74. THE BARGAIN AND THE BEAST #3
“I need a blade that’s not iron.” He palmed his hips, searching for another weapon, but halted when Corinne hiked her dress up and plucked a dagger from the holster that was strapped around her thigh.
“Here,” she shoved it into Weston’s hands.
He angled it over my chest, hesitating. “I’m sorry, Auren. This won’t be pleasant.”
“Just do it,” I commanded. The burn was becoming unbearable, and I could feel the blood pooling beneath me from my other wounds.
The Dionach at my back placed a gentle but firm grip on my shoulders, bracing me against him.
Weston exhaled, brows pinching as he concentrated and slid the tip of his dagger into the already split skin.
My vision blurred. Pain washed over me. My chest caved, and I began to shake uncontrollably as my body protested another foreign object inside me.
“I’m sorry,” Weston repeated. “Just hold on.” He wiggled the dagger back and forth, working to pry the shard of iron free. Every movement felt like it was severing individual nerves that were tied to different areas of my body.
Tears slipped down my cheeks, and my head fell against my shoulder as I drew quick, shaky breaths, fighting to stay conscious.
My eyes landed on Breck. His chest was barely rising and falling.
He’d come to save me. He’d saved all of us.
Please don’t be dead.
I needed to get him to the cave. Time was running out.
I felt and heard Weston’s dagger hit something metal, and my breath seized in my lungs. In one final push, he dug deeper and pried the shard out. A blinding pain shot through me, and then there was instant relief.
I sagged back against the other Dionach, whose strong hands ran soothing strokes up and down my arms.
Weston peered down at the pointed tip from the arrow. His bloodied fingers held it closer for me to see, before he flicked it into the forest. “You did well. Your body should start to heal now.”
I could already feel my power regenerating as it circulated through me, reinforcing every bone and blood vessel, and reminding me of every injury I’d sustained.
There hadn’t been time for me to feel the damage that had been done.
My adrenaline had kept me going, and kept me blind to the extent of it.
I imagined I looked like death, with my bloodied face, broken nose, slashed stomach, and shredded hand.
Queen Corinne watched me closely. “How do you feel?”
The blood loss from my abdomen had slowed, but the wounds were still gaping.
Inhaling through my nose was a little easier now that the swelling was going down, and my hand tingled where the skin was slowly knitting itself back together.
It would take time for me to heal completely. But time was something we did not have.
“I’ll live,” I said, tossing her and Weston my best attempt at a grateful smile.
Weston blew out a breath and smiled back.
I leaned forward to stand, and the Dionach behind me slid his arms underneath mine to assist in the effort.
“We need to get to the cave. It will speed my healing, and it can save Breck.”
The queen looked wary. “You’re not even fully—”
“I can do it,” I said. Wounded or not, I had to. No one else had ever seen the cave. The only way we would get there was if I took us.
Weston stepped up to me. “Auren, your strength isn’t at full capacity. I cannot let you risk—”
I held up a bloodied hand to stop him. “I’m a lot stronger than I was when you last saw me.”
He didn’t like the idea, I could see it on his face. But we had no other choice.
“Wait,” the queen said as she turned to the other Dionach. “Go with them.”
Weston immediately protested. “Core, you can’t—”
“I’ll be fine. Someone needs to carry him.” She nodded to Breck, who was now lying disturbingly still.
The tawny-winged Dionach immediately went to him, scooping his limp body into his arms and returning to Weston and me.
In the brief silence, the queen’s delicate hands found my face. “I am so sorry. This was not part of our plan.” Before I could reply, she reached for the Dionachs and herded them closer to me. “You must go. Quickly.”
“But what about you?”
“I have someone who can get me to your mate. I will tell him what has happened here.”
Weston slid an arm behind my knees and lifted me.
I still wasn’t sure what, exactly, had happened here. How had the queen and Weston known where I was? Was the queen actually supposed to meet me here in the first place? Or had that been another one of Killian’s lies? In any case, Skadi now had her amulet, and that did not bode well for anyone.
Niall wouldn’t be happy. Gods, he would lose his mind if I didn’t show back up at camp soon. He was probably already pacing the grounds.
The unfamiliar Dionach stepped closer, offering me his elbow.
I clutched it with one hand, gripping Weston’s shirt with the other.
Porting myself and three others, while wounded, and barely at a point where I was no longer bleeding out .
. . This would be interesting, if not potentially the thing that pushed me closer to death.
But I didn’t have time to think about that. I plunged into my well of power, as far down as it would let me go. Pain surged across my stomach as I pictured the wraith’s cave, and disappeared.