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24
* Rainne and Alastair *
Alastair landed face first in the snow. Pain surged through him. Aye, those ribs were definitely broken now. He focused on breathing slowly, hoping to ease the pain. That was when the gunfire started. Lots and lots of gunfire.
Rainne...
He scanned around him, blinking away the daze in his head. The snow glowed orange in the dimming blaze of the still-burning snowmobiles.
Rainne?
There.
The silhouette of a body lying against a tree.
She wasn’t moving.
Rainbow!
Alastair swallowed panic that felt a whole lot like terror, and struggled to sit up. The world swayed and tilted. He fell to his side on the snow and pure agony racked his body. More gunfire rent the air. Who was shooting? Was Lake here? Alastair worked on breathing calmly as stars danced in front of his eyes.
He saw the shadow of a figure, crouching low to the ground and moving fast towards the castle. Enemy? Friend? He didn’t know. Adrenalin coursed through him, dulling the pain and clarifying his thoughts.
He had to get to Rainne.
He had to get her out of harm’s way. He didn’t know who was firing. And no one knew he was out there with Rainne. If they weren’t being deliberately targeted, they could still get caught in the crossfire. They needed to get inside. Now.
Slowly. Agonisingly. He crawled across the snow. Every breath was a knife to his chest. He could barely feel his fingers, which was probably a good thing, as it meant he also couldn’t feel his wrist. It had lost its bandage and was now bent at an unnatural angle. Bloody hell, he was a mess. No use to anyone.
And he was all Rainne had.
Nausea assaulted him, but he struggled onward. Got to get to Rainne. An eternity later, he collapsed at her side. He put his hand on her back.
“Rainbow. Baby,” he whispered, afraid to attract the wrong attention. “You need to wake up. We need to get out of here.”
She didn’t move.
No. No. No. No. No...
Panic made Alastair sway in place. She had to be fine. There was no other option.
“Please be okay, Rainbow. Please be okay.” His whispered pleas were swallowed by the black night.
Women were shouting. He could almost taste hysteria in the air. Alastair blocked out the words. It sounded like the world was exploding behind him in bursts of luminous colour, but everything he cared about was right in front of him. He brushed her hair from her forehead and caught sight of his hand. He lifted it to the dim light.
Blood.
No. This wasn’t happening.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her up so she was leaning over his legs. He propped his back against the tree and pulled her into his lap. She was a dead weight.
No. Not dead. Never dead. Don’t think it. Don’t say it.
Her face was as white as the snow. Her lips were blue.
“Rainbow. Wake up.”
He unzipped her coat and thrust his hand inside, splaying it over her heart. He waited.
