A Heart of Bones, page 26
There was another zing and then another. Dust leapt off the ground next to Tamara’s foot. An arrow glanced off the stone block I was crouching behind. I couldn’t tell where they were coming from. Most of the Enfants had retreated behind the edge of the plateau.
Tamara hunched down and ran toward the other side of the hill. “Fall back!” she yelled. “Get across the bridge. Get back to the stones!”
We all turned and ran toward the bridge, staying as low as possible. Okay—I hobbled toward the bridge. More arrows came, zinging over my head. I wondered exactly how much of a stockpile the evil cult had brought over here with them. One of the Pure Blood running in front of me was hit—a young man I’d never met before. He stumbled and fell, clutching his leg where a broken arrow protruded.
I fell to my knees at his side, pressed my hand to his leg. Blood seeped past my fingers. Tamara landed next to me. “Go!” She pulled at my arm, trying to get me up. “I’ve got him. I’ll cover you.”
I shook my head, trying to concentrate. No, there was nothing. Just like Ivan, I couldn’t heal this person. “Help me get him up,” I said. I was vaguely aware of Richard sending another wave of projectiles over our heads. I knew he’d be out of magical juice soon.
Tamara nodded.
Together, we pulled the young guy to his feet. Richard was suddenly by my side. He took my place, slinging the wounded man’s arm around his shoulder. We all hobbled toward the bridge, staying as low as possible. We were almost there. I could see the stacked stones of the gateway, feel it calling out to me. Home.
A huge, burly guy was already on the bridge. He reached out and grabbed the wounded man, helped Richard drag him across.
Then it was my turn. I stepped up to the edge and looked down. Down into swirling, muddy water churning about ten feet below me. Shit.
I’d seen this exact river before. In my dreams, every single damn night. And here it was, come to vivid life. I hesitated. Richard and the injured man were halfway across.
Tamara passed me, held out her hand. “Come on, Jack! You can do it. Just don’t look down.”
I nodded at her, swallowed down the fear that was threatening to choke me. I didn’t want to step out on that bridge. But the Enfants were leaving their cover, and there were too many of them for us to deal with. More arrows came, and these were closer. I could’ve sworn I felt one fly right past my ear.
Richard and the wounded man were all the way across now, hunkered down behind the rise of the gorge. Richard stood up and raised his arms, his hands working fast to weave a spell made of glowing red threads. He threw it up and out, covering us with magic. The next few arrows careened off in a shower of sparks.
I took a step onto the rickety bridge, then another, then another, focused only on Tamara’s back in front of me, trying as hard as I could not to look down.
There were more arrows. Sparks fell around us, followed by a flash of blue light and a jolt of warning from my drained wards. Richard’s shield was failing.
“Fuck. Hurry,” Tamara muttered.
“Stop shooting, you idiots!” That was Lady Eleanor shouting, so much closer now. “Stop! You’ll hit—”
I didn’t get to hear the rest.
Something slammed into my shoulder, knocking me forward. I knew I’d been hit, but it didn’t feel at all like what I expected being shot with an arrow would feel like. I thought, in those few desperate seconds, that I’d been punched or someone had thrown something at me. But I didn’t have long to think about much before I was falling. I made a last desperate grab for the edge of the wooden bridge, Tamara’s frantic voice at the edge of my hearing, and then I plunged into freezing cold water. My breath punched out of me. Darkness closed over my head.
It was all so familiar that I didn’t immediately panic. My mind had become empty of everything but a blinding clarity, my thoughts quiet.
I knew this was how I died—I’d lived this over and over again in my dreams. I was destined to drown in this dark, muddy water.
That didn’t mean I wanted to fucking die. That weird moment of clarity vanished, and I started to struggle, grabbing at the water in desperation, trying to swim against the current. I couldn’t seem to reach the light, could only catch fleeting glimpses of the surface above me. The light was growing dimmer through the swirling water. Something was pulling me down into the dark. The damn shackles on my legs, I realized with the same stark clarity.
