Madness of the Horde King - Zoey Draven Page 0,118

own wounds before he’d said anything more.

This…this was the Ghertun’s doing?

Everything suddenly pieced together in my mind. Vienne’s fear, her continued urgency in returning to the Dead Mountain before the black moon—a short amount of time that all the Vorakkars had thought strange. I had thought it was her family that she’d worried for. While that was certainly true—for I knew how deeply she loved and cared for them—perhaps what she had feared most was death taking her before she could help them.

Vok, I thought, disbelief and guilt and sorrow swarming me.

By keeping her away from the heartstone, by selfishly dragging out my time with her, I had unknowingly been pushing her closer and closer to this.

An anguished bellow tore from my throat, leaving my breath ragged and my voice hoarse. I heard that bellow echo around the clearing. I heard it boom up the trunk of the tree, thread through the glowing leaves, and drift up to the dark night sky.

“I am sorry, leikavi,” I whispered, pressing the words into her flesh, as if they would heal this. “I am so sorry. Forgive me.”

I would do whatever it took to fix this. I would do whatever it took to save her.

She stirred in my arms, waking with tears in her eyes as she blinked up at me.

“D-Davik?” she whispered, her voice strained and hoarse. Her lips were dry. Her face was so pale that it was almost translucent, all of her rosy color leeched from her cheeks.

“I’m here, Vienne,” I rasped quietly.

“Devina,” she whispered and I swallowed at the sound of my sister’s name on her lips. “Devina was here. She—”

Her words cut off when her eyes squeezed shut and her back bowed slightly. All the muscles in her body went tense in my arms as more tears leaked down her temples.

“Leikavi,” I growled. “Tell me how to help you!”

When her breath seemed to return to her, her words sounded rushed. “S-she wants you to let her go, Davik. Let her go.”

My brows drew together, her words striking something deep within me, something unyielding.

“We will speak of this later, rei kassiri,” I told her. “I promise. I will tell you everything. But I will see you well first.”

I lifted her into my arms and she let out a small, sobbing cry, telling me she was in deep, deep pain. It made me want to kill something. It made that dangerous thing rise in my chest. That rage, that anger. Yet, I pushed it down. I let it burn and sizzle in my belly but I did not let it take control of me. I would be strong. I would be strong and present for her.

Because right now, she was all that mattered.

“It’s starting,” she whispered when she caught her breath. “Davik—”

Her muscles tensed in my arms again but then she went limp. I could only breathe again when I felt her heartbeat thud against me. She was alive. For now. But she was weak and in extreme pain.

What was starting, exactly?

Looking up at the tree, I hesitated. Then I laid her gently back down on the moss, grateful that she was sleeping.

Something glinted in the blue light and I saw my dagger lying at the base of the trunk. I scooped it up, weighing it in my palm, and then with a grunt I plunged it into the tree.

Forgive me, Lokkaru, but I will do whatever it takes to save her, I thought, tearing through the bark, peeling back the layers of it until my claws were bloodied. I didn’t feel the pain, however. I felt determination rising.

Nothing would stop me from seeing her well. And as I dug into the tree, as I tore at the grave of Lokkaru’s father, as I desecrated this living thing that Kakkari herself had blessed, I knew that if Vienne died…I might not be able to survive it. The loss of her.

I saw the glow of the heartstone before my fingers found it. I touched it and it was searing hot, pulsing in my hand, smaller than I’d anticipated. I tore it from the tree, my jaw gritted. I barely even looked at it before I shoved it into the waistband of my trews, securing it tightly in the pouch that rested against my skin…because it might be the only thing that could save her now.

My blood smeared her skin when I scooped her up carefully and led her over to Nillima. Her pyroki followed, staying close to her side. The heartstone