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“Tarnley!” I scream his name as I slam energy into the closest hunters. They fall backward, sliding into the ground, and I rush toward him. He ducks a blade, blurring out of the way. But the fucker with the crossbow is fast, too.
Another bolt goes into Tarnley’s leg.
My father rushes forward, magic snapping as he blasts three hunters at once. They fall back to the ground, unmoving.
Blood splatters the ground as Tarnley spits out the throat of a female hunter. Her blade sticks from his abdomen.
A hunter rushes toward me, obviously hoping to get close enough that my magic won’t help me.
Isn’t he in for a fucking treat? I whip out the blade at my back and spin, ducking his blow and slicing into his gut with my silver. He falls to the ground, and I turn around to finish the job, slicing his throat open and moving on to the next hunter.
All the while trying like hell not to lose my head.
Tarnley’s taken out three of them and is working on a fourth, but due to the bolt in his arm, his leg, and the silver blade still in his abdomen, his movements are much slower than they should be.
A fist slams into the side of my head, and I stumble, turning just in time to throw myself to the ground and avoid being impaled on a short sword.
“Tarnley!” my father bellows.
I glance over my shoulder as a hunter attempts to sneak up on Tarnley. Orange pours into the hunter’s back, and he jolts as if he was just hit with thousands of volts of electricity. The stench of burnt flesh fills my lungs as pain explodes in my lower abdomen, searing me from the inside. Hands shaking, I stare down at the bolt sticking out of my belly. Blood begins to soak the front of my shirt.
My gaze drifts back up. The hunter loads another bolt. I attempt to hit him with magic, but the silver tip stuck in my gut prevents it. Wrapping my hand around the shaft, I try to pull, but the pain is immense—overwhelming. I fall to my knees, tears pricking the corners of my eyes. The amount of blood is substantial, and I know the fucker hit exactly what he was aiming for.
The hunter raises his crossbow, takes aim, and fires.
Orange blocks the bolt from hitting me, a shield protecting me as my father rushes forward, hitting the hunter with a bolt of electricity just as he had the other. The man’s eyes widen, and the crossbow hits the ground with a heavy thud.
The hunter falls, and my father sinks to his knees in front of me. “It’s fucking silver,” I tell him as the blood in my veins turns to acid. I cry out when he reaches down. “No, you can’t touch it,” I tell him. He stops. “It could be poisoned.”
Tarnley stumbles over and falls down beside me. He’s covered in blood, a lot of it his own. “I can pull yours out.”
“I’ll likely bleed to death if you do that,” I choke out. “It hit an artery.”
“I can give you blood.”
“No. Because your blood is tainted with silver right now.”
“Then pull mine out.”
“I can’t.” My vision blurs as my body begins to turn cold. “The fucking hunter was a good aim; that’s for damned sure.”
“Bronywyn?” Tarnley’s panicked face swims into view above me.
I hear my father say something, but as my body continues to cool, my only thoughts are of Tarnley.
* * *
I wake slowly,the world around me coming to life one sense at a time. First, it’s sound. Beside me, a machine beeps softly.
“The bolt nicked her gastroepiploic artery.”
“For those of us without a fucking medical degree?” Tarnley demands, voice gruff.
“It’s an artery that supplies blood to her stomach,” the unknown woman explains. “I need to do surgery to fully repair the damage.”
“I’ll open my own fucking vein. Pull it out of her, and I can fix her.”
“Your blood is still full of silver. You’ll need to feed again before you can help her.”
