My legs are burning when I spot the amber eyes staring back at me. I open my mouth, ready to yell, hoping the same trick will work again, but before I get a chance there’s a flash of moonlight on metal and a silver blade rips through the wolf’s throat.

With a thud, the amber-eyed wolf falls to the ground, its eyes locking onto mine as the life leaves them.

An ache pulls through my chest, regret heavy in my gut. This is what I probably needed to survive, yet I hadn’t wanted to do it. And Gods, the look it gave me. The understanding. The knowing.

My feet are frozen to the ground, and I’m still staring at the slain beast when the thought strikes. Who the fuck killed it?

‘It’s dead,’ I whisper, fear evident in my timbre because I’m surely far too close to whoever slayed the wolf.

‘Course it’s fucking dead.’

I spin to my side, surprised to find Kyor standing there. And beside him, one blue eye and one green, both with white-ringed pupils, is Elska. Of course. If anyone is going to find a loophole to have their dire wolf in a trial with them, it would be him. I’m sure he’d just pass off her presence in the forest as coincidental. Coincidence my arse.

‘I believe you’ve met?’ Kyor says drily. ‘Albeit from a distance.’

He’s talking about the guards’ temple. How I spied on him from the outside. Yet before I can reply, I’m interrupted by his retching. He doubles over, using Elska to brace himself as he heaves.

‘You don’t look great,’ I say when he’s stopped. Guilt is roiling within me. As much as I hate to admit it, his training sessions have really helped me and repaying him with a poisoning just feels like something one of the Rowell lot would do. Not me.

‘Thanks for that observation,’ he mutters.

He looks better than Zara did, but that’s not saying much.

‘You didn’t tell the others about her,’ he groans out between retches. ‘That I saw her.’

‘Zelle’s the one who brought her in, not you.’

He looks a little bitter. ‘Your silence is for the old man then. He sure knows how to pick his projects.’

How is it possible that his eyes are still this icily blue in the dark light? Though as I continue to stare, his eyelids fall closed and he lets out a long groan. Maybe he is as bad as Zara. He’s just better at hiding it. He stares at me and the guilt I’m trying to suppress surges again.

‘Solarium root.’ I clamp my mouth shut when I’ve spoken, like that’ll be enough to stop him asking questions, even though I know it won’t be.

‘What?’ He scowls at me.

‘Solarium root. It’ll counter the effects of the infusion.’

‘The effects? An infusion? What the fuck, Thorn?’

I turn around. I’ve said enough, and he should be grateful for that.

‘Are you saying you did this to me?’ he calls after me, and if there’s a hint of hurt in his voice, I try to ignore it. Ignore him. I need to find Kay. I’ve told him the solution. If he doesn’t know the names of the plants that grow in his kingdom, then more fool him.

I start to walk away only to find myself staring into a pair of white-ringed pupils. Elska emits a low growl.

Kyor grunts, ‘You’re going to help me get that antidote, or you’re not going to get out of here alive. It’s safe to say Elska’s not best pleased with you right now. And trust me, you don’t want to see an angry dire wolf.’

He isn’t wrong there.

As if to reinforce his point, Elska bares her teeth and releases a low snarl that rumbles deep into the pit of my bowels.

I nod my head.

‘Great. Now find me that fucking solarium root.’

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 38

It’s only once I’ve got the task of finding the plant myself that I realise what a ridiculously massive undertaking it is. It would be fine in the daytime when I could actually see the plants, but now, when everything is covered in dark shadows?

‘What does it look like?’ Kyor hisses beside me.

‘The root? It’s just … rooty. White, coarse⁠—’

‘Not the fucking root, Thorn. The plant. What does the plant look like?’

Right. The actual plant. That makes more sense.

‘It’s leafy⁠—’

‘Helpful.’

I shoot him a scowl, though I’m not sure if he can see it. ‘It has small, dark, waxy leaves the size of a thumbnail, and the plant grows to about knee height.’

‘Better. What else?’

‘Umm.’ I struggle to bring an image of the plant to mind. Now, in winter, it’ll probably be nothing more than a small, twiggy bush, like most of the plants that fill the undergrowth. But that’s not an answer Kyor’s going to like, so I keep it to myself.

‘In spring, it has flowers,’ I tell him. ‘They cover the entire bush and are light lilac with yellow centres. And they smell like citrus. Like … spicy citrus, if that’s a thing.’

He nods. ‘She’s got it.’

‘She’s got it?’ I look to Elska. ‘You mean she understood what I was saying?’

‘No, Thorn. She’s a wolf. You think she knows what spicy citrus means? I visualised it for her. Filled my senses with it. She thinks she knows where the plant is. Follow her.’

I look to the wolf, well aware I’ve got no choice.

‘Oh, and Thorn?’ He speaks through gritted teeth, his body clenched in pain. ‘Don’t even think about running. It’ll be game over if you try to abandon me. Do you understand?’

‘Got it.’ I don’t waste any time before following Elska into the trees. Time is slipping away from me, time that could stop me from finding Kay. But I can’t think about that. I can’t. I just need to act, and fast.

Elska moves so silently through the undergrowth that all I can do is follow the flashes of white on her paws. More than once, I have to call out for her to slow down, and given that she stops and waits for me to catch up before continuing again, I have to wonder if Kyor lied when he said she didn’t understand my words.

We’ve been going for about five minutes when she sits down, her bicoloured eyes glimmering even despite the lack of light. There, at her feet, I see the shadows of small shrubs. There might not be any flowers, but there are a couple of those small waxy leaves visible.

She’s actually done it. Smart girl.

The only thing I have to dig with are my hands and my dagger. Given that I don’t want to damage the blade, I opt for the former, clawing fistfuls of dirt from the ground and tossing them behind me.

When I’ve freed enough of the plant, I wrap my hand around the stem and yank. A twisted ball of bulbous roots comes up.

I hold the plant in front of Elska’s eyes, knowing that she will be showing the vision to Kyor.

‘Take me back to him,’ I tell her. Immediately she’s on her feet, and a moment later, I’m racing to keep up with her as we retrace our steps.

When I reach Kyor, he is slumped against a tree trunk and doubled over.

‘Give it to me,’ he snarls as he stretches out his hand.

Rather than doing as he asks, I keep hold of the plant. ‘You need to peel it first. Otherwise it’ll just make you sicker. Give me a second. I’ll do it.’

‘I can peel a fucking root, Thorn,’ he snaps, only to grip his stomach and shudder in pain.

It’s getting worse, and if left untreated much longer, he’ll be completely incapacitated. Which is exactly what I wanted – Zara and her crew out of commission so I could have a break from constantly watching my back. Now, I can’t help but wonder how they’re doing. Out here, the healers aren’t an option. I just pray that Etta knows death wasn’t my intention for them, no matter how much they may deserve it.

Having peeled and sliced a piece of the sticky root, I hand it to Kyor.

He grabs me with his other hand. ‘You wait here until I know that this works,’ he demands. ‘And if anything happens to me, she will rip your throat out.’

I nod. ‘It won’t take long. You don’t need to swallow it. Just chew it. That’s all.’