Page 4 of The Serpent Prince

This felt like one of the divination visions coming on, but much, much stronger. Something dangerous was happening to her, and like when her brands appeared, her instincts were screaming for her to hide.

“Is that it?” Saevel asked, confused, as he rounded on her. He reached out to hold her again.

Imani felt sick to her stomach; the pain she was suddenly feeling was taking over her body. Something was extremely wrong, and she absolutely needed to keep this hidden from Saevel, someone she didn’t trust one bit.

In fact, she was almost positive this was another vision from Meira coming on, far more intense than any other. Something was happening to her sister … and, consequently, her.

Still shaking, Imani shoved past him. “I need to go,” she mumbled.

Saevel grabbed his clothes. He shrugged on his shirt and pulled on his pants while watching her with his brows drawn. “I figured you’d stay longer.”

“You figured wrong,” she muttered. “I’m tired; don’t take it personally.” Ladies didn’t usually leave a prince like she was doing. But she was not about to let decorum stop her, not when she needed to hide this pain from him—from everyone.

What in the Six Saints was going on? The visions had never been this invasive and painful before.

Leaving an open-mouthed Saevel sitting on his bed, Imani stepped outside into the drizzle and eyed the woods behind the tent. Dazed, her feet practically moved on their own as she hurried through the haze of rain, gaze intent on the heavy darkness amongst the trees.

Something hard blocked her way. She ran into the steel chest of Prince Kiran.

Taken aback at her presence outside his brother’s tent, he openly stared at her with his eyes narrowed and mouth thin. Indeed, his furious green iris appeared as if it would burn right through her. But was he worried about her? A small vulnerable part of her hoped he was at least concerned, and she even thought about asking him for help. To not feel so alone in this suffering sounded lovely. But she could never read Kiran, and he didn’t deserve her secrets.

One thing was obvious—he wasn’t happy about finding her leaving his brother’s tent without knowing why she had been there in the first place.

Well, too bad.

The tightening sensation such a look spurred in her chest nearly caused her to lose her breath with its strength.

Kiran moved to reach for her waist as she swayed on the spot, but she pushed him away. The rest of the pain was easy to ignore with the immense pounding in her head. She pinched her fingers to the bridge of her nose, unwilling to look at him anymore.

“Get away from me,” she growled, putting out her other hand to push him out of the way. The planes of his flat abdomen were firm underneath her fingers when she touched him, and his skin was warm even through his clothes. Imani longed to slide her hands up and down his waist and bury her head in his chest, to not feel so alone in this agony. Instead, she stumbled into the woods nearby, alone, without another word.

Once in the cover of the tree line, she darted a glance over her shoulder.

As if frozen in place, he merely stood there, watching her with drawn brows. But there was a little less malice painted across his handsome features.

With her attention elsewhere, she tripped over a branch. Once she righted herself and looked back again, he was gone.

She breathed a sigh of relief that neither prince seemed to sense anything was really wrong with her. But something was wrong with her, tearing her apart from the inside.

Free from curious eyes, Imani let the pain wash over her and immediately dropped to her knees. Her stomach clenched, and she threw up her dinner. She heaved several more times until, finally, it stopped. Her chest hollowed out, and all she could do was lie prone on the ground. She pressed her blazing cheek to the cold, wet leaves as a vision of blood running down her temples flashed in her mind.

Real blood began sliding down from the crown of her head, like she’d cracked open her skull. Maybe something had—had she hit her head on a branch or the ground? Or was it something else? Some magic she didn’t understand? It wet her skin and hair.

Pain continued blasting through her, almost as bad as the sacrificial, blood burning flesh magic ritual she had done with Kiran to save her life after she’d failed the assessments. Even the reappearance of her brands hadn’t felt this all-consuming.

She could barely move but tried to stand.

A tunnel formed in her line of sight, and she swayed a little until she fainted and blacked out for a few minutes. Images of Meira flooded her mind, exactly like the visions she was used to seeing of her over the past several months. It showed her sister lying in bed, tossing and turning, moaning in pain. Blood dripped down her brow and temples. Imani could feel the silkiness of the sheets, slick with blood, covering Meira’s face. Sharp pains still assaulted Imani, and she couldn’t help but wonder what the divination magic was revealing, and doing to them.

Despite the grotesque scene, Imani didn’t push it away. She missed her sister and relished the connection.

The visions had never felt this intense before, and she hated the scene. While part of her would enjoy revenge against her sister, another part of her still felt protective, even if Meira had made it clear she didn’t want to be protected.

So odd how one could go years without knowing who people really were on the inside. Imani had chosen to see only the good memories with her sister. Like picking fruit from a basket, she’d completely glazed over the other imperfect or downright rotten pieces. If ignorance was a fruit, then for years, Imani had eaten only the ripe, perfect ones.

Still, Imani basked in these half-dreams, half-visions, feeling close to her sister and relieved she wasn’t alone in experiencing this pain. Hopefully, Imani was taking some of it away from Meira when they shared these visions.

When Imani’s eyes fluttered open, she was back in the woods and the pain in her skull was a dull ache. Her head dropped with the weight of what had just occurred, but Imani gathered her strength.