It was their best chance to lose their pursuers.
When the open meadow gave way to the shelter of trees, Gideon trudged through the undergrowth, driving them deeper in, where the forest was thickest. The back of his jacket was warm and wet now, soaked with blood. His body felt heavy, his mind cloudy, and more than once, his legs didn’t do what he wanted, and he stumbled.
With so much blood lost, he was bound to lose consciousness soon. He couldn’t continue much further.
But if he told Rune that, she might stay with him and be recaptured.
“We’ll have a better chance if we split up,” he said. “You go on ahead. I’ll double back.”
He heard the soldiers in the woods now: their voices, their gunshots, the whinnies of their horses.
Rune turned sharply to face him. “But how will we find each other? There’s nowhere safe.”
She blurred before him. Gideon pressed his hand to the trunk of a tree, steadying himself against the slow spin of the woods.
“Rune… if I don’t make it—”
“Why wouldn’t you make it?”
Her voice seemed far away. Like he was underwater.
“Gideon?”
His legs were trying to decide whether or not to keep holding him up.
They decided against it.
The earth rushed up to meet him.
“Gideon!”
SIXTYRUNE
AS GIDEON COLLAPSED TOhis hands and knees, Rune caught sight of his coat. Which glistened darkly.
Rune frowned, looking closer.What…
At the sight of the blood, her heart plummeted into her stomach.
“You absolute idiot.” She dropped to her knees, her wrists still bound with rope. “Why didn’t you tell me they shot you?”
Gideon just shook his head, his eyes going unfocused. “Leave me here. I’m dead weight now.”
Rune wanted to grab his shoulders and shout the sense back into him. “If you think I’m leaving you in the woods of Wintersea to die, you’re dumber than a stump.”
A horse whinnied close by.
Rune froze, listening.
There were soldiers on horseback everywhere. She needed to get Gideon out of here.
But first, she needed to stop his bleeding.
Remembering the spellmarks Juniper had drawn on her arms to stopherbleeding, she touched his soaked jacket. “Gideon? I need your permission.”
He glanced up at her. Even in the dark, she sensed his confusion.
“I need your blood.”
