Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Leo wipes my chin with his wet sleeve and sits back, pulling me into his arms.
“I’m so sorry,” I sob. The first words from my healed lips.
“Don’t be. You’re not the one who tried to hurt me.”
I clasp him tighter, his violent shivers vibrating in my bones. He’s poured all his energy into healing me, calming me, and dragging me from the river. And now he has nothing left. No way to fight the cold.
I bear his weight on my shoulders while I survey our unfamiliar surroundings. The current must’ve dragged us downriver. In the near distance, birds cry and dogs bark, but here on this little stretch of bank, Leo and I are alone.
For now.
Hastily, I splay my hands between his shoulder blades and channel the energy that’s ping-ponging underneath my skin. Ember’s lingering emotions won’t hurt him, they’ll feed him. I’m a human IV bag, dripping vitality into his system.
He raises his head, his back straightening and his shoulders now squared. Even his fingers come to life, twitching and sinking into my hips.
A sudden jerk at my throat has me fumbling for my neck. My hood twists in my hair, pulling my head back. Leo’s hands slide off my thighs, the distance between us growing as wide as his eyes.
Behind me growls a voice, one I immediately recognize as River’s, “Give me the ring and I won’t kill her.”
There’s another jerk on my hood and I’m tugged further back, dragged across tree roots and vines. Leo lunges for me, snatching my calf. “Let her go!”
“Give me the ring and I will.”
“We don’t have it.” Leo struggles to his knees, catching his wobble with a fist to the ground. He’s still too weak to stand.
River twists my hood so tight I can’t breathe. I kick and fight, trying to pull the fabric from my windpipe, but he only chokes me harder. Determined, I grope for the hem, hoping to tear the whole shirt off me instead.
“No, no, clever girl.” River hauls me back with another vicious yank. “You’re not getting away.”
Leo watches, pale and frozen. Why isn’t he calling the trees? Why is he looking up at River with so much fear in his eyes?
I dig my heels into the ground and push, thrusting my weight at River, hoping to knock him backwards on his ass. But all he does is laugh. “She’s a fighter,” he says, amused.
“Betts, stop,” Leo pleads.
“Shame to kill her.” River tugs sideways on my hood, giving me a view of his icy eyes and lurid sneer. When moonlight glints off a dagger poised in his free hand, I realize why Leo is balking.
“Do I slit her throat?” River asks him. “Or do I strangle her, just like you did to me?”
Leo jerks into action, raking through the brush and leaves, hunting for the bracelet.
“Leo, don’t,” I rasp, but my hood strangles my words.
River twists it one more time and yanks up until I’m awkwardly suspended and my windpipe completely restricted.
I kick and flail, trying to get up on my knees to bear my weight, but River only pulls me higher.
“Survival of the fittest. Have you heard of that, saoi? It’s how nature really works.
The strong prey on the weak. They kill to dominate, and dominate to survive. ”
My blood beats against the noose, and my lungs scream for air. I claw at my neck, oblivious to the pain.
“And Subworlders?” River scoffs, spraying me with spit. “The only thing they’re good for is bait. For picking off, one by one, until you meet our demands.” He jerks me another foot higher. “Starting with this one.”
Lights and spots consume my vision. My chest blazes and my heart cries out for Leo. Just let me touch him one last time.
A horrific pop splits the air, and my hood goes slack.
I crash to my knees as a sickening thump resounds behind me.
“Don’t look!” Leo hisses, snatching me into his arms.
Stupid me, I look.
Splayed in the mud and leaves is River, limbs twisted and blood spurting from the side of his head.
Leo presses my face to his chest, his jacket muffling my fragile scream.
Leaves crunch and branches snap, drawing my attention to my other side. Rime emerges from the trees, moonlight flashing off something shiny in his hand. Something aimed at the crumpled figure on the ground.
“Get her out of here,” he says, his unblinking red hawk’s eyes trained on River.
Leo rises, bracing my shaking body against his and supporting me with his arms. But neither of us has the strength yet to walk.
Like a seasoned mobster, Rime stands over the fallen fae, handgun and glare pointing down. When River doesn’t move, Rime flips him over with the toe of his boot. “He’s dead,” he says flatly, lowering the gun.
“Oh my god.” There’s a dead body on the ground beside me. Not in a movie. Not on my phone. For real. Leo tries to hold me, but I push back, eyes drawn to the morbid sight.
Rime saved my life.
