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Ash held a section of his spine, his claws coated with gore. Then he dropped it, collapsing back into the stream.
I ignored Oleg’s dying gasps, hurrying to the Beast’s side and kneeling in icy water. “You have to get up, Ash.”
I touched the arrows in his back with shaking hands, my claws trembling. There were so many arrows…
Ash let out a growl that carried a tinge of exasperation. “Leave me to die, woman. I brought this on myself.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If you hadn’t been here, Freya and Aldis wouldn’t have made it out. Now come on.” I left the arrows, tugging on one of his arms. “Move. You have to get up or you’ll die here.”
“Then let me die,” he snarled, eyes still feral with rage.
I tugged harder. “No. Get it through your thick skull—I’m not leaving without you.”
We might have been enemies, but Ash was still one of my people now. My new people. I would not let any of them down, no matter how antagonistic he’d been towards me.
It wasn’t his fault I’d been recaptured. I could’ve fought harder and freed myself—freed my monster. Not even chains would have kept me down then.
“Stubborn,” he breathed. “Would that you had been this way when we met.”
“It takes time for some things to flower,” I told him. My dress was soaked with icy water, the chill seeping into me. We had to get moving or I’d freeze, and he’d bleed to death. “Do you really want to die here? When you could live instead and spend the rest of your life antagonizing me?”
To my surprise, a faint grin crossed his face. “You make a good point, little woman.”
A breath of relief rushed out of me as Ash snarled, then heaved himself upright.
I got quickly to my feet, bracing myself against his side. “Come on. We can make it back to the Arbor if you try.”
The Beast’s arm tightened around me, then relaxed. His blood loss was too great for his usual strength.
We made it twenty feet before he stumbled. His paws caught the earth, and I held him upright, all too aware that the heat surrounding me wasn’t his warmth, but his blood soaking into my dress.
“Come on, Ash,” I cajoled. “Not much further.”
“Why didn’t you leave me?” he asked, looking down at me as he slowly got back to his feet. “You were there because of me.”
His voice was dangerously weak. I hid my fear for him behind tartness. “Because I’m not a horse’s ass. You can pay me back by saving yourself.”
A faint chuckle rumbled out of him.
He was barely conscious when we reached the Arbor, stumbling with every other step, the light gone out of his pale eyes.
He collapsed on the soft grass, just past the boundary of the Wood.
I ran for the storage rooms, finding a knife. There was no sign of the girls or other Beasts. When I returned to Ash, he hadn’t moved an inch, one hand extended towards the Arbor, lying face down in the grass.
I hoped he was unconscious for this part, but I spoke to him anyway, trying to keep my tone soothing. “This is going to hurt. A lot. You’ll probably hate me for it.”
I went for the first arrow, gripping it tightly. With my monster free, it took hardly any effort to snap the shaft.
Ash jerked, letting out a reflexive snarl, but gave no indication that he was conscious.
I tossed the shaft aside and began to delicately coax the arrowhead from his back with the knife and my own fingers, keeping up a running monologue. I told him about the basement, about the Father, about Yana.
I told him about how Freya’s future mother-in-law had washed her with lye until her skin was burned. And when I ran out of horrible things about Vostok, I talked about the weather, the grass, the Wood.
Snap. Snap. Snap.
Arrow after arrow. I was so bloody I felt like I was painted in crimson from head to toe. At one point, I felt someone moving near me, and I snarled at them wordlessly.
