Seventeen Samkiel

She swept the wet cloth under my lip as she hummed to herself.

My hand grabbed her hand, lowering it. “I can do it myself. You don’t have to coddle me.”

Her lips tipped up, and she pulled her hand from mine. “Very limited coddling,” Dianna said and turned back to the sink, rinsing the cloth once more. She reached for the small cup of paste and handed it to me. “I will hold your hand when you’re sick and clean up your mess, but I will not brush your teeth for you. So very limited coddling.”

I chuckled, the burn in the back of my throat subsiding from losing my dinner. I took it from her and ran my hands under the water before using the small bristle brush. She said nothing as I cleaned, just watching me and rubbing a soft hand up and down my back.

I turned the water off. “I just don’t want you to see me like this.”

Her hand stopped as she looked at me. “Why? There is nothing wrong with you. I’m blaming that weird shellfish food they served you. Gabby had this lobster once and puked on the brand-new rug I had bought her. I spent an hour cleaning it while she slept.”

“But that’s your sister.” I paused. “I guess I just don’t want you to see me weak.”

She faked a gasp, placing her hand on her chest before raising it to lay the top of her wrist lazily across her head. “The mighty Samkiel, taken out by a stomachache. You’re right. You’re too weak. I must leave you now for all my other, more powerful suitors.”

“I’m being serious.” I frowned at her and poked her in the side.

She snickered. “As am I. I have several. It was only a matter of time.”

I put both hands on my hips and glared at her. “Are you finished?”

“Yes.” She smiled wickedly before she placed her head against my arm and wrapped her small hand around my biceps. “But, Sami baby, there is nothing weak about you. I think we are both used to doing everything alone, even taking care of ourselves. So help feels strange. You know I’ll be here when you’re healthy and strong and also when you’re sick and need me to pick up the slack, all right?”

Warmth filled my chest and spread. It was the same sensation I’d felt the first time she and I ever opened up to one another in a strange motel on a planet I wasn’t used to, but I felt it then and have felt it every day since. I didn’t know what it was then. I was so unaware of how absolutely fucked I was until it was too late, and she was gone.

She held up that small finger, wiggling it at me as she grinned. “Your burdens are my burdens, and we take care of each other, okay?”

I clasped her pinkie with mine and nodded. “Promise.”

“It’s practically law, you know.” She placed a kiss on our joined hands.

I laughed and did not care for one second that pain shot through me. Everything in this realm and the next was bearable now because I had her.

Pain jolted my body awake and snapped my eyes open. The floor beneath me rose and fell in time to hoof beats. I turned my head and saw steel panels lining the walls. A violent bump shot an ache through my side. I heard a yell and the crack of a whip before we moved faster.

I realized I wasn’t in a cell. The smell of dirt and trees wafted through the air. It looked like I was in some type of transportation cart.

I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. I fell back, but my head didn’t hit the hard seat beneath me. Instead, I felt a large hand catch me, and I was staring into speckled lilac eyes the same color as his skin. When his lips pulled back, I saw the tips of fangs. Realization hit me, and even without seeing his pointed ears and long tail, I knew what he was.

Elvian.

I opened my mouth to speak, but he lodged a small piece of bark between my teeth and forced me to chew. After I swallowed, his hand clamped over my mouth. My hand gripped his wrist, and he hissed before whatever he gave me set in. My eyes clouded, sleep filling my head, and for once, my stomach didn’t roll with nausea.

I COUGHED AND SAT UP, WATER SPILLING DOWN THE SIDE OF MY FACE. I wiped the excess off with my sleeve as the world came rushing back. The same damn wagon rolled forward, the sound of hooves like drums. Groaning, I rubbed my temples, feeling as if my head had split.

“You’re awake,” a deep voice said. “It’s been days.”

Glancing up, I saw the same elf as before. He half perched on the opposite end of the wagon. He held a small green fruit and took a bite before nodding to the small, wrapped sack on the floor.

“Eat,” he said. “You need it.”

My back hit the wagon wall as I sat up straighter. “How do you know I can even understand you?”

A crooked smile formed on his lips as he dug into the dirty clothes he wore and pulled out his hand. He opened his palm to reveal my rings.

“Because I know who and what you are, Samkiel.”

My blood ran cold. “You have me confused with someone else. I found those on a corpse.”

He made a noise in his throat and placed them back in his pocket before taking another bite of his fruit. “Am I? But you speak Elvian fluently as if raised by a royal family who sent you to a royal school. You even use the proper dialect. Plus, that scar along your side looks as if a spear made of fire rammed through you. The rings with runes inside them are just like the ones Unir’s famed son wore. Above all, the wave of electricity that runs through your veins gives you away.”

