Chapter 14
Kai
Iclosed the distance and struck Keldren across the side of the head, hard enough to drop him into the snow but not enough to cause unconsciousness. Pain first. Answers later.
“Bind him tighter.” My voice was pure ice. “Hang him wrongways over the caribou. He answers to her when we return.” My gaze shifted to Hannah. “You will be present for his interrogation if you wish it.”
Her brow lifted, surprise flickering before she masked it. Instead of deflecting or pushing back, she nodded. “Good.”
“Finish securing the prisoners. Watch for stragglers,” I ordered.
I caught Hannah’s arm and guided her toward the nearest boulder before she could protest. “Sit. Your leg needs attention.”
“You had a wolf gnawing on you.” Her eyes widened, revealing a little more gold. “I’m fine. It’s just a scratch from the inkpot glass—”
I sat her down anyway, my hands firm on her waist, lingering for half a breath longer than necessary before I stepped back. “You’ve bled through. Sit.”
She opened her mouth, ready to argue again, but I crouched in front of her and pulled aside the cloak to expose the makeshift bandage on her thigh. The scarf I’d given her was soaked through, dark and wet against the fabric of the stolen trousers.
Another man’s trousers.
Fuck no. That would be corrected quickly.
“This needs to be redone.” I worked at the knot with my fingers, brushing her leg through the fabric as I loosened it.
“Oh, so now you’re a field medic?” She crossed her arms, though she didn’t pull away. “Your talents never cease, do they? I can do this myself.”
Gavriel edged closer. “Sir, Corvan has—”
“If I wanted your opinion, I would’ve asked for it.
I am fully aware of every person’s skills.
” I pulled out fresh bandages, keeping my focus on the task at hand.
If any other man touched these thighs, I would rip him apart.
Corvan deserved better than that. After all, he was a loyal soldier and one I trusted implicitly.
I stripped the sodden scarf away and examined the wound beneath. The glass had cut deeper than I had first assessed, and the jagged gash was still seeping blood.
“This may require stitches.” My voice tightened despite my control. “Though an herbal soak may suffice.” I wasn’t a physician, but the sight of her suffering tightened something in my chest.
“A bath or stitches?” She tapped a finger against her bottom lip. “That’s not a hard choice, you know. I’ll take the bath. I’d rather not be poked by anything.”
“You chose to steal that inkpot from the Night General to make your point. If you hadn’t, it wouldn’t have broken and cut you. This injury is of your own making.”
She batted her eyes, and the gold in them flickered brighter, as if her rage was on display. “So we agree that sometimes people make choices knowing there are consequences, whether it’s abandoning someone or stealing something to make a point.”
The word abandon hit me like a punch to the gut. Perhaps I’d been harsher than necessary before I left her and deserved not having underwear. “We’ll speak of it later.”
“Will we? Good. I’ve got lots of things to say.” She smiled a little too brightly.
I sighed. Of course she did. I wouldn’t have expected anything less from her.
She leaned forward. “Also, if you don’t let me clean that shoulder or let someone with half a lick of sense do it, I won’t feel sorry for you when it gets infected. You’re not Chuck Norris.”
“Chuck of Norris?” I repeated, slower this time, finishing the wrap around her thigh.
“Who is this Chuck, and what is he to you?” She’d never mentioned him before, so was he someone in the town next to the castle?
I didn’t care if he was one of my own or not.
I’d kill him if he posed any sort of risk to Hannah and my relationship.
Being involved with this woman was resulting in a significant kill list.
“He’s an actor back where I came from and played strong, manly men. I didn’t personally know him.” She waved a hand, then snapped her fingers toward my shoulder. “That needs changing.”
A weight lifted from my shoulders. Thank Fate she didn’t have feelings for another man, though we were fated mates, so it shouldn’t be possible.
Still, I wasn’t going to chance anything anymore when it came to her.
“I’m fine.” The words came out rougher than intended, but I didn’t stop her when she slid from the boulder and stepped closer.
My shoulder throbbed with every pulse of my heart, a steady reminder that the wolf had done more damage than I preferred to admit. The shadows had resisted me earlier, being sluggish and uncooperative.
Something was wrong.
