Heart of the Wolf Prince

Chapter 35

Thunder crashes in the distance. The pitchy sound is blunted, ringing on the edges of my hearing as though I'm listening from a world away. Another crash lights up the sky in an array of purple and white, the only echo of colour against the thick grey clouds, pregnant with rain.

Those craggy mountains rise up again, and I am floating towards them. I can't feel the vicious winds or icy rain, and when I look down, I find no body there. I am a mere phantom, floating along the air in this foreign place.

My phantom body closes in on the mountain. It's then that I see two people standing on a rocky ledge, looking out over the cities beyond. It is too dark to see anything but their silhouettes, that of a man and a woman.

The woman says something to the man, and he raises his arm. The wind around me picks up to a pitchy screech, and when lightning flashes across the sky – strangely brighter than before – I get a glimpse of his features.

His skin is splattered with glistening droplets of water. Hair almost as white as mine whips in the wind I cannot feel, and his eyes are so silver they appear almost mirror-like, like the surface of a lake on the full moon.

It goes dark again. The sky lights up one more time as a fork of lightning breaks through the clouds, spearing for the male's out-stretched palms...

I gasp, shooting upright. My heart slams in my ears as I feel for my skin, wanting to know if I'm back in my physical body. When I touch the warm flesh of my torso, I release a breath of relief. I'm alive, at least, and not actually some phantom floating away on a thunderstorm.

I'm alive. That thought injects panic into my veins, and I look around to find I am boxed in by metal. The cold iron of my cage bites into my ass, and as I paw desperately at the iron bars surrounding me, I realise I am wholly trapped. I look up to find a thick plate of iron sitting above me, blocking out any view of the sun. I press my hand to the roof, forcing heat to my palms, and the metal glows red but does not melt.

My breaths become shallow. Beyond the bars, I can see that we are moving, and if the rhythmic clopping of hooves is any indication, then I'd have to say I'm being pulled by a horse-drawn cart. Other noises rise around me – the thumping of footsteps, the shifting of grass, the low tones of muttered voices. I look around. Fields of dry tall grass stretch to the horizon, an endless sea of green and brown. Where am I?

"Naomi?"

I twist around, my movements restricted by the small space. But I see him all the same. He's still wearing that black tuxedo, but its crumpled and ripped at the seams. His black hair is mussed, and blue-and-black bruises litter the entirety of his face and arms. He looks, for all counts and purposes, like a man beaten down – but the golden fire in his eyes makes him look as alive as ever.

"Kohl?" I whisper in astonishment. He's in a cage as well, and judging by the slight wince on his features as he shuffles closer to me, he's been in there a while.

He grabs my hand, and the sudden shock of contact knocks the wind from my lungs.

"Are you alright?" he asks. "Are you hurt? God, I wasn't sure you'd wake up—"

"I'm okay," I assure him, glancing down to where his hand holds mine. Part of me wants to pull it away just to spite him, but he looks so damn relieved at me being okay that I leave it there. I glance around us, towards the unfamiliar horizons, and I feel the colour drain from my face. "Where are we? What's going on?"

Kohl goes wan at that. His hand tightens on mine. "They're taking us somewhere, Naomi. My..." He swallows, but with how he struggles he may as well be swallowing razors. "My father plans to execute you."

"What?" I breathe.

"I tried to stop him. When he announced that, I attacked him then and there. I tried to kill him, Naomi, I tried so hard, but it wasn't enough..."

"And that's why you're in a cage?" I ask, and Kohl drops his eyes. The nod he gives me is full of defeat, and I can't help but feel a little disappointed on his behalf. In a way, we both failed and now we're locked behind iron bars because of it. I stare down at my lap.

"And where are we being taken?"

Kohl looks up at me, but I cannot meet his gaze. "I'm not sure. My father won't tell anyone where he plans to take us, or even why. We've been travelling for at least two days now. I don't even think we're in Gahndor territory anymore."

I look out towards the grassy fields again. I don't know of a place with so much open land. My hands start to tremble.

"And once we get there, wherever 'there' may be... I am to die?"

Kohl shakes his head. "No, Naomi, I'm not going to let that happen. I don't care what it takes; I'm going to find us a way out. I promise," he adds, squeezing my hand tighter. I look into his eyes then, and the conviction in them makes me want to believe him. But I know better than that. I've seen that conviction before, and where blindly believing it get me?

"Save your promises, Kohl. They mean nothing to me now," I say, unable to help the bitterness in my tone. Kohl grimaces. I look away, unable to keep that stupid shame from creeping into my cheeks, the one that always comes when I remember how foolishly I was played.

"I'm sorry about that, Naomi, I really am. I made all those bad decisions and look where we are now. I've been thinking a lot about your offer... that maybe if we followed through with your plans, maybe if we really gave challenging my father a shot, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. But even so, you have to understand that I did it all to protect you—"

"I could protect myself," I snarl. "Perfectly fine. You were the one who needed protecting and look where that landed us. Your goddamn father set me up and now I'm being towed away like a pig to the slaughterhouse, all because you were afraid of his little threats."

His eyes turn pleading, and he cups my arm with his other hand. "It's not the same, Naomi. I could've cared less if something happened to me, but not to you. My father is ruthless. He always follows through with his threats, and if he hurt you because of me then—"

"No," I growl, snatching my hand away. "You just didn't have any fucking faith in me, Kohl, admit it. You think I'm weak just as much as the rest of the world does, but I'm not fucking glass. I have more spine than any of you."

I look away, my eyes burning. When will I stop allowing this man to hurt me?

"I didn't mean any of those things I said. I said all that shit to sell the act. Naomi, I know you are not weak, and that's why I needed to be so ruthless. To make you believe I thought so low of you. To hurt you to the point of hating me, so you'd never be tempted to come back."

"So, you thought breaking my heart was the answer? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Kohl's eyes flash with anger. "I did it to protect you—!"

"Oh yeah?" I challenge, pinning him with a hard stare. "And what are you going to do to protect me now, huh? Since you're so damn heroic?"

Kohl doesn't respond to that, because he has no answer to give. He can't protect me, and how fucking ironic is that?

Finally, he sighs, his eyes wide and sad. "Please, just... just let me hold you. I don't want us to fight, not right now."

I'm tempted to tell him to fuck off, but the anguish in his eyes echoes in my own soul. His offer fills my body with a warm sense of need, so I shuffle closer to him and put my hand through his, his fingers lacing with mine immediately. The simple actions causes physical pain to rock through me, and it takes all my strength not to cry as I lean my head against the bars and allow him to caress my hair with his other hand.

I don't forgive him. I don't know if I ever will, even if all those shitty choices he made came from a good place. But I'd be damned not to take his comfort in what may well be my final hours.

And when his thumb brushes over the heel of my palm, I again close my eyes and try to imagine an alternate future for us, one in which I rule by his side. It is not long before sleep pulls me under, and I am thrown into various dreams of thrones and castles and morning kisses. They're all different, but they each feature the same three things -- Kohl standing by my side, me as a queen,

and a storm rolling in the distance.