He held up his wrist, and my handprint was burned onto his skin from where I’d grabbed him earlier when he shoved that bark down my throat.

“You’re delusional,” I whispered. “I merely work for The Eye. Everything you have and see is a product of what I’ve done for them.”

“I never heard of any member of The Eye able to produce electricity. Seems like a godly power.”

“Well, I suppose we all aren’t that smart then.”

He went to respond when the wagon came to an abrupt stop. The elf shoved the fruit back into the bag and hid it under the seat before lacing his ankles and hands back into the shackles.

“Regardless, keep quiet. I’ll play along with your little game, but do not fight the guards. They would gladly beat you and leave your bloody body here for the beasts to feed on. If you are him, these realms are going to need you.”

The doors were yanked open, and soldiers in dirt-smeared armor undid our chains before yanking us out into the blistering sun. I realized at once just what realm I was in and how far I was away from her and Jade City. Trees, crooked and bent, danced overhead as more guards emptied prisoners from the other wagons in the caravan. The elf stood next to me, and we watched all the activity before we were pushed forward.

“What’s happening?”

“We are stopping for the night.”

“Here?” I whispered as the guards pushed at us once more. “Do they know what lives between these trees?”

The elf glanced at me and shook his head. “They know, and they do not care. Some probably want us to be eaten. It would mean less sharing of food and work.”

The woods and land may look dead, but I knew what beasts lived here, what watched us even now. A yip sounded through the air, followed by another. The guards behind us chuckled.

FIRE CRACKLED AROUND THE FEW brANCHES THAT STILL BURNED. WE sat huddled, the cold night air nipping at our skin. The blankets they gave us were thin, worn, and filled with holes. There were a few campsites set up in the small clearing. Prisoners gathered around each fire, sharing a bowl or two of whatever mush they gave us to eat. Only the elf and I were at our fire, the others staying far away. I wrapped my blanket around me a fraction tighter.

“Do gods get cold?” he asked behind the spoonful of mush.

I glared at him. “I’m not a god.”

He nodded. “Still keeping up that ruse, huh?” He shrugged and took another bite. “You need to eat. That gaping wound on your side isn’t healing.”

“What was it you gave me?” I asked, trying to stop another shiver. “In the wagon. What was that?”

“A bessel root. We all have them. It helps nausea.” He lowered his spoon. “And parasites, since the food and water they give us isn’t the cleanest. You might shit your brains out, but at least the worms won’t eat you from the inside out.”

I grunted in response and pressed my hand over the pendant around my neck. It was the only thing I had of her here.

“You know, they tried to take that necklace off you. Three guards attempted it, and it cut their hands. They laughed, saying it was damn near unbreakable.”

I glared at him but said nothing.

He sipped on his soup. “Must be pretty damn important.”

I sighed in response and nodded toward the other fires. “Why don’t you go sit with them instead of pestering me?”

The elf snickered. “Oh, they don’t like me. Trust me.”

“Winning personality?” I asked.

He only shrugged. “Until you reveal your secrets, I will not share mine.”

“I have none.”

He took another bite as the fire crackled between us. “Your Eye markings are wrong. You need four shaved lines on each side, not three. They used three before they took Leenon Ridge back.”

My hand instinctively raised to the side of my head as he watched me, his tail flicking. I turned from him, and he laughed low into his food.

“Don’t worry, god king. I won’t tell.”

“Do not call me that,” I snapped back at him, careful to keep my voice low. Turning, I made sure the other prisoners weren’t paying us any attention. The guards watched us but were more concerned with each other.

“Because you don’t want others to know? Or perhaps . . .” He leaned a fraction closer, his nostrils flaring before pulling back. “Or perhaps it’s the female you are protecting. Her scent is faint, but you are covered in her.”

I didn’t realize I had moved until my side ached, and I was practically snarling in his face. “Watch what you say next.”

All I got in return was a toothy grin that made his pointed ears twitch. “So it is a woman. Always a woman. I don’t see a band on your finger or the mark, but she must be pretty important, nonetheless. Is that where the necklace you always touch is from?”

I felt the tic in my jaw and wondered if killing him would serve me. I decided it wasn’t worth it and stood, yanking the worn blanket with me as I walked toward the makeshift tent. He said nothing else, just snickered behind me as I left.

I ran my hand absently across the necklace as I sat down on the small, makeshift cot. I lay there as the night whispered its song, my mind racing. The caravan held at least fifty prisoners, and we were all being shipped somewhere. I needed more information, and I needed to reach her as well. I lifted the necklace, peering closely at the pictures of us inside. A small smile curved my lips, a small bright spot in this damned day.