Chapter 20

I came to and immediately sat up, panic spiking through me as I peered down at Stryker lying face up on the ground next to me. His chest was still rising and falling, but there were open gashes on his stomach that were leaking blood. Black blood. And a lot of it.

A quick check over my shoulder confirmed that the beast was still asleep, so I must have only been out a few minutes.

“Don’t do that to me again!” I beat a fist against my chest, scolding my heart for causing me to faint at such a time as this.

At the sound of my voice, Stryker’s eyelids fluttered open.

“Stryker, can you walk?” I asked, trying to press my hands onto his wounds to stanch the bleeding.

He attempted to sit up but fell backward moaning.

“No. You’re too heavy. I need you to walk. We have to get out of here.”

I lifted one of his arms, sticking my head under it, and then with a grunt I stood, feeling the strain on my back as I pulled him to a standing position. Stryker groaned in pain and I winced, but I didn’t have time to be gentle with him. The shadow dragon was asleep, but since I’d never pushed my magic on an animal before, I wasn’t sure how long the effects would last. It could awaken at any moment, and then we’d be easy prey.

I’d just gotten Stryker back. I wasn’t about to lose him a second time.

We got a few paces and then Stryker’s legs gave out, which made me topple sideways. I barely kept us standing, but by some miracle managed to drag us forward. I was physically exhausted from swimming from the boat to the shore and then the mad dash to the clearing, and mentally drained from the amount of magic I’d forced into the beast. Every step we took felt like it could be our last, but I forced us to keep on going.

It took forever to get Stryker to the shoreline. His eyelids fluttered open and shut and blood flowed out of him like a broken ink pen. His hold on consciousness was tenuous, at best.

I was not equipped for this kind of thing. I had no idea what to do. And even if I did know how to suture and dress his wounds, I had no medical kit. My only hope was that there was something on the boat I could use to save his life.

Laying him on the shore, I swam out to the boat, which had mercifully drifted only a little with the tide. After climbing onboard I tried adjusting the sails and turning the wheel to navigate it closer to shore and then dropped the anchor.

I knew next to nothing about sailing, but I was just using my basic knowledge to try to get through this. My mind was a frantic, jumbled mess. I just needed to get Stryker on the boat and get those wounds closed somehow.

After getting back on shore, with little help from him as he went in and out of consciousness, I heaved him onto my back. I nearly buckled under his weight as I waded out into the water and rolled us both sideways onto the boat deck. Stryker hit the hardwood with a heavy thud and then I spurred into action to try to save his life. My legs shook with fatigue but I pushed myself to the limits.

Running into the little cabin under the boat a mere three feet high, I cracked my head as I tore through storage cabinets until I found some medical supplies. Relief flooded my body at the sight and I rushed back onto the deck. Small droplets of rain began to fall around us and I cursed the sky with shaking hands as I started to wipe away the blood. A sob ripped free from my chest as I saw at least seven deep puncture wounds an inch or more wide.

“No. You can’t leave me,” I whimpered as I began to shove gauze into the holes and then pulled out the needle and stitching thread. I was an expert seamstress, it couldn’t really be that different, could it?

It was. Piercing the skin of a man you’d fallen in love with was horrifying and I forced myself to do it over and over, pulling the gauze out of one hole to stitch it up and then moving to the next.

But there was so much blood. As it mixed with the rain it made the entire boat deck so black that it felt like we were floating in ink. Even in the shallow waters the boat began to thrash as lightning ripped across the sky and thunder shook the air.

Once I had the wounds closed to the best of my ability, I hoisted the anchor, setting us adrift. I knew it wasn’t safe to send our boat out in the storm, but it was more dangerous to stay moored near the island, and therefore the shadow dragon. I believed Stryker when he told me the beast would give chase and knew we had to get away from here.

After setting the boat free, I spotted the discarded crystal heart sitting on the slick deck beside me. The flashes of lightning reflecting across the gem’s smooth surface almost made it look otherworldly. Even though we’d come all this way for the magical jewel, I’d give it back to the shadow beast in a heartbeat if it would take away Stryker’s injuries.

The truth of that thought rocked me to my core because it revealed the depth of my feelings for the Ethereum lord. I might not have known him for very long, but in a short time he’d become more important to me than anything else. More than my own wellbeing and perhaps even more than my kingdom. And that scared me. But I didn’t have the luxury of examining those feelings right now, so I snatched the heart and shoved it into my discarded pack and slung it over my shoulder.

Using all my strength, I grabbed Stryker under the arms and dragged him out of the rain and onto the little bed in the cabin below. I was exhausted, huffing and puffing as I collapsed beside him.

