A Deal in the Dark
The words I’d spoken to Nella were setting in—we were free. For so long—almost twenty years—I had suffered at the hands of my father in that house. I had longed for an escape for both Nella and me, longed to find my mother, and we had finally taken our first steps on that path.
The excitement was laced with fear, though.
I had no clue where to go, how we would find my mom, or how I would protect Nella out in the world.
I feared for Fadric, too, as I wondered once more what his fate had been.
Part of me hoped I would see him again one day, but I equally hoped to never set foot in Briarstead ever again.
As the adrenaline from our escape expelled from my system, the pain of my wounds really set in, and the panic over the loss of vision in my left eye settled like hardened concrete in my stomach.
I promised myself then that Aemilia would die for this.
It felt like a mortal wound, even though I still lived and breathed.
“Let’s rest here until its light enough to see, then we’ll find our way out,” I said. Hand in hand, we sank to the ground and leaned against the tree I’d hidden behind. I laid my head back against the bark and she laid hers on my shoulder.
I wasn’t sure if Nella slept, but she didn’t stir. Consciousness faded in and out for me, the haze of pain sometimes sending me into sleep and sometimes snapping me awake.
Once I opened my eyes and found it had lightened to morning, I nudged Nella awake and looked around. Nothing but trees everywhere.
The sharp agony had slightly reduced to a throbbing, burning ache, but the movement of getting to my feet sent fresh stabbing pain through the wound. I winced.
“Naci! You’re hurt!” Nella’s eyes were wide and concern laced her words as she reached for my neck.
“I’m fine,” I mumbled, realizing then that I wasn’t, as I felt faint and weak at the knees now that I was standing.
“Naci, you’re not! Your neck, it’s…horrifying.
” She added that last word in a hushed tone one would use over the sickbed of someone dying.
Her eyes roved over the wound top to bottom.
“It’ll get infected if we don’t do something about it soon.
How big are these woods? How far is the next town?
We need to get there as fast as possible. ”
I had no idea what lay beyond our hometown. In the back of my mind I remembered Briarstead was in the center of a cluster of small towns, but I had no way of knowing which one was in the direction we were headed. I wasn’t sure my brain was even functioning at full capacity at the moment.
“I don’t know, but we need to go further into the woods, in case Aemilia intends to make good on her promise. Cassius knows we’re gone by now, so we need to get as far away as possible.”
She looped her arm around mine and we walked deeper into the forest.
“She’s awful. Do you think Fadric is okay?” Nella asked, shooting nervous glances my way.
Pain lanced my heart as hard as my burned face and neck. If he had died before I apologized for how angry I’d gotten over him ripping my clothes, or thanked him for his help with the coin…
I couldn’t think about that now. I could only think of Nella, the road ahead, and healing my throbbing wounds.
Of finding my mother. But I would mourn him when I knew for sure whether he was dead.
For now, I had to pretend, for my sake and Nella’s, that he had made out the same as I did—scarred but otherwise alive.
Another jolt of pain went through my neck, as if the lightning was still alive in my skin, crackling across the open wounds. I cried out as the pain sent me to one knee.
Nella was there in front of me in an instant. “We’ve got to find some water to rinse those wounds out,” she said as she looked around in a frenzy.
There had to be a water source within the woods. Surely the stream I’d leapt over last night flowed into the woods somewhere.
I sighed and clenched my jaw as I stood. We had to keep moving. “Stay close to me. I don’t know where the border of the fae territory is out here, but if we cross, I don’t know what we’ll find. We find water quickly, then move on.”
Nella nodded and wrapped an arm around my waist as I led us on. What if I was leading us right into the worst kind of unknown? Paranoia had me questioning every step.
We walked in tense silence, Nella supporting more of my weight with each passing minute as I grew weaker.
Every slight noise made me anxious—especially those coming from my left side.
The darker the forest got, the more I realized how much of a detriment the loss of half my sight was.
It felt like there were far more shadows than there should be, given the minimal sunlight here.
A loud crack followed by a thump made us both jump, spiking my heart rate and my adrenaline once more.
