AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I dove for Edith, and rolled, bringing her limp body with me. The vines sprang to life again, slithering across the forest floor toward us.
Her eyes popped open. “I said don’t look back!”
She shoved me off and grabbed my hand. It was so slippery with blood that she lost her grip and stumbled. With wide eyes, she glanced at my blood-slicked fingers.
“Run!”
Her word was a shriek, and I didn’t need to be told twice. The vines reached for my legs once more, and I heard the thunder-clap hoofbeats of the charging moose. I hopped sideways, behind a tree, as the animal shot past once more.
A warm hand grabbed my arm. “Get on!” Ash pressed his back to my chest.
I climbed on before I knew what I was doing, clinging for dear life. Then he tucked into a sprint, following Edith’s flame-red hair. His machete sliced through the vines as they shot upward all around us.
“Coming in!” Edith shouted from a few paces ahead. “Two!”
Two ropes dropped from a high branch. Edith launched herself at one, quickly wrapping her ankle around the rope and shimmying up. I hopped off of Ash’s back and he was up the rope in a matter of seconds.
I grabbed hold of the rope, but my pierced hand was of no use.
The moose splintered branches and logs as it stampeded toward me. I wrapped the rope around my shoulder and kicked my feet up at the trunk. With all my willpower, I walked up the trunk, aware that someone above was pulling the rope as well. The massive antlers passed under my back, tugging at my long hair.
I was nearly to the lowest branches when my strength gave out. My feet slipped and I tilted forward, my chest knocking into the trunk of the tree. I held my weight with one arm for a second, but my fingers were already losing their grip.
Then Ash’s strong hands grabbed my forearm and hauled me upward.
8
Istared up at Ash. He hefted me into the tree, laying me gently on a wooden platform canopied with leaves.
I opened my mouth to thank him, but only a broken croak emerged. My blood had soaked into the collar of his shirt. He was the villain in all the stories. And yet he’d just saved my life.
He shook his head, turning to take something from Edith, who was perched behind him. A cup, brimming with water.
I took it with trembling, grateful hands and sucked it dry, dribbling a third of it into my lap. Ash reached for the empty cup, his gaze flickering to my wounded hand and the blood on my abdomen. His dark eyes flashed before he looked away.
“That was close,” Edith said, taking the cup from Ash.
The moose was still snorting and pawing the ground below. Its antlers shook the massive tree. Tipping sideways, I yelped and reached for something to steady me, but there was only Ash. His arm shot out, grabbing my hand. For a brief moment, I held his stare as I straightened up once again. Then his fingers slid from mine, and he scooted back, allowing Edith to come forward.
I glanced at the platform beneath us, which was composed of young trees stripped of branches and strapped together. I inhaled sharply and took in my surroundings. I wouldn’t have actually fallen. More logs, also bound together with twine, stretched around the trunk. The larger branches poked up through the platform, but there was enough space for several people to sit comfortably. A pale face trimmed with orange-red hair peeked at me from behind one of the upward-reaching branches.
Edith grabbed my hand and examined it, clicking her tongue. “That was too close. I told you to leave me behind!”
My attention snapped back to her. “I couldn’t leave you there.” Only now that I wasn’t outrunning a bull moose did I notice the throbbing pain in my hand and feet had returned and the puncture wounds along the front of my body smarted. I winced as Edith turned my hand back and forth.
She blew out a long breath and stared at me with a pinched brow. “Thank you.”
I glanced back at Ash, who lurked in the shadows of the leaves, and the shy, young face still watching me from across the platform.
“I’m just glad I found you,” Edith wheezed, still breathless from the chase.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
Edith whipped her head around to look at Ash, then met my gaze again, red hair whirling like flames around her ember-bright eyes. “Because she told me to.”
“She?” My eyes flicked to the young girl crouching behind a branch.
Edith shook her head. “Not my sister. Revera.”