Air didn’t work the same way in Bizarro World, so I wasn’t exactly drowning, but water worked just fine here. Rocks slammed into me as the current dragged me downriver. The freezing cold tore my energy away. The light grew farther and farther from me as I clawed at the water. A weird kind of resigned panic settled into my mind—really just the repetition of the phrase oh well, over and over again—as I sank down. Very profound.
And then something—somebody!—grabbed my hand. I was pulled up, back toward the light. Water rushed past me in a whirl as whoever grabbed me started dragging me against the current. My right arm was useless, but I held on with my left with every bit of fading strength. I couldn’t see anything at all in the swirling mud.
My feet, then my legs, touched something solid. Then whacked painfully against something solid. I kicked and struggled to get my feet under me. The grip of the hand holding mine weakened. And I felt whoever had saved me slipping away out into the current.
I flailed out, caught the edge of fabric—something heavy. The hand gripped my arm again. I wedged myself between two boulders, pulling against the immense force of the river. And I saw, finally, through the murky water, the face of the person who’d rescued me.
Emma.
Her skin was a pale, bright white shining through the water. Her eyes were smudges of unending black. And yet her hand on my arm was as solid, as real as anything else in this world.
I opened my mouth. Nothing but bubbles came out.
She smiled. But this wasn’t the smile of a ghost, a creature of Obscurus. This was the real Emma smiling. The funny, smart person Richard loved. The person he’d lost.
Emma smiled at me, and it contained all of the aching sadness and regret and bittersweet longing I’d expect from someone who’d lost their life too soon.
And then she let go.
I grabbed for her once more, reaching as far as I could, but I was too slow, too weak. She slipped past my fingers. Her pale face disappeared into the dark water, and she was gone. Just like that.
I lay there, clinging to the rocks while the freezing river rushed past me. I was too tired and too damn cold to move. I was just contemplating how long it would take me to freeze to death, when someone reached under my arms and started pulling. Someone with big, manly, capable hands.
Richard.
He dragged me out of the current, up onto the rocky shore, where I collapsed. Then he whacked me on the back while I coughed and sputtered. Not because I needed to breathe, but because freezing cold, muddy water had worked its way down into my lungs and it felt fucking awful.
“You okay? Jack? You okay?”
I nodded, flinging water and sand everywhere.
“Good. We need to move.”
He got me halfway to my feet and dragged me up the short slope to the gateway. I was only vaguely aware of the Pure Blood kicking at the stone supports under the bridge until the wood gave away and the whole thing fell into the river.
“Hurry, hurry.” Tamara was ushering her people through the stone doorway. And one by one they shimmered, blurred, and disappeared.
Richard dragged me after them through the edge of the gate spell, his arms wrapped around me in a bear hug. My head spun as we hit the threshold. There was a sickening, disorienting lurch as we tumbled through somewhere dark and airless that might have been outer space. And then my back hit rocks and pine needles with a painful crunch. Richard landed almost on top of me. His elbow slammed into my ribs. I grunted and wheezed, then rolled over and started coughing water out of my lungs again. I had a sudden, desperate need for more oxygen.
I could hear people around us. Some wheezing, someone groaning, another grunt as someone thumped against the ground. Then Tamara’s voice: “Is that everyone? Peter? Chavez? Tom? Ella, you alright? Anyone else hit? Maggie, watch that gate. Kill anything that comes through.”
There were more voices, answering calls. I managed to lift my head enough to confirm that we were home, we’d made it back through the gateway. I was breathing air again. The familiar, wonderful smell of wet pine needles filled my nose. I could feel life singing all around me, the trees whispering to each other about this latest shocking intrusion. I dug my fingers into dirt and snow. I could’ve cried, I was so happy to be back. I coughed, instead.
And there was Richard crouching down beside me. Richard with his adorable brow furrowed in worry as he poked at my arm, looking as hot as ever, even covered in white dust and mud.
Yes, that was a lot of blood coming out of me, and I was feeling decidedly woozy. But I didn’t care. I was back. We’d made it. If I died here, at least I wouldn’t be a ghost in Bizarro World.
Richard gave me an annoyed look. “Stop moving your arm. I’m trying to keep you from bleeding to death. And stop smiling so damn much.”
That just made me smile harder.