I shoved Nella behind me, looking around for the source but seeing nothing.
I backed us toward a tree with a large enough base to hide us.
We inched around to the other side of the massive trunk—my pain dulled and nearly forgotten as survival instincts took over—but I couldn’t tell which direction the sound came from.
It had been far too loud to be a stick breaking.
My stomach somersaulted, thinking it sounded like a bone snapping.
I knew that sound from the number of times I’d ended up with a broken arm from my father or Aemilia.
But surely the thing getting its bones broken would make noise from the pain?
Unless it was already dead from whatever was doing the breaking…
Each passing thought was more unsettling than the last in the eerie silence that followed. I could just make out Nella’s frantic, rapid breaths over my thrashing heart as her hand found mine and squeezed. Her fear sharpened my senses.
My ears pounded with the effort of picking out any sound around us. Somewhere above, a bird crowed, and I jumped, making me slip on a fallen branch that caused me to stumble and nearly fall. My only saving grace had been my hold on Nella’s hand. As I righted myself, she let out a sigh of relief.
“I think that branch is what we heard crack. It must have broken off this tree.”
We both looked up the tree it had fallen from, spotting a black bird on a low branch that must have been the culprit for my near heart attack.
It took off a moment later, and I felt myself finally breathe.
Nella was right. A branch breaking from a tree made more sense than the sound of breaking bones when there was nothing around but the crow.
Or was it a raven? What even was the difference?
“Let’s just keep moving. This place is giving me the creeps, and I wanna get back into the sunshine.”
Nella nodded, and we kept moving.
* * *
Fueled by pure adrenaline, we walked on until we heard the unmistakable sound of rushing water.
A patch of lighter ground came into view ahead, where the trees were more sparse, letting in the sunlight.
We approached with caution, and the sound of water became louder.
I looked at Nella at the same time she grinned at me, knowing we were on the right track.
We took off at a run, but the jarring steps sent wave after wave of pain up my neck and face every time my feet struck the ground. I slowed, then swayed.
Nella realized I was no longer beside her. When she doubled back, the fear reflected in her eyes made my stomach drop—I must have looked bad for her to look at me that way.
“We’re almost there, Naci. Just a little further, and we can rest and drink.”
I held her hand and took slow, heavy steps, as if my limbs were made of stone.
The stream was slowly getting closer. Something so close had never felt so far away.
I felt dizzy from the pain and far more disoriented from the half vision than I had back at the fallen branch.
The last of my strength was fading as I clung to consciousness with everything I had.
I kept focusing on Nella, keeping one thing running through my head: she needs me.
We finally made it to the edge of a stream that was shallow enough to see the rocky bottom.
I fell to my knees at the water’s edge and plunged my hands in.
It was icy cold but felt so soothing on my flushed skin.
As I drank mouthfuls of water, one after another, Nella knelt beside me and drank her fill, too, then waited for me to finish.
“If you’ll lie back, I’ll pour some water on your burns. It’s not much of a cleaning, but it’s the best we can do for now.”
I did as she asked, thinking the cold would at least feel good against the scalding skin. As she dribbled the first handful of water over the side of my face, I heard a crackle. I twitched in pain rather than relief and wondered if Aemilia’s magic could somehow still be alive in my skin.
“Nella, no more. The magic…” I panted. “It’s still there…does not like water.”
A look of abject horror came over her as darkness tinted the corner of my vision in my one good eye, and the sick feeling in my stomach heightened. I was on the verge of passing out, but I fought as hard as I could to keep consciousness…
* * *
A bird’s crow roused me from what felt like a deep slumber.
Pain overwhelmed my senses, and when I opened my eyes, I registered only seeing one side of the world around me.
I bolted upright, but Nella was there beside me, holding my hand with tears lining her eyes.
I wondered how long I had been out as the memory of how we’d gotten here and why came crashing back.
It had been long enough that the sun was now setting.
“You’ve been moaning and breathing heavily and muttering. You…didn’t sound okay.” She looked nervous when she added the last bit.