The Princess Who Tamed Demons Read Online Free PDF Page A

power in every sense of the word. He was
the man I had fallen in love with. The man I was married to. The
man who had just shot me with a crossbow bolt, leaving my body a
ruined and bleeding mess. Somehow I sensed the bolt's barb broken
off somewhere in my vitals.
    I kept screaming, and being coherent was low
on my list of priorities. Drake's thunder-struck face quickly
vanished, replaced by desperation as he vaulted from the saddle and
rushed to my side. The Great Amir soon joined him, bellowing at the
healer in the hunting party to ready himself. Drake's hands were
pressing on my abdomen, trying to stifle the appalling gush of
blood. I was turned onto my side, my eyes struggling to stay open
as Drake's words sought to soothe me even though their anguished
tone and my flaring pain told me that it most definitely would not be okay.
    "Najika, focus on me. Keep your eyes open.
Najika!" I was vaguely aware of Sir Amir using a wad of torn cloth
to stem the blood flowing through the exit wound. Then I saw a
hook-nosed man kneeling over me, his beady midnight eyes swallowing
me up in the fiercest concentration. His hands plunged into my
wounds as I screamed my voice raw, and strange incantations tumbled
in jumbled mumbles from his lips. A tingling heat tore through my
body. I jerked, spasms ricocheting up and down my spine, soon
spreading through my arms, legs, torso and waist.
    I groaned, whimpered pitifully, the tears
streaking down my face produced by sheer pain.
    Next I wasn't sure what happened, whether my
eyes closed first or I blacked out. I guess by then it didn't
matter.
    ~*****~

Chapter 3
    Day Three
    Pale light filtered through the tiny slit in
the closed drapes. I didn't move. I didn't dare to. I lay there
underneath the sheets, a camisole hugging my chest and
undergarments of cotton around my hips, plus the bandages wrapped
so snugly around my abdomen. It hurt to breathe so much that the
very act of breathing seemed accomplishment enough. My eyes were
closed, and I kept them that way. I heard the stir of voices,
several sets in huddled counsel.
    "Forgive me, Lordships. I healed her before I
knew that the barb had broken off into several pieces. There wasn't
time. Now I was able to go back in and remove them, but
there was some lasting damage during the process…and she, well, I'm
afraid that she…."
    The healer's uncertainty trailed off with
regret before I heard Drake's growling voice.
    "Spit it out, man!"
    The healer sighed. "She…will never have
children. I am sorry."
    There was a hush, and I tried to be good. I
tried to be so quiet and so still. The problem with being quiet and
still was that usually that required not crying, and as the
healer's words sank in a wave of emotion crested and enveloped me.
My chest heaved as sobs shook somewhere deep inside a place I
hadn't known existed. Tears were streaming down my face, not the I'm in physical pain kind, but the My heart feels like
it's been ripped out variety. Drake was at my bedside in an
instant. His hands cupped my face and I saw my pain reflected in
his eyes.
    "Najika, I'm so sorry." Drake's words sounded
broken. He leaned down, gently putting a hand against the back of
my head as I cried into his shoulder, making it damp as if a tiny
but effective torrential downpour had targeted just the one spot.
Everyone else must have been intelligent enough to vanish because
once I was all cried out and feeling numb, I eventually blinked,
looked around, and saw that it was now just the two of us in the
infirmary. Drake had slipped onto the bed beside me, gathering me
into his arms. I pressed my face against his chest, inhaling the
deep, musky scent that was Drake to ground me. His arms cocooned
me. I pressed my wet eyelids against his shirt, keeping them closed
as a steadying shudder emptied my lungs.
    Breathe, Najika. Just
breathe.
    Usually I was the shrewd Queen listening to my
husband's problems, giving him advice when he was at his wit's end.
Not now, though.