“You’re not fine. You’re bleeding through two scarves. I don’t care what you are. That’s not normal.” Her hands were already at work, fingers brushing my collarbone as she loosened the bindings. “Some people have more grit than sense. You don’t need to prove anything. Sit.”
The command in her voice left little room for argument, and something inside me seemed to break at the way she looked at me. She truly was insufferable, and I wouldn’t change anything about her, so I obeyed and sat.
The cold stone pressed through my armor as the movement pulled at my shoulder, and I couldn’t quite suppress the hiss that slipped past my teeth.
“Good boy.” She patted my head and then pulled the first scarf free. “If you’re hurting, it’s a sign that something is wrong.” The fabric came away wet and heavy with blood. Her expression flickered with concern that she quickly masked.
I cleared my throat. “The tin holds a balm that cleanses wounds and encourages healing.”
She removed the second layer and paused.
The damage was clear. Bruised flesh, torn through in places, with the leather beneath it shredded. Had it not been there, the bite might have been far worse.
Her breath caught, and her hand trembled. “And you thought this was something to ignore?”
I narrowed my eyes, though the visor hid it, and she continued unbothered, scolding me as if I were a reckless initiate. “This is ridiculous. I swear you’d cut off your own nose just to prove a point.” She cleaned the wound and then pressed the salve into the torn flesh.
“You have experience treating wounds.” I needed a distraction before my body betrayed me further. The pressure building low in my gut was bad enough.
“Yeah, from the school of hard knocks and all that.” She wrapped the bandage around my shoulder again.
“If you’re going to get in fights and make enemies, you’d better know how to patch up yourself and your…
” She slowed, then shook her head. A muscle jumped in her jaw before she forced it away.
“Anyway, I can do first aid up to a point. I don’t leave people behind.
” She tucked the end of the bandage in and stepped back.
“There. It isn’t pretty, but it’ll hold until we get back.
You need a real doctor or healer or whatever you’ve got down here. ”
I don’t leave people behind.
She wasn’t boasting. Merely telling the truth. It settled into the same place that everything else about her seemed to reach, the part of me I’d spent too long trying to lock down and ignore. “Noted.”
I rose from the boulder and tested the range of motion in my shoulder. Pain answered, reminding me the wound was still there, but the bandage held firm, and the arm obeyed well enough. That would have to do. “Now we go.”
Gavriel approached, leading his and my caribou by their reins. “The prisoners are secured, Your Majesty. We searched the surrounding area, but no additional survivors were found. If any remain, they are farther in. Do you want us to investigate?”
I gazed up the path. The embankment was steep, and the narrow path offered limited access.
The snow was still unstable enough that it would make any advance a gamble.
It wasn’t worth the risk, especially not with Hannah still bleeding beneath makeshift treatment.
The one she had named Keldren carried answers, and the others might prove useful if he disappointed me. “No. We return.”
“We couldn’t find any trace of the Night General either, though two of the Night Court soldiers claimed he was there.” Gavriel looped the reins over the saddlehorn. “He may have died in the avalanche.”
Hannah went uncharacteristically quiet. Her brow creased as she stared up the path with a blank expression.
Something moved through her expression, too layered to read cleanly.
Not relief. Not disappointment. Something tangled between the two.
“He’s the reason I got away. I don’t know if he meant for that to happen or not, but he kept Keldren and the others from raping me.
” She pursed her lips, and her forehead creased.
“But then again, he was going to let them sacrifice me. I think.”
A low sound built in my chest before I swallowed it. I didn’t like uncertainty where she was concerned. I liked the idea of another male laying claim to any part of her even less. What had he said to her? What had he wanted? Had he touched her? But this mountain was not the place for those answers.
The light above us had not improved. If anything, the wrongness in it pulsed, needling at the edges of my skin. Hannah’s cheeks had gone red from wind and cold, and I wanted her away from this place and the prisoners. Away from any and all threats.
“Mount up,” I ordered. “We ride hard for the Dusk castle. No stops.”
My soldiers moved at once, tightening girths, checking the caribou’s tack, and hauling the prisoners into place.
Keldren hung upside down across the back of Corvan’s mount, his body lashed tight enough to keep him from so much as twitching without pain.
Blood had already rushed to his face, turning it an ugly shade, while the gag in his mouth reduced his noises to muffled, useless sounds.