Chapter 47 Evera
EVERA
As the pointed iron bolt of imminent death approached, time slowed.
A slick horror flushed through the bond.
I was faintly aware of Neirin lashing at the ropes that bound him behind me.
I tried to move, but my feet had frozen.
A drop of rain fell to my forehead and dripped along the curve of my brow to my temple.
Just as I drew my breath, my last solid breath, a figure jumped in front of me, then a great impact sent me to the ground. My head throbbed, and I gasped. Air rushed out of my lungs, but I was still breathing, uninjured aside from the impact of a rough fall.
Pushing past the ringing in my head, I rose to my elbows. A weight lay heavy on my legs. Nox held my gaze from the bottom of the hill, stark panic rounding his eyes. The huntsman dropped the crossbow and took a step back, bumping into the tree. And then he was gone, retreating into the shadows.
“Evera.” Ever-ah. Ruairc rose to one arm beside me, and I sucked in a breath. Mottled brown feathers, white at the tips, held my attention. Three of them, too perfect, too beautiful to be attached to the arrow that was embedded in Ruairc’s back.
He coughed, and blood splattered my arm, mixing with the speckling of my freckles.
No.
He lay half on top of me, his legs holding my lower half in place.
I tried to rise, to pull from beneath his weight, but my head spun and the world tilted.
A throbbing where my head had struck the earth pinpointed my pain, nearly pulling me to unconsciousness.
Blinking away the fog from my vision, I rolled to my side to face my friend and cupped his cheek with my palm.
A tear fell across the ridge of my nose and caught in my other eye.
Beneath my hand, Ruairc’s jaw flexed. His breathing was uneven, but there was a calmness to him, a depth to his eyes, a warmth. My lips quivered, and deep inside I knew—knew—he was going to die.
A drop of rain fell to his cheek, and I wiped it with my thumb. Another fell and caught on my lashes.
The breath I drew ached at my lungs. Blinking back my tears and fighting to still the trembling of my hand as I traced my fingers along the coarseness of Ruairc’s beard, I hummed my mother’s lullaby.
The melody was choked, broken by my emotion even as I tried to stop my tears. The rain came down harder, darkening Ruairc’s sandy-blond hair and slicking it to his brow. I combed it aside with my fingers, then leaned in to him.
The shuddering of his breaths fogged between us as I hummed.
When his shaking ceased, and he exhaled on a sigh, I bit down on my lip.
Seconds passed, the stillness consuming.
The iron taste of blood met my tongue, and I scrunched my nose, burying my fingers in the hair at the back of his head.
The tune of my hum faded with his breath until only the pattering of rain in the leaves of the oak’s canopy remained.