“Shit,” I said. I flopped back onto the ground like a dead fish. I was soaking wet, and it was fucking freezing here. Night had fallen on Earth since I’d been gone. I stared up at the stars through the trees. I swore I could see them wheeling around on their axis, the whole planet spinning. More likely, I was just dizzy as hell. I’d been shot with a goddamn arrow, it was cold and dark, and we were miles away from a road.
That thought sobered me up pretty quick.
Tamara had come over to frown down at me alongside Richard. She handed him a roll of ace bandages. “Three wounded. We lost two on the other side. Got search and rescue on the way,” she said. “They’ll get back to me with an ETA soon.”
Richard grunted without taking his eyes off me. “Try to get some wood gathered. Doesn’t matter if it’s dry or not. I can deal with it. I’ll get us a fire started.”
Tamara nodded, her face sober.
“Molly didn’t make it,” I said. “And Ivan…”
Tamara stared at me for a moment, her eyes shining in the dark. “They knew what they were doing, getting involved with the likes of us, getting tangled up in this life.” She looked away for a moment, down at the bloodied and rusted sword at her hip, back at me. “I’ll miss them a lot, though.” Her voice broke just a bit on the last word. She gave me a little pat on my good arm, got up with a grunt, and went to tend to her people.
Richard was still moving quickly, wrapping the bandage around and around my upper arm. Pain was finally starting to seep in through the cold and exhaustion and adrenaline.
“Emma saved me,” I said.
Richard’s brow furrowed harder. “No, she didn’t. You’re just in shock.”
“Yeah, she did. She pulled me up. Out of the water. It was the necklace.”
“The Enfants have the Heart,” he reminded me.
“No, not that necklace. I mean, it was that one, too. But I mean this one. The one I’m wearing. She didn’t want me to take it off. See.” I patted at my neck with my good hand. My fingers were almost too numb to feel the delicate silver chain. I grabbed onto something tiny that had to be it. “Hawthorn leaf,” I said. “Remember?”
Richard glanced up at my hand, back to his work. “Ghosts can’t pull people out of water,” he very reasonably pointed out.
“The Heart did it. When they made me use it, I think,” I mumbled. I was fading fast now, and it was getting harder and harder to pull my thoughts together. I don’t think I’d ever been so tired, so cold in my whole pathetic life. “She wasn’t all the way t-there. She didn’t d-die on Aprexis. But the Heart brought her back anyway. Brought her back p-partway.”
“Hush,” Richard said. “Try not to talk so much. You’ve lost a lot of blood and you’re freezing. Can you heal your arm?”
“Uh, no. I’m k-kinda…all wrung out.” And the trees here would be no help, but Richard probably didn’t need to know that.
“Fine. I’m gonna warm you up.”
“By getting naked with me?” I asked, suddenly hopeful.
Richard snorted. The furrow in his brow relaxed just a bit. “No, you goober. With magic.”
Goober. I was gonna remember that one. Assuming I didn’t die in the next few minutes.
Richard raised his hands above me. They were shaking just a little, but his fingers still moved with careful precision. A delicious, creeping warmth started in my chest and spread through me, banishing the cold in its wake. It was almost like the little trick he’d pulled in the shower, only a lot less sexy.
“Thanks,” I mumbled. Despite the pain, I was suddenly finding it very hard to keep my eyes open now that I was relatively safe and warm. I’d used a hell of a lot of magic, I’d had my head knocked in, had my soul ripped apart, and I’d been shot with an arrow. Anyone would be worn out after all that.
“What should we do about this?” Tamara was back, pointing down at the gateway.
Richard gave the stacked stones a hard look. “Kick the damn thing down.”
I finally passed out to the sound of stones toppling and magic breaking.
Chapter 21
MY POOR ASS WAS NUMB FROM THE lumpy hospital bed.
I groaned and tried to roll over, but my arm started to hurt so much as soon as I moved that I gave up almost immediately. Plus, all the wires and shit were going to get tangled. Fucking hospitals.
I was alive, though, wasn’t I? That was probably good news.
