Page 173 of War Queen
She bit her lip.About that…
“Are you all right otherwise?” Mikael asked.
Norah could only nod.
“Not exactly,” Adrian said.
She cut him a daggered warning. “Adrian.”
“I’m sorry, Norah.” He looked back to Mikael and Soren. “He tethered himself to her.”
Mikael shifted his stance, and his hold on her tightened. “What does that mean?”
“Whatever injury he suffers, she’ll suffer the same. You can’t kill him. You can’t harm him at all.” He nodded back at Norah. “Not unless you want the same to happen to her.”
“Perhaps it’s another trick,” Soren said.
“I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Adrian told him.
Mikael forced her to look at him. “Is this true?”
She swallowed. “He did it to protect himself. From you and Soren.”
Mikael bared his teeth with a growling curse and released her. Then he lumbered backward and sank down into the side chair. Defeat hung over him. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and rested his forehead against his fists, thinking.
They sat in silence.
“He’s clever, isn’t he?” he said finally.
“What do you want to do?” Soren asked him.
Mikael drew in a deep breath and let it out again. “The only thing I can do.” He raised his head and looked at Soren. “He’s not to be harmed. No one’s to touch him.”
Norah bolted upright in the darkness of the night with a sharp pain across her left hand. A scream ripped from her lips.
Mikael jumped up beside her. “What is it?”
She clenched her fist to her chest as blood ran down the length of her forearm to her elbow. What was happening?
The Crest burst through the chamber door.
She let out another scream as the pain attacked her right hand now.
Mikael grabbed her shoulders. “What is it!”
But she couldn’t answer.
Bhastian held a torch that lit the room, making them all gasp. Norah sobbed as blood poured from her hands, staining her nightgown red.
Mikael gaped at her in horror, then he moved into action. “Salara,” he said, grabbing her hands and holding them tightly. “Look at me.”
But she could only stare at the blood. Her blood.So much blood.
“Look at me!” he commanded, and finally she lifted her eyes to his.
“You’re going to be all right,” he promised as he pressed his palms against hers. “Hold through the pain, you’ll be all right.” He turned back over his shoulder. “Get the healer!” he raged.
Dizziness caught her, and she wavered.
