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My eyes wandered to him, curious about what he could do for my feet.
Edith read my curiosity. “If he walks that way for fifteen minutes, the Labyrinth might just toss him a pair of shoes. It’s unfair how easy it is for him.”
Ash huffed quietly through his nose, as if he thought easy wasn’t the best word for it.
“But we can’t risk it,” Edith concluded, offering me a compassionate frown. “I imagine the Labyrinth wants to test your pain tolerance. It does that to each of us.”
The punctures on my feet had closed, but the soft skin had purpled in several places from my unfortunate encounters with rocks. The ointment only seemed to work on the superficial wounds. The bruises still ached when I walked. Looking at my feet made it harder to ignore the pain, so I tucked my feet back beneath my newly acquired dress.
“You won’t be able to run very fast with bruises like that,” Edith commented.
“I…I’m pretty good at ignoring pain. I just pretend I’m shutting it away in a locked room.”
Ash spun toward me quickly, but I missed whatever expression was on his face because I was distracted by Edith clapping merrily.
“Vera, that’s magic! You can do magic!”
My heart beat so hard between my ribs that I clutched my hands at my chest and leaned forward, head spinning. “I’ve been doing magic without knowing it?”
Before I could ask how all this worked, Ash shot a silencing finger up at us. I froze.
Edith inhaled sharply and leaped up, her eyes scanning the forest.
Ash scurried to the fire and stomped out the embers. In a breath, his knife was in his hand. I hadn’t even gotten to my feet.
“Get to the tree,” he demanded.
As I started to hobble toward the treehouse, Edith raced to her sister, yanking her from her trancelike march and shoving her toward the fort.
They reached the ropes before I did. I waited, knees bouncing, while the two sisters shimmied up to safety.
On the wind, the faint sound of howling chilled my blood. I glanced back at Ash.
He was backing toward me, knife at the ready for whatever came out of the woods. I stretched out my hand to prevent him from bumping into me.
At my touch, he whirled around, eyes wild. “Up!”
Edith and Ferrier had reached the platform. I grabbed a rope and tried to climb. Ash was up his rope in the time it took me to wrap the wriggling rope around my ankle. I should have practiced rope climbing rather than magic.
“Vera! Climb!” Ash shouted.
Edith yelled something, too, but the howls drowned out all other sounds.
Dark shapes burst from the shadows into the clearing, but I didn’t spare them a glance. I flung myself desperately at the rope, ignoring the pain as my wound reopened in my palm. Blood slicked under my grip and my arms shook.
A snout snapped at my ankles, and I screamed.
With a thud, Ash slammed to the ground beside me, knife flashing. A whimpering sound followed by a wicked snarl sent my heart rate soaring. Edith heaved from above as I struggled to use my feet to lift my weight out of my hands.
Something entered my mind then. A snag, a little hook. I was too panicked to try to resist it. But as soon as it settled in my mind, I found myself scaling the rope with ease. As if I’d always known how to do this.
I flopped onto the platform and rolled away from the edge. Edith heaved from her effort, and Ferrier sat with hands clapped over her mouth.
Lying flat against the boards, I stared up at the rustling leaves and swirling mist. The awful snarls from below threatened to choke me as I tried to calm my rapid breathing. Ash could die because of me.
“Oh!”
At Edith’s exclamation, I rolled over onto my stomach, catching sight of Ash’s hands as they rose into view. He climbed up high enough to drop onto the platform, shaking the structure and rattling a small yelp from my lips. He was alive.
