“I don’t think it reached the bone, but they’re deep.” Ryder rips strips of fabric from his cloak and begins to tie them tightly around my arms. “We should go back.” He shakes his head likehe’s mad at himself for not protecting me, but I can see over his shoulder he was outnumbered three to one.
“No! I didn’t come this far to turn back now,” I argue.
“If it had been a couple more seconds, you’d be dead.” His face is tense as he finishes tying off the fabric.
“But it wasn’t.” I lean in, drawing his eyes to mine. “I’m fine. It’s just a few scratches.”
They aren’t just a few scratches, and now that the shock has worn off, the pain is raging, but he doesn’t need to know that. If he knows how much pain I’m really in, he’ll take us back, and I’ll never get my answers.
I stand up and brush myself off. “Come on, we’ve got an Oracle to see,” I insist, reaching my hand out.
He’s reluctant, but he takes it.
“There’s that Reign stubbornness I love so much.” His voice drips with sarcasm, and it earns him a laugh.
“Regretting your offer to bring me here already?”
“More than you know,” he says in a low murmur as his gaze drops to my poorly bandaged arms.
When night falls and it’s too dark to continue, we find a hole in one of the trees to conceal ourselves in. I doubt I’ll get much sleep against the tangled roots, but at least we’re somewhat hidden from whatever monsters lurk within these woods.
“We’ll leave as soon as the sun comes up. For now, try to get some rest.”
I prop myself up against the inner wall and close my eyes. After an hour with no success, I finally give up. Between the sounds and my paranoia, sleep is impossible.
“How are the arms?” Ryder asks when I open my eyes.
“Sore, but I’ll manage.” Sore isn’t quite the right word to describe what I’m feeling, but I need him to believe I’m okay.
I watch as he stares out the tree’s opening. He’s alert, but also looks lost in thought. He must feel my eyes burning into him because he turns his head to look at me.
“Something you want to say?”
“No.” I quickly look down at my thigh and fidget with the sheath keeping my dagger in place.
“Mmhmm.” He doesn’t sound convinced, but he turns back around anyway.
“What were those things?” I finally ask in an effort to fill the silence.
“Lybrates.”
“They looked like chimeras.”
“You could say they’re chimeras’ evil twin. Lybrates were created from demon blood years ago. Most were hunted and killed, but there are some that remain in these woods.”
“Well, now there are four fewer thanks to you.” I mean it as a compliment, but his stiff demeanor makes me think he’s still beating himself up over not killing the one that attacked me fast enough.
“I sent one of my men back to the Shadow Lands and told him to make sure your friends know you’re safe.”
“Thank you!” The words practically come out as a squeal, and I can’t stop the giant smile that spreads across my face.
“I didn’t really have much of a choice. That best friend of yours is a real menace when it comes to you.” Ryder turns his body slightly so that he doesn’t have to rotate his head as much to look at me. “Once she knew we had a plan to rescue you, she hasn’t stopped interrogating my men for updates.”
I laugh imagining Amaya wreaking havoc on my behalf. “Yeah, that sounds like her.”
As the night passes, Ryder asks me about my childhood and what it was like growing up in The House of Waif. I try to get him to talk about his past, but he mostly brushes me off with vague responses. It must be hours before I finally feel the exhaustion begin to beckon me. Somehow, the sounds of the woods start to quiet, and my eyes flutter shut, welcoming the much-needed rest.
It feels like I had just dozed off when I wake to an echo of high-pitched shrieks.
