Page 54 of The Crowned Queen

“Naeva,” she said, introducing herself. “I manifested a gift for precognition. And this is Brynn—she got a gift for fire. And we know who you are, of course.”

“Precognition,” Loren said. “That’s a useful gift.”

Naeva shrugged. “Raelle thought it would help,” she said. “Of course, none of us are going to be using much magic while we’re in here, are we?”

“I suppose not,” Loren said heavily. He leaned back against the bars and closed his eyes, hoping they wouldn’t expect him to talk much. The iron was already weighing on him, the strange dissonance of being cut off from his magic making his head ache. His shadows curled around his feet, sluggish and subdued. He felt the loss of his bond with Araya all the more in their absence, the empty place in his chest aching like a lost limb.

He’d never felt so alone. Not even in the darkness of his cell.

It should have been a simple plan. Their papers got them through the gate at the edge of Aetheris without any issue. It took six more days to reach Faerwyn, the next true town between Aetheris and Elvanfal. Before the New Dominion, Loren would have done that distance comfortably on horseback. But now it meant six days of iron and rutted, bumpy road, Loren’s teeth rattling in his skull with every plodding step their carthorse took.

Thorne was right. It was nothing like the Valendral Loren remembered, where the smooth road had unspooled like a ribbon beneath the spreading branches of towering trees that had stood there for generations. Those were gone too, chopped down for lumber to house the ever-growing number of humans that thronged the muddy road. Arcanum soldiers mixed among the civilians, more than once stopping to peer through the bars at Finn’s cargo, though none of them demanded to see the papers Raelle had so painstakingly secured.

Still, it was enough that Loren didn’t dare loosen his cuffs or the collar around his neck. Not even at night when they stopped to camp beside the road. Brynn and Naeva kept theirs on too, even as their skin paled, the dark shadows under their eyes a visible marker of the strain it put on them.

“Do you think they’ll make any of us get out?” Brynn whispered as they approached the checkpoint outside Faerwyn. “I’ve heard sometimes they like to sample the goods⁠—”

“We won’t let that happen,” Serafina said, her voice low. “Finn will show them the papers and they’ll let us through. They probably won’t even look at you.”

Loren hunched deeper under his ragged cloak, trying to calm the pounding of his heart. It could all end here with him being dragged back to the Shaws in iron. He wished he could believe that meant he would be reunited with Araya—but Loren knew in his heart that Jaxon Shaw would make sure he never saw her again.

The wagon lurched to a stop, Finn’s jovial voice rising to greet the guards. Papers rustled, changing hands. Loren closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the side of the wagon. He could do this. All he had to do was stay quiet and not draw attention to himself⁠—

Pain. White hot and sharp, like someone had drawn a blade across his collarbone. Loren stifled a gasp, jerking against his bonds. His chains rattled loudly, drawing a sharp glance from Naeva.

“What’s wrong?” she murmured, speaking out the side of her mouth.

“I don’t know.” Loren looked down, half-expecting to see blood welling through his rags—but there was nothing there. “Something⁠—”

It hit again. The stinging, familiar glide of a knife parting flesh. Loren clutched his chest, nearly falling from the bench. He could feel hot blood spilling across his skin. Taste the sharp, acrid bite of fear⁠—

But not his fear.

Somewhere far away, Araya shuddered in her bonds, leather biting into her wrists and hot tears tracking down her cheeks. It was her terror, her pain flooding that hollow cavity in his chest, drowning him as their minds tangled together. He was there with her. In her. They both flinched, a soft sob escaping her lips as the knife came down again. Loren groaned, his knees hitting the floor of the cart with a thud. The shadows had woken up, their whispers rising in the back of his mind. They were hurting her. They were hurting his mate⁠—

“Stop!” Naeva’s hand closed around his shoulder, shaking him. “Whatever this is, you have to stop!”

The guard was walking toward the back of the cart now, peering through the iron bars. “Three for Elvanfal?” He frowned. “What’s wrong with that one?”

Loren looked up, meeting Serafina’s stony gaze.

“It’s a fit,” she said, her cool tone entirely unlike the caring healer Loren had come to know. “He gets them so frequently we have to drug him into uselessness—that’s why he’s going to Elvanfal.” She snapped her fingers. “You—did you dose him this morning like you were supposed to?”

“Sorry, ma’am.” Caela already had the silver flask in her hand, leaping up on the back of the cart. “I can⁠—”

“No, don’t open it!” The soldier exclaimed, wrinkling his nose. “Make them give it to him. Gods.” He shook his head, eyeing Loren’s shaking, sweat-slicked body with open disgust. “We don’t need that thing getting out.”

Caela shoved the flask through the bars, a hiss slipping from her lips as her bare arm brushed iron. Then Brynn was there, kneeling beside him as Naeva held him steady.

“Drink,” she whispered. “Right now.”

She didn’t give him a chance to refuse, shoving the flask against his lips and pouring. The tepid, bitter tea flooded his mouth—far more than he usually drank. But it was swallow or drown, so he swallowed and swallowed until the flask ran dry. He sagged in Naeva’s grip, his head spinning. He couldn’t feel Araya anymore. The shadows keened, their grief threatening to consume him even as his own tears wet his face.

“—and what good is a male that can’t work?” Serafina was saying to the guard in that same unaffected tone. “I’ll be glad to be done with it all. Truly more trouble than it’s worth. But you can’t just put them down, can you?”

“No. You can’t.” The guard’s lip curled as he stared in at Loren. “Just keep him under control. We don’t need that kind of trouble.”

“Of course,” Serafina said pleasantly. “We’re only stopping for supplies. We’ll be gone before you know it.”