A relieved laugh escaped her lips. “Good. My back hurts too,” she countered. She didn’t tell him how thankful she was that he’d understood her demand, and that he’d reacted to the pain she’d inflicted on him. It meant he was still with her.

They reached the edge of the forest—tall evergreens with dark green needles that smelled pungent and sharp, the scent filling her nose. There were ferns and broad-leafed shrubs and boulders and fallen logs, all things that made it the perfect place to stay hidden for a night. Maybe two.

Until Xander felt strong enough to move on his own.

She set up camp and used the few supplies she’d managed to strip from the horses before she’d had to set them free. A blanket and a tarp, some bandages and antiseptic, half a loaf of bread, a special blend of tea she’d had the apothecary mix before she’d kidnapped Xander, and a compact hunting bow that had been easier to carry than the Blaster rifle she would’ve liked to make room for.

By the time she’d returned with dinner—a rabbit she’d shot on her first attempt—Xander was sitting up in front of the fire she’d started, looking mostly alive.

“Feeling better?” she asked, glancing knowingly at the tea she’d instructed him to drink. It smelled like piss, but the apothecary had insisted it would ease—at least temporarily— the discomfort of whomever consumed it.

Xander shrugged, but Sage noted the way his eyes were glossed over now. The tea was doing its job.

She dropped to the ground and began the work of skinning the animal. “You had me scared,” she told him, not looking up to see if he was listening or not. She was glad he was improved, even if it meant he was drugged out of his mind. At least he wasn’t delirious.

She was relieved when Xander managed to eat and actually keep it down. He needed to rebuild his strength. When they were finished and she’d cleared away the carcass so as not to attract predators during the night, she took great care changing his dressing.

The wound was septic, she was certain, and she worried how much longer Xander would last on tea and good intentions.

When the infusion of narcotics wore off, and the shivering began, Sage crept closer to where Xander slept.

She stroked his face and wiped away the sheen of sweat. She patted his back and caressed his cheek. She watched his face as it twisted with torment and agony, and she longed to see it lying dormant. To watch him sleep in peace.

She guarded him and prayed the fever would pass.

And when it didn’t, she curled up close to him and pressed her body to his, hoping that at least some of her strength— and her heat—would transfer to him.

Would keep him safe throughout the night.

XIV

“You’ve lost your mind,” I whispered, hoping to draw as little attention as possible to the fact that I was still awake. “Was I not clear? I don’t want to see you.”

The tent I’d been escorted to was lavish. I had a bed that wasn’t on the ground, as beds in tents tended to be, and it had real bedding that was clean and soft and smelled of lavender. The food too was hot and fresh, and I’d dined on braised pork smothered in carrots and leeks and some sort of stewed plums. The combination should have been revolting, but somehow, after days of eating from jars, it had been delectable.

I wondered if it was the same fare the soldiers dined on, or if I was simply being treated to the queen’s leftovers.

Either way, despite my accommodations and the spread I’d been offered, I’d not once been uncuffed. Even now, with only the soft glow radiating from my skin to illuminate the pitch black of the tent’s interior, my wrists ached from being bound. “Hear me out,” Niko said, slipping into the tent and letting the flaps whisper closed behind him. He made it seem as if his actions were covert, but I knew better. There was no way he’d snuck past any of the guards who’d been posted around the entire perimeter of my provisional prison.

I felt as if I were truly seeing him for the first time now, and wondered how I hadn’t noticed his duplicitous nature earlier. How I’d fallen under the charm of his golden eyes and his inviting smiles.

But I knew why, of course. Sabara.

When it came to her, there was nothing double-dealing about him. He meant every sugar-coated word he spoke to her, every silver-tongued compliment, every overblown promise.

He would kill for her. He would die for her.

And everything in between.

She was his everything.

I knew because she told me so with every ounce of energy she possessed as she fought to take me over, even now.

My head ached from trying to contain her. It would have been so much easier to just give in.

And so much more deadly.

“Charlaina, please. Hear me out. I have the answer. I’ve found the perfect solution for all of us.” I didn’t flinch when he climbed onto the side of my bed, and I somehow managed to keep my breathing steady when his fingers grazed over the exposed flesh of my arm.

In the darkness my skin sparked, the only indication he had any effect whatsoever on me—or rather, on Sabara.

The smile on his lips meant my reaction hadn’t gone unnoticed. “You see? You can pretend all you want, but I know she’s in there, listening to everything we say.” His grin widened, his teeth flashing white. “Or was that you? It’s all right if it was, Charlaina. You’re allowed to enjoy yourself. You are queen, after all.”

I flinched from him. “And is this how you treat a queen?” I cocked an eyebrow at him, hoping Sabara was paying attention now. I wanted to prod her, prod both of them, the way he was prodding me. To make her question him, even just the scantest bit. To make her look at Niko the way he really was, a two-faced scoundrel. “Because that’s not how I saw it. It looked to me like you and Queen Elena were pretty chummy. From what I could see, you’ve enjoyed yourselves quite a lot. Am I wrong?”