Page 53 of Blood and Fate

Where had Kais’ emotions gone?

Sawyer reached out and, by sheer luck, managed to latch onto Kais’ belt. He let the current carry him back to Kais, where he began unwrapping his own rope and retying it to Kais.

Men on the bank shouted at Sawyer not to untie himself, to use the rope that Kais already had, but he ignored them, or maybe he couldn’t even hear them. He hadn’t fully unwrapped himself, but Satori could tell he wasn’t as secure anymore.

Then the froth churning beside the rock turned pink, and all the air left Satori’s lungs.

“Blood!” Teague screamed to the men.

Satori’s own blood ran cold in her veins. Kais was bleeding.

“Pull!” Teague shouted, and, as one, the men on the shore heaved the rope, fighting against the current as they pulled Kais and Sawyer back toward the shore.

When the men were almost to the banks, another great surge of water latched onto them, pulling them back and under the surface, out of sight.

The men on the shore pulled, and suddenly they were stumbling backward as though their weight had grown significantly lighter.

“No!” Satori called, rushing farther toward the water’s edge.

“Satori, don’t! We can’t come after you too!” Teague called.

She froze, waiting. Seconds passed, and Kais’ body bobbed to the surface again as relief flooded her lungs. With another great pull, Kais was dragged onto the banks. Only Kais.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

SATORI

A mix of relief and horror flooded Satori as she rushed to his side. Teague and the others joined her. A few of the men ran downstream, hands over their eyes, searching the rapids for Sawyer, but he was gone.

Satori would be sad later; right now, she was focused on the large gash on the back of Kais’ head that seemed to her to be pumping blood onto the wet grass.

“Get Bram!” Teague said as he scooped Kais off the ground with seemingly no effort and ran back toward the fire.

A few tents had been set up, and Teague yelled again for Bram, voice edged in a panic she’d never heard from him before he disappeared into one of them.

Satori froze, arms wrapped around her middle, eyes wide. Sawyer was gone, Kais was injured, and she didn’t know where to go or what to do.

A breeze hit her as two more men, one of them Bram, ran past her, following Teague into the tent. Her legs no longer held her; she simply dropped to the ground where she stood and watched the tent.

Why was she even so concerned? Days ago she was sure this man would take her home, kill her father and herself, and claim the throne. Now she was fighting for air to breathe, thinking he might be mortally injured.

And Sawyer— She blinked away the thought of Sawyer. She couldn’t focus on two tragedies at once.

Teague emerged from the tent, his eyes searching the camp wildly until they landed on her, mere feet away, kneeling in the dirt. In a second, he was before her, crouched down to meet her gaze.

“Satori, will you come with me?” His eyes and voice were quiet and pleading.

She nodded through the fog that clouded her head. Teague reached out, and she took his hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet. He led her to the tent where they had taken Kais. The other men who had been inside exited as she and Teague entered.

She stopped on the threshold, brought up short by the sight before her. Kais lay on the small cot, eyes closed and so pale. Bram sat at his head, holding a blood-soaked cloth to the wound with one hand, digging in a bag beside him with the other. The bed linens were wet and red. And from Kais, she felt nothing.

There was nothing. She had grown oddly accustomed to feeling the thread of whatever emotion he was experiencing, and now there was nothing—like a void sat around him.

Bram looked up as she entered. “Princess, come here.”

He abandoned his search in the bag, motioning her over, urgency in his eyes and gesture.

Teague’s hand pressed gently on her back, and she moved farther into the tent to Bram’s side.