Rejected Queen by Meg Xuemei X.

CHAPTER 4

Tessa

 

 

 

 

 

 

A hand seized my wrist and hurled me to the rooftop just as I slipped, about to plunge to Earth.

I pulled back my sanjiegun just in time before it stabbed the wolf beta who lifted me and stopped my fall.

I sprawled on the roof, writhing in pain. Raina squatted beside me. Two other shifters were with her.

“She’s poisoned,” a shifter girl said after a sniff. “She won’t have long. We saved her for nothing.”

I groaned in pain. The poisoned arrow was still stuck in my foot.

Raina cocked her head to the side and sniffed as well. “I’m sorry, Tessa. We’re no healers. Even if we were, you have mere seconds. Your face has turned purple. You’ve been given one of the worst poisons. What else can we do for you?”

“Pull out the arrow… and toss me into the water…please,” I panted, struggling to get my words out as the poison started to seal my airway. “There’s water nearby.”

The shifters traded a look.

The shifter woman who was built like a sturdy brick nodded. “There’s a canal nearby.”

“We’ll get you to the water,” Raina said.

“You’ll become a target…by helping me,” I wheezed out.

“Don’t worry about us,” Raina said. “We’ll disappear and return to our pack. We hope you survive this, after all of our trouble. You owe us a life debt now, Tessa.”

I tried to smile. “So you say. You’re a joy.”

She slapped me hard across the face.

“What the f—” I nearly managed a curse before the beta wolf pulled the poisoned arrow out of my foot. Raina had used the slap as a distraction.

“Good woman,” I groaned in pain and approval.  

Raina turned her chin toward the bigger shifter. “Briann, she’s all yours.”

Briann hauled me onto her broad shoulder and ran across the roof, and the other shifters fell in behind.

Pain ate at my insides like it would never end. Numbness claimed my muscles all the way to my toes. My magic could only slow down the flow of the venom. Once the poison reached my heart, it’d be too late for me.

Maybe I shouldn’t cling to the slim hope I’d survive this. Maybe I should stay and let my power blast everything and everyone in the region, except the shifters, to oblivion. At least then I could drag down my enemies with me.

But my strength was gone, my will failing me.

I blacked out, only to be awoken by the smaller wolf who ran behind me. She pinched my eyelid mercilessly.

“Stay awake, chick!” she said. “It’s the will of the Earth Princess that you live. We owed her a favor. If you die, we get nothing. You hear me? You want me to slap you more to help you stay awake?”

So that was why the shifters were risking so much to get me out of the battlefield. Marigold, my kin, had struck a bargain with them to save me, since she couldn’t come to the trial directly to get me out of here.

“Fuck off,” I said weakly as I hung upside down like a bag of potatoes sagging from the shifter’s shoulder. It was a humiliating position, but I’d had worse.

Briann chuckled. “This one will live. She’s got fire.”

“Ice,” I corrected her.

The shifters jumped from one roof to another, sometimes landing really hard. Renewed pain and numbness shot into me. They couldn’t afford to care for my comfort. The smaller wolf stayed close to us and sent arrows into anyone blocking our escape route. She was precise and merciless in her aim. Shifters didn’t like guns.

Time crawled by painfully as I struggled to stay conscious, and finally I heard the sound of flowing water. Every breath was like breathing in ice spikes. I could feel that the poison had reached below my breastbone. I had mere seconds.

“Toss me into… the water. Now,” I commanded, using every ounce of strength I had.

“It can’t be any worse,” the wolf beside me murmured with a sad sigh.

Briann flung me into the canal. I heard her yelling, “Good luck!” though she didn’t sound like she believed it would help as I plunged below the bridge.

A splashing sound hit my ears, and the water engulfed me.

The current swept me away like a black-and-white dream that would fade if I didn’t come back. Black blood rushed out of my wounded foot. When the water element’s magic whispered to me, I asked it to purge the poison from my body.

Something huge and predatory grabbed me, pulling me to its furry chest, and dragged me above the water. I tried to fight it, but I was bone-tired and weak from the venom still in my system.

I found myself sprawled on the bank, heaving out black water from my burning lungs.

Then I shook with a feverish chill, staring into the beastly face of a black wolf. He pulled me against his massive body, his look predatory and possessive and furious.

I recognized the wolf, even in my delirious state.

My lips quivered. “Loki.”

The King of the Underworld in his glorious beast form had come to finish what his minions had failed to do. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, because he’d violate the rules of the Bride Trials if he dealt my death personally. But I had nothing left to challenge him.

“Beware of…my wrath,” I attempted.

Footfalls shuffled our way. The wolf stood nine feet tall in front of me to shield me and snarled maliciously, ready to pounce on anyone coming near.

With all my strength, I lifted a hand, meaning to shove away the monster lit by hellfire, but my fingers sank into his silky fur like I was holding on to my lifeline before I passed out.

In the distance, the war horn blew.