Still…
Seriously, this bed? Was the mattress made of rebar? “Fucking hospitals.” I muttered it under my breath so none of the nurses who were constantly walking by my door would hear me cursing out their workplace. They’d already made it quite clear that they were tired of my shit.
There was a tiny flash of cold at the side of my neck. I tried to smile. “Yeah. I agree.”
“Talking to yourself again, Mr. Parker?”
A stout nurse with a name tag that read Camila, was standing in the doorway, watching me with a critical eye. She had gentle hands attached to forearms that looked like they spent hours each day bench-pressing free weights. And she was always scowling, even when she was smiling.
“Uh, yeah. Sorry, habit.” I supposed I should try to make every effort to appear normal after suffering a minor concussion, especially if I wanted to get out of here anytime soon.
“Don’t worry, dear. I do that too.” She bustled in and set up some supplies on the little table next to my bed. No bandages, I was happy to note, so I wouldn’t be having my arm tormented during this particular visit. I wondered when my next round of pain meds was due, because I could sure use some of those.
“An FBI agent is here to see you,” Camila said as she injected something into my IV. Probably something boring and useless like antibiotics.
“Oh,” I said.
She was watching me, obviously waiting for me to confess to whatever I’d done that would warrant a visit from the FBI. Someone with so many tattoos just had to be a criminal.
“That’s uh… That’s my boyfriend,” I blurted.
She raised her eyebrows. “I see.”
Whoa. That was weird. Had I actually said that out loud? Maybe the drugs she’d given me weren’t antibiotics after all. The pain in my arm was feeling a bit more distant.
Camila gave me her best scowl-smile. “Just let me clean up here, and I’ll go and fetch him.”
“Okay,” I said.
I must’ve blinked for a really long time, because when I opened my eyes again, Camila was gone and Richard was standing in the door.
I noticed he’d changed his clothes. I mean…duh. But instead of the wrinkled tan raincoat, he had on a sleek black overcoat. It looked damn good on him, assuming you ignored the terrible, red-and-black striped polyester tie he’d paired it with. He was freshly washed, and all cleaned up except for a tasteful amount of scruff on his face. There was a clean, white bandage wrapped around his left hand, but otherwise he seemed unscathed. Not as scathed as I was, anyway.
He scooted the visitor’s chair close to my bed and sat. “Hey,” he said. That same furrowed brow from the last time I saw him was still in place. It worried me. “How’re you feeling?”
I tried to shrug, failed, and winced instead. “I’m okay. Just wish I had enough magic to heal myself so I can get the hell out of here. This bed sucks balls.”
Richard chuckled, and his face lit up. Relief surged through me. “Yep. Sorry. Don’t know enough to heal you myself. Figured this was as good a place as any to stash you while I dealt with a few things.”
Oh, yeah. Things. That sent a renewed surge of fear through me. “Where’s Tamara and the others? Where’s…” I swallowed hard. I’d forgotten for a moment about Molly. And Ivan. And the woman I’d killed. Probably the drugs they’d just given me. I couldn’t remember who else had come through the gateway with us. “The guy who got shot near the bridge? What happened to him? Did everyone make it out?”
Richard smiled. “Yep. They’re all okay. We made it. Tamara’s here. She wants to see you, too. I asked her to give me a few minutes. I wanted to talk to you first.”
“Oh,” I said. “’Cause you love me so much?” I grinned at him, feeling pretty damn good now that the pain meds were starting to do their very important work. And probably more than a little loopy.
Richard chuckled. “Yep. Because I love you so much. But, also…” His adorable smile faltered just a bit. “There’s some stuff we need to discuss. Without Tamara around.”
Worry slunk in again, despite the drugs. “Okay,” I said.
Richard reached out slowly toward the bed, like he was afraid he might hurt me.
I grabbed his hand before he could change his mind.
“It’s just…” He shrugged. “We weren’t the only ones who made it out. I’m pretty sure Lady Rose and at least five of the others escaped. The Vis Magus rebuilt the gateway and sent a team through to Aprexis to investigate the scene. I went with them. The Enfants had a second gateway. Down in the valley behind their camp. We have no idea where it led—they destroyed the exit right after they used it. They could be anywhere in the world by now.”
