Wicked Love | ✓ (#featured)

¹⁶ | p a r o x y s m

(n.) a sudden outburst of emotion

Zane could not relax as the scene played out before him and all of Gwahan. He had been worried before Raneem had established contact with him through their family insignia, but he became even more fretful as he channeled all the events in the throne room. She was angering the older woman and he could feel that she was indeed powerful. His heart nearly went into an arrest as the contact broke. The woman was trying to kill him by disallowing any contact with her until she made contact with him. Amira might find out, she said. Blast the woman for twisting his heart painfully in anticipation!

Prince Zane! The house breaker's voice rang in his head. I see the princess above me. The woman is killing her. I cannot scale up more to aid her. The walls are sheer and the vine ends a few spans below. I cannot attract attention lest she kill me as well.

Zane pushed the rising panic away from his chest, but his thoughts were tumbling demanding where they were. He wasted no time as he was told of the location. Above him, he could see Raneem's struggles were growing faint as she tried to fend off the witch. Bent over backwards, he could see the pain clearly in her face with his heightened sight. He growled and restraint fled from his mind.

Catch her. He sent the house breaker and with a roar, destroyed the wall the balcony was attached to as he ran under it, binding and gagging the older woman as he did so.

The house breaker did catch her but a chunk from the balcony hit his hand sending them both hurtling downward. Cursing, he let Amira fall toward the trees and called for the plants to create a web that would break their fall. They crashed and Zane prayed to all the gods that he knew that she was safe and alive.

He cared not a whit for the guerillas Adam gathered running in another direction in a rage, nor did he care for the raucous rioting that was beginning all around. There was nothing more important to him than to know that his Raneem was alive and well. And run with the speed of the wind he did.

Zane reached them and saw the house breaker groaning in pain, Raneem on top of him. He pushed feelings of possessiveness aside as he touched their foreheads. The man was fine but for a few bruises and scratches, but Raneem-he saw blood mar one side of her head and he gathered her quickly in his arms. Worse, contact poison was on her throat and was slowly destroying her from the inside.

Cursing, himself, Zane wished he had learned the ways of healing. But he knew that even if he did, he was not deft at it. The most he would be able to do was close her wound. He was born a fighter, not a healer. He called on one of his elves and pleaded Adam to handle whatever was going on in Gwahan, relaying what had happened after the images vanished.

A soft breeze fluttered the curtains as dawn flitted through the windows casting Raneem's skin in warm light. The touch of dawn did not reach Zane as he sat by her, his mood dark. He had come so close to losing her and sent him into a fit of madness. He could only thank Adam and Leanne for holding him back or he would have destroyed-so many things.