Leo reaches for the gun, sliding it out of Rime’s trembling grip and setting it behind us out of sight. Rime crouches beside River and drops his head in his hands, moonlight bathing his blond hair.
The river drums and the wind moans in the trees.
Finally, Rime looks up, inhaling deeply and running his hands firmly down his face. He unsheathes his dagger, and without flinching, twists the tip of the blade into the pad of his middle finger.
I cling to Leo and watch in reverent silence as Rime squeezes his own blood onto the chest of the fae he killed.
There he lays his cut hand and murmurs words too soft for me to hear.
A benediction? Commending the spirit to the gods?
It’s more than I can grasp, more than my heart can contain.
I drop my head onto Leo’s shoulder and let him hold me, both of us struggling to restrain our bone-rattling shivers.
With a sigh, Rime stands, jaw clenching as he glances in every direction. “We need to get out of here,” he says. “And we need to get you two warm.”
Leo gestures something to him, mouthing words I’m at the wrong angle to read. When he encircles his wrist with his thumb and forefinger, I realize what he’s saying.
Several beats of dead silence ensue before Rime shakes off his shock. “Where is it?”
Leo hasn’t let go of me, and he makes no move to do so now. “Somewhere behind me.”
Surprisingly, Rime doesn’t complain about searching the area on his own. “Tell me what I’m looking for,” he says, dropping to his knees and pawing through the mud and dead leaves.
Through chattering teeth, I answer, “A lead box about the size of your hands.” I try to twist out of Leo’s hold, determined to help, but he only grips me tighter.
“Don’t go near it.”
Instead of arguing, I stay with him—here in the safe space between the dead body and the bracelet. He’s my shelter in this storm of horrors. He hugs me tight, his sticky hand tangled in my hair and his warm breath on my temple.
“Found it.” The box sits in Rime’s hand, plastered in pine needles and mud.
As he rises, he swipes his gun off the ground. “Now let’s get out of here before I have to use this again.” Like an undercover cop, he slips the weapon back into the holster hiding under his jacket. The one I had no idea he was wearing.
“Topaz?” I croak, the last few hours coming back to me in a rush. Ghosts, coyotes, snakes.
Daggers.
“It might take her a little longer to get back, but she’ll be alright,” Rime replies, the bob in his throat belying the confident tone of his voice. He points vaguely behind Leo and me. “When she realized I was following River, she lured Burdock and Juniper in the opposite direction.”
“That’s two against one,” I gasp, my throat tightened by a fit a shivering. “And two ghosts.”
Rime shrugs. “The ghosts vanished.”
I peer up at Leo. “Do you think—?”
He nods. “Because you took the bracelet.”
And left nothing in the hiding place for them to guard.
Leo warns Rime, “We need to keep the box away from Betts.” He kisses my trembling fingers with frosty, purply-blue lips. “It’s been torturing her.”
It won’t be long until his calming magic wears off and Ember’s energy comes for me again.
“I’ll go ahead,” Rime says, eyes switching to red-orange. He pauses for a moment or two, alert and silent, then stalks away from us.
I bring him up short with a “But—”
He spins around. “But what?”
I bite my lip.
“It’s okay,” Leo says, following my gaze to the body on the ground. “They’ll come back for him.”
Rime agrees. “They’ll send scouts to find him.” His eyes drop to River, but only briefly, before he turns to stare blankly into the trees.
Beside me, Leo wriggles out of his jacket.
“What are you doing?” I hiss. “You’ll freeze.”
“A chroí,” he starts softly. “We have to walk through town, and you—” He drags a hand across his mouth and sucks in a breath, his eyes scanning my torso.
I look down and sway on my feet.
Blood. Spatters of it on my chest and shoulders. I grab a handful of my hair and tug it in front of my eyes. Sticky dark spots cloud the silvery white.
Don’t cry. Not right now.
My inhale is more of a shudder. Lips and jaw clamped tight, I take the jacket from Leo and slide my arms into the cold, wet sleeves. Then I zip it up as high as it will go.
Leo smooths a hand over my head, but there’s no removing the crusted blood. “Put the hood up when we get to town.”
I nod and glance up at Rime.
There’s a sea of torment in his eyes. “I’m sorry, little psychic.”
Unable to contain the tears, I sniffle as I shake my head. “Don’t be. You saved my life.”
His only answer is a grimace of a smile. He turns and walks off, his strides purposeful and swift. Leo grabs my hand, holding me back until Rime and the bracelet are a safe distance away, then we follow his path into the woods.