t telling me anything,” I growled in frustration. “What darkness? What does that mean?”

She took another step backward, and my marks screamed in frustration against my skin as I tried to reach her. “Please,” I roared, and power shot from my fingers as I outstretched my hand.

“Witch,” she cursed the name as my magic fell upon her.

Terror and wrath like I had never known dug its claws into me. My hands shook as I stared down at them, at where the magic had just fallen from my fingertips. I didn’t know whose power I possessed, mine or the prince’s, but a familiarity I shouldn’t have recognized wrapped around my hand and caressed my arms.

“I’m sorry. I…”

She was retreating, running from me when I should have been the one who was fearful of her.

“Princess!”

My magic drew into me, pushing me back, begging me to turn at the sound of Evren’s voice.

“You choose your darkness.” The woman looked at me once more before her gaze slid over my shoulder to where I knew Evren was coming up behind me. “Choose wisely.”

I didn’t know if that was a warning against the prince who found me or the prince who stole from me, but regardless, my magic still called to him. It coaxed me back, step after step, until I turned away from the woman and faced him fully.

His eyes were wide and filled with rage and terror, and even from where I stood, I could see sweat beading along his skin.

“What the fuck are you doing?” He reached for me, his hand grasping my arm before he jerked me toward him. He searched over my head, and I knew who he was seeing. Black smoke fell from his fingers, and it hit me how similar my magic had looked to his.

“Don’t hurt her,” I cried as he tugged me behind him.

“What?” He looked at me, and rage poured from every part of him.

“Please don’t hurt her.”

“I’m not going to hurt her, princess, but you’re lucky that she didn’t harm you.” His fingers pressed into me, and they trembled with his barely controlled power. “You’re blessed that I don’t fucking punish you until you scream. You used my feelings for you against me, and I put my trust where it didn’t belong.”

I jerked out of his hold, but he refused to let me go. I knew that he wouldn’t let me out of his hold ever again.

He had trusted me, and I demolished that trust when I ran.

“I won’t let you punish me.” My voice shook even as I stared at him with as much courage as I could muster. The woman’s words echoed in my head as I stared at him.

You choose your darkness.

“You think that you’d have a choice, Adara.” He pulled me into him until my chest slammed against his and his face lowered to mine. I stared up into his dark gaze as his jaw clenched. “If I decided to punish you, then there would be nothing you could do to stop me.”

“You’re cruel.”

He laughed, and the sound ran along my skin like a kiss from a lover. “You have no clue how cruel I can be, princess. All you’ve tasted is the pleasure at which my body can bring. You wouldn’t dare to learn my malice.”

I tried to swallow down the harsh breath, but it wouldn’t come. Panic. Pure unpolluted terror ran through my veins as I feared what Evren would do to me.

“Please, Evren.”

His hand cemented against me, and his face softened as he searched mine. “I have never known fear like what you just evoked in me. I have searched these woods to find you, and I would have done so endlessly.”

He lifted his hands and ran them through my hair as he pulled me toward him. “I’m angry with you because I shouldn’t feel anything for you, princess. But I would have taken on the world to get you back.”

“I can’t go back to that palace, Evren.” I shook my head even as my heart hammered from his words. “I won’t let them take from me again.”

“I know. I fucking know.” He tilted my head back, and his gaze dropped to my lips. “But I can’t protect you unless you let me. You have to fucking let me.”

I was at war with myself as I searched his face. I wanted him to kiss me, to make everything disappear except the two of us, but there was another part of me that held on to the distrust I had for him.

“Captain?” Jorah’s voice called through the trees, and Evren sighed against my lips before he looked in his direction.

“Here!” he yelled back. “I have her.”

Jorah came into view, and his own anger with me shone in his eyes as he took me in. “Are you all right, Starblessed?”

“Yes.” I nodded my head even though I wasn’t sure that I was.

“I found her with a nymph,” Evren answered, and I looked back to the trees where Osiris had just retreated. I saw no signs of her, but I could still feel her watching me. “We need to get out of these woods.”

“Agreed.” Jorah came to our side, and I finally noticed the other three guards behind him. All of them looked exhausted, and I knew I had been the cause. “We should ride at once.”