“You can’t die,” I whispered into his ear. “I’m in love with you.”

Even though I was wet and cold and filled with terror, somehow, in the darkest hours of the night, sleep took me.

* * *

“Ahoy!” someone shouted, and I sat up so fast my head cracked against the ceiling with a loud thud.

I rubbed at the sore spot as I peered over at Stryker beside me, the memories of last night all coming back to me at once. I was dismayed to see that he was as pale as a ghost, his skin waxy-looking. But his chest still rose and fell, so that at least was a good sign.

“Stryker.” I shook him but his head only flopped back and forth. “Stryker.” I tried again.

“Ahoy! Anyone there?” the voice called again.

I made sure the crystal heart was still shoved in my pack and crawled outside into the blinding sun to see a large boat at least four times the size of ours had pulled up alongside us. Over a dozen men stared down at me. I assumed the one wearing a tricorn hat to be the captain.

I was scared, hungry, tired, and not in the mood to be overtaken by pirates.

“If you’re pirates, I will have you know that I carry magic that can make a man go mad and I will use it!” I yelled.

All of the men balked and the captain removed his hat, showcasing a balding head with a small tuft of remaining hair clinging on. “Ma’am, we are humble southern fishermen just seeing if you needed help as your mast seems to have broken in the storm.”

He pointed to the top of our boat and I followed his gaze to see that he was right. One of the masts had snapped.

Well, in that case.

“I need urgent help getting my injured friend to Easteria,” I told the men, knowing instinctively that I shouldn’t tell them who Stryker was. If word got out that a lord was hurt it could end badly for his kingdom. “If you help us I can assure that you will be handsomely compensated.”

The captain nodded. “I was going to offer to tug you to shore for free, but compensation is appreciated if you can afford it.”

It only took a few hours as their boat was large and moved much faster, even towing us. When we got to the small marina, I paid them all the coins left in my pouch.

After thanking the fishermen they sailed off back to the south. The boat dock attendant tied up and anchored our boat and I approached him.

“Do you want a hundred gold coins?” I asked him in a low voice.

His eyebrows hit his hairline. “Of course, but what would I have to do to earn them?”

I told him I was the truth witch, able to ferret out lies if he double-crossed me and asked him if he’d heard of me.

He shook his head with wide, fearful eyes. I then told him that I had an injured Lord Stryker on board and that I needed him to help me get him back to the castle. I also asked him to send a raven for me to Dawn and I told him that if he breathed a word of this to anyone, I could afflict him with madness.

He looked both horrified and intrigued when I finished laying out what was needed of him and the consequences if he double-crossed us, but he quickly obliged. By the end of the day we were back at the castle with a whole host of healers and physicians tending to Stryker and the boat attendant was paid his one hundred gold coins by Stryker’s castle treasurer without question.

Stryker had remained unconscious through the entire journey, which left my stomach in knots. I left his side only once for a few minutes to lock the Shadow Heart away in the same room he’d given me before. When I returned to his side, they still hadn’t been able to rouse him.

“Why isn’t he healing?” I asked the room of nurses, physicians and healers.

Shantel, the nurse who had tended to me before, peered at me in sadness. “A power to heal is in an Ethereum lord’s blood. He’s lost too much. It will take time. He’s in Fate’s hands now.”

* * *

I don’t know what Stryker had conveyed to his staff in the short time we’d been apart, but they treated me as the lady of the castle from the moment I stepped foot back in Easteria. I hardly left Stryker’s side, but when I did they came to me with questions and updates on the kingdom. It was overwhelming, but also … familiar. No matter my current circumstances I was still the Fall princess and had been raised to rule, so I stepped up to the challenge and did my best to keep Stryker’s kingdom stable while he recovered.

I quickly learned to be thankful for the distraction because I became more anxious each day that slipped by when Stryker didn’t wake. They tried to hide it, but I caught the healers’ and physicians’ somber looks when they tended to him. They repeatedly told me to give it time, that their lord was strong and just needed rest to heal, but I knew from their expressions that they were losing hope. He should have woken by now. The thought that he might never wake, or worse, finally succumb to his injuries, was terrifying.

He was my mate. My true love. I wanted more than the few stolen moments we’d had with each other. Now that I’d found him, I wanted, no, I demanded a lifetime with him.

It was the morning of the third day after we’d returned to Easteria when a messenger found me poring over an ancient text in the castle’s library. Clearing his throat to get my attention, he waited until I looked up to tell me Lord Roan and his wife, Lady Dawn, had arrived.

