“Kai!” I bellow. “Wait!”
He doesn’t. Even carrying Gwenna, he’s moving fast, and had a head start besides.
I run—sprint—my breath steaming, my shoes sliding on grass that’s sparse as mud and slick with frost. I stumble as I round the corner to the porch, to where Camlann faces the rest of campus, and just catch Kai shoulder-checking the front door open. I leap up the steps two at a time and barely slide in after him.
Inside, it’s dark and still. But warm.
“Gwenna.” I push forward to the living room, to where Kai’s depositing her gently on the rug, in front of the all-but-dead fire. I fall to a crouch and search her face, her body, my heart in my throat.
The faint light of the coals catches on the strands of her hair, sheened with water that’s crackled into ice and hanging in hanks. Her lips are blue, her skin shockingly white against Kai’s black coat.
She’s alive. But dazed.
And then, all at once, she starts shivering—convulsing, practically, shaking so hard she almost falls over, into me, and I grab for her, pulling her tight against me, her skin like marble.
Something soft hits us—a blanket. Two. Every blanket in the living room, maybe on the whole first floor, piling up around us.
“Itoldyou this was a bad fucking idea.” Kai glares at me. And of all the hateful looks I’ve gotten from my brother through the years, this one is murderous.
Of all the looks he’s ever given me, this one might actually hit.
Guilt. Regret. Shame. All of it is flooding me, but I have to push it away.I know, I scream in my head.I know you did.
To him, I say nothing.
“Jesus. Are you fucking frozen too?” He lunges, grabs the collar of my coat, and yanks me away from Gwenna’s side. “She’s soaking wet. Here,” he says, to her. Softer. Kneeling. Easing his coat off her shoulders…
She isn’t shaking anymore, at least.
A few feet away, sprawled on the ground, I feel stupid. “Kai?—”
He wheels on me. “Do something useful orleave,” he snarls.
“I—”
“Gwenna!” It’s Morgan, pounding into the foyer, her face flushed and hair in disarray from running. “Is she—are you?—”
“Get out!”
Kai roars to his feet. Face livid.
Morgan, for once, falters. “But?—”
“GET. OUT.” He flings an arm at the door so viciously that Morgan flinches, the first time ever I’ve seen her truly cowed by him. She glances at me, and all I can do is give her a nod.
We’ve got her.
Morgan nods back, and slips away.
As I turn back to the living room, Kai says nothing to me, just narrows his eyes, pure disgust written on his face.
But only for a split second, because then he’s back at Gwenna’s side.
“I know. I know. I’m gonna take this off you, okay? I won’t even peek. Promise.”
I feel suddenly awkward. An interloper, watching him take care of her like this, even though there’s no way I’m going anywhere until I know she’s all right.
Do something useful or leave.
