Chapter 4: Rest
Nexi was forced to wake up to cold air and the rough fur of a horse.
Her head was spinning, and she felt Kaelen's arm like a heavy band around her waist.
The motion made the dark mark on her wrist pulse with constant pain.
She pushed herself up and forced her body to sit straight.
"Did you have a good sleep, witch?" Kaelen asked.
"You kidnapped me."
"I brought my property home," Kaelen corrected. "You don't call a hammer stolen just because you found it in the tool shed." He was already establishing the dynamic. She was an object.
"My parents?" Nexi raised her voice.
"Safe, well, at least for now. You know the rule…You obey me, and they live. You try to run, and the High Priest gets a note. That's all you need to know."
They rode for a long time, and then finally stopped near a high, hidden ridge.
There was a small fire burning low beneath a thick pine tree.
Four men were waiting… Kaelen's trusted hunters. They were a bit younger and older than Kaelen.
Kaelen slid off the horse. He pulled Nexi down roughly. She stumbled in the long grass.
"This is her," Kaelen stated to the men. He didn't use her name.
The older hunter with a scarred face named Tomas, looked Nexi up and down. He looked at her expensive, torn silk dress, then he glanced at her pale hands.
"A witch, Prince?" Tomas was full of doubt. "She looks fine... Not like the swamp things we usually burn."
The other hunter had a big beard, and his name was Lorcan. This one laughed. "She doesn't smell like sulfur, Prince. And she's tiny. Are you sure you didn't just grab a nervous serving girl?"
Kaelen didn't laugh. He put his hand on the back of Nexi's neck. He didn't even look at the hunters.
"She's a witch," Kaelen exhaled through his mouth. "But she's the weakest, most useless thing I ever hunted. She's an amateur. She can't even run fast. Her magic is pathetic. It's like a child's toy. She thinks she's dangerous, but she's just an expensive lockpick."
The prince shoved her forward a little. He wanted her to prove herself.
Tomas folded his arms. "With respect, Prince. We don't risk our necks for a rumor. We need proof or at least something solid."
Kaelen sighed, lowered his eyebrows-he looked annoyed. He hated wasting time on such small matters.
He turned back to Nexi.
"Show them your parlor tricks, witch. Make a flower bloom or something equally embarrassing," he ordered.
Nexi felt her temper flare. She hated his contempt.
Looking at the dark rock near the fire, Nexi sent a silent thought to Kaelen. 'I won't do a trick…'
Then, she lifted her marked arm and focused on the pain. She sent a tiny pulse of her weak, shaky magic into the mark.
The black mark on her arm suddenly looked like coal.
Kaelen saw the tears well up in Nexi's eyes, though she didn't let them fall. She was a fighter, even when defeated.
"There is your proof," Kaelen said to the hunters, letting go of Nexi.
Nexi took a shuddering breath.
"She tried to throw herself off the palace balcony. The mark stopped her. This girl belongs to me completely. She can't even kill herself without my permission." He made it sound like a simple fact.
Tomas and Lorcan looked at the mark, then at Nexi's white face, then back at two younger hunters.
Unfortunately, they saw the truth in her pain and didn't ask more questions.
"Understood, Prince," Tomas bowed his head a little.
"She is our way to the Artifact," Kaelen explained. "That bitch hid it. Only her specific magic can find it. She will locate it, and we will retrieve it. She is an instrument. Nothing more. Treat her like a valuable shovel. Don't talk to her or touch her. She's dirty."
Lorcan snorted lightly. "Understood. We won't even let her breathe on the supplies, Prince."
Kaelen nodded. The long night of the ball and the ride had finally hit him.
His head throbbed since he hadn't slept well since he was a child. The prince went straight to his bedroll near the fire.
"I need one hour of silence," Kaelen commanded. "Don't let anything touch her. I don't want her noise to wake me up. She will stay right there."
Kaelen lay down. He didn't toss and turn, and just closed his one eye.
However, the nightmares didn't come…
For the first time since he was a child, Prince Kaelen Sterling fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. It was immediate and absolute.
Nexi watched him carefully, trying not to wake him up.
The pain in her arm lessened, but the humiliation didn't.
Oh, how much she hated his arrogance and his easy contempt.
She noticed the difference right away. He wasn't restless, and his face wasn't pinched with pain or torture like before.
The prince looked truly, deeply peaceful.
Nexi frowned. 'Why was he so still?'