I blinked back at him in surprise. It took me a second to remember that Stryker had told me Zander also went by the name Roan. Dawn and Zander. They came!

I’d sent word to Dawn about what had happened to Stryker and finding the Shadow Heart, but hadn’t requested any aid. What could they do for us that Stryker’s healers and physicians weren’t already? They had their own kingdom to worry about, but it was sweet of them to drop everything and come.

The messenger nodded and I quickly shut the book I was reading and rushed out of the library. I’d taken it upon myself to do research on the Shadow Heart. Stryker’s library was vast, and when I wasn’t sitting vigil at his bedside, I was usually deep inside the ancient texts, trying to figure out what we were supposed to do with it to stop the curse.

So far, I’d come up empty, but I was trying not to let that be another thing that discouraged me. Right now it was a problem for another day. Or possibly another princess. It was not lost on me that the Wise Ones had only told me to find the Shadow Heart, not to use it.

The castle guards had led Dawn and Zander into the throne room, which was customarily where royalty greeted each other and where I waited for them now. I’m sure more than one eyebrow rose when I ran forward and flung myself in Dawn’s arms. Ethereum wasn’t so different from Faerie, so the castle staff probably weren’t used to their leaders being informal, but I couldn’t care less. I was scared and needed a friend.

Dawn’s strong arms came up around me instantly and she squeezed me back just as hard.

“I can’t believe you battled a shadow dragon,” she said when we finally broke apart, concern shining from her eyes even though I was no longer in danger from the vicious beast.

I gave a wobbly half-laugh. “It’s an experience I hope never to repeat. And Stryker did most of the battling.”

“How’s my brother?” Zander asked from behind Dawn.

She shifted to the side and he stepped up beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist to draw her near. I didn’t even think he realized he was doing it, but I could tell that his concern for his brother was making him anxious and he needed her physically close.

Seeing them interact and how they leaned on one another made something twist in my chest. I could easily picture Stryker and I being each other’s rocks and safe places, but what if we never got the opportunity to have what they did?

I mentally shook myself, knowing that wallowing in fear would get me nowhere. Besides, that’s not what Stryker needed from me right now. He needed my strength, not my weakness.

“The same, I’m afraid,” I told him. “He still hasn’t woken. The healers and physicians think he just needs more time, but …”

I let the sentence trail off, not knowing what else to say. The grimness in Zander’s face told me he understood what I left unsaid. That he should have woken by now.

“Come,” I said, turning and gesturing that they should follow me. “You must have come to see him for yourself. I’ll take you to him.”

When I glanced over my shoulder to see if they were following, I caught them exchanging a look that made my stomach plummet to my toes. That’s not why they were here. At least not the only reason.

“What is it?” I asked bluntly, turning back to them.

Zander sighed. “I do want to see my brother, but before that, can we go somewhere to talk?” He cast a glance around the throne room, his eyes catching on the few guards stationed around us. “Somewhere private?” he added, and a feeling of foreboding settled in my chest.

Stealing myself, I took Dawn and Zander back to the library and then instructed the guards that followed us to wait outside. I shut the double doors behind us and turned to face them. “What’s going on?”

“We think there’s a rogue group planning a coup against Stryker,” Zander said plainly.

My heart pounded wildly in my chest. “Why would you think that?”

“You may or may not know that my kingdom was taken over by rebels led by a creature from darkness called the rondak. They killed my brother and then seized the kingdom from me. It wasn’t until Dawn arrived,” he said, shooting his wife an affectionate smile that she returned, “that I was able to reclaim what was mine.”

I nodded because Dawn had filled me in on what happened during our time together, so I knew exactly what he was talking about.

“Ever since that happened I fortified my spy network,” Zander continued. “I never want to be caught unawares if something like that starts brewing again. I have several trusted spies embedded in what’s left of that rebel faction. Two days ago I received word from them that news of Stryker’s condition has reached the rebel leaders, and that they are planning on trying to take this kingdom while my brother is unable to do anything about it.”

I gasped and pressed a hand to my stomach. Stryker was literally fighting for his life right now, and this group was planning on taking advantage of his weakness? To take away everything that meant anything to him.

Anger rose up on the heels of fear and disbelief. I wouldn’t let that happen. This was Stryker’s kingdom, his land. I wouldn’t let him lose it.

I started back toward the doors, already forming a plan in my mind.

“What are you doing?” Dawn called to me before I reached them.

“Getting ready to defend my mate’s legacy,” I said with conviction.

Respect flared in Zander’s eyes and a small smile lifted the corner of Dawn’s mouth.

“Although I admire the initiative,” Zander said, “can we talk before you sound the alarm. We have an idea.”