Reign of Ice (Forever Fae #4)(48)

“I would say not,” Coran interrupted angrily, gazing out the front window. He drew his sword and came to stand in front of me.

“What’s going on?” I demanded, trying to see around him.

He pointed his sword to the window and said, “Look.”

Kamden and I got to our feet, and I pushed past Coran to gaze out the window. “Oh, no,” I wailed. “This can’t be happening.” What I saw made my blood run cold. At the edge of where Elvena put the protection spell stood Alasdair with Zanna in his grasp, and a huge smile on his face. Kamden stormed out of the house and raced down the steps, but stopped when I shouted, “Kamden, stop!”

I started to walk out the door, but Coran stepped in my path. “I can’t let you go out there, Your Highness. You won’t be protected if you go past the shield.”

Zanna was terrified and trying her best to keep calm, except the iron blade at her throat wasn’t helping. One tiny move and it would all be over; I refused to leave her at his mercy. I gazed up at Coran, my decision is final. “She’s my friend, Coran. I can’t just leave her out there.”

I pushed past him and out the door, making sure I had a firm grasp on the dagger in my belt. Kamden moved closer to the border, with raw panic in his eyes, and roared, “Let her go!”

Alasdair laughed, the echo of it ringing menacingly in the air, and tightened his hold around Zanna’s waist. The iron from the dagger was blistering her skin at the neck and I knew she had to be in great pain. What made everything worse was that not only did the sorcerer hold a fatal blade to her throat, she was also wearing the bloodstone talisman. It was the same necklace that could siphon a fae’s energy and kill them within minutes. I could feel Kamden’s fear for her and it broke my heart, but most importantly it made things more clear. I was ready to fight.

The sorcerer pointed his iron weapon at me and sneered, “If you want her bad enough you will step past your protective barrier and take the talisman off from around her neck. If not, then she will die here just like your friend I gutted the other day.”

Those words were where I lost Kamden and his ability to restrain his anger. He leapt past the area of protection and attacked; all the while I screamed as I watched him make a fatal mistake. Zanna fell helplessly to the ground, blood oozing out in spurts from the cut through her neck by the iron blade. Her body thrashed as the poison spread and tried to invade her body.

“Coran!” I yelled. “Find Meliantha, and hurry. I’ll be okay, just go now as fast as you can!”

I expected him to protest, but something must’ve shown on my face because he nodded and rushed off with impeccable speed up to the palace. Kamden attacked the sorcerer with everything he had and I knew he needed my help, but I had to save Zanna. Quickly, I ran past the safe zone, grabbed Zanna under the shoulders, and carried her back over to the protected side.

The bloodstone glowed an ominous red and I could see her getting weaker and fading by the minute. The cut on her throat was getting worse, her flesh slowly decaying as the poison seeped into her veins. “Dammit, Zanna, you better hold on and fight. Help is coming and I need you to stay strong,” I pleaded.

I grabbed the talisman and tried to yank it from around her neck, but it burned me the second I touched it. It sizzled the skin on my hands as I tried to lift it over her head, but it was no use. It didn’t budge.

“Shit,” I hissed in pain. No wonder no one was capable of taking the talisman off of themselves.

It reminded me of the dagger Durin made for us. No one could touch it other than me and the others. Was the sorcerer’s talisman that same way? Unsheathing the special dagger from my belt, I didn’t know if what I was about to do would work, but I had to try. Sliding the blade under the golden chain, I jerked it up as fast as I could. I never expected it to be so easy, but it broke and fell to the ground.

I did it.

“Kamden!” I yelled, catching his attention briefly. When he saw I had Zanna on the safe side, he dodged another of the sorcerer’s blows and immediately lunged back into the protection of Elvena’s spell. The second he was safe, he ran over to Zanna and picked her up in his arms.

“Zanna,” he cried, holding her tight.

Meliantha raced toward us with Coran, Drake, and Sorcha trailing behind her. “Get her to Meliantha now!” I ordered him. With Zanna sputtering in his arms, he jogged up the path and collapsed in front of Meliantha, placing Zanna in front of her. Meliantha bent down, closed her eyes, and placed her hand on Zanna’s throat. I prayed to the heavens that she would be okay.

Alasdair sheathed his iron dagger and smiled. “Well, that was fun, Princess. I was hoping to have some more dreams with you during this little reprieve, but again, you ran scared and had to have a protection spell to keep you safe. However, I knew you couldn’t resist saving your friend,” he taunted eagerly. His gaze found the talisman on the ground, and before I could secure it in my grasp, he extended his hand and chanted a few words in a language I didn’t know. The necklace bolted off of the ground and back into his hands.

An uneasy feeling washed over me as he stared at me and smiled. “I must say this has been one of my simplest missions yet. I never thought it would be so easy to steal your power.”

“What are you talking about? You haven’t gotten my power,” I snapped.

Alasdair dangled the necklace in his hand and chuckled menacingly. “Oh, Princess, that’s where you’re wrong. All it took was one simple touch to absorb your essence into the bloodstone and you’ve already done that. So thank you, Your Highness, for giving me what I needed.”