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I dip my toe in, and the cool water provides an instant relief after the heat of the summer afternoon, and the exertion of the run.
I am bone tired.
Not in the way I always am, in pain, achy, uncomfortable. I actually suddenly realize that I haven’t felt any of that in days. I was too concerned by my actual enslavement and fear about what would happen next to realize it, but I’ve never felt stronger. Breathing doesn’t hurt, either.
But for all that, my muscles are spasming, unaccustomed to the way I just used them. My heart has never drummed faster in my chest.
I don’t have time to bask in the relief, even though I now realize I might need the rest, the cool soak. Their footsteps are still thundering, too fast, despite my desperate dash through the woods.
Just as I’m about to drag myself on the bank, I remember the stranger’s warnings.
You also need to do something to mask your scent.
I don’t waste a moment, lowering myself in the cool river. It only reaches my thighs, but I kneel inside, brushing my underarm. I dunk my head in, to also drench my hair. I’m not certain it will do much for my smell, but it’s better than nothing, and it’s still very warm out. At the very least, dipping into the river will keep me a little cooler.
Move, Rina.
Soothing as it is, I need to get out now, and put as much distance as possible between the hunters and me. On the other side, the forest resumes, but it’s thicker, the tall pine trees huddling closer together, their evergreen needles providing some—if not much—cover.
At least I’m dressed in the right colors to blend in. Dark browns, greens so dark they’re almost black. I’m so stupidly grateful for the clothes Ryther gave to me. Not to mention the boots. I can’t imagine getting through this in Junis’s poor excuse for a dress. Not only is it a lot more practical, but it’s also the right color.
It gives me a moment of pause. Did he know I’d be in this situation? And if he did, why not tell me?
Maybe because you would have stomped your foot and demanded to be brought right home, which would have helped no one.
At least here, I have mysterious strangers and acid-to-everyone-else water on my side. And I’m stronger. If these people can track me in San Francisco, I’ll be all too exposed. And so will my family. And Rain. She can take care of herself against human bigots who don’t like what she is, against the occasional bitch of a witch asking for trouble, but those things—those people? They’re something else.
And you’re one of those things, Rina.
I risk a glance back toward the ominous line of trees. If they can’t see the direction I darted off, all the better.
I climb up on the other side of the river, wishing the water was wider, or at the very least, deeper. A second later, my boots start are sinking in mud. Water rises, fast, first reaching my ankle, then my calf. I turn again. Before my baffled eyes, I watch the riverbank flood, the land lowering, and the water lifting all at once, widening.
Before I know it, I’m knee-deep in the water again.
I don’t understand it. I mean, I get that’s what the stranger said: nature is helping me. But many questions shoot through my mind as I wade through the river. Why would it do that? How did the other guy know I could do it?
Before she was given power over all courts, dear old Mor was a woodland hag.
I’m sick and tired of everyone around me knowing everything about my own birth mother when I don’t.
Though, do people know it? I asked pointed questions about magic yesterday, and Ryther didn’t say anything about nature, or hags.
Which brings me back to the water incident. And how did it know what I wanted? I didn’t “locate my core” or whatever Ryther said I should to activate my magic. I just…wished for better protection. And now, I have it.
I’ve almost reached the shore again, when pain so intense it almost blinds me pierces my shoulder. Sheer horror seizes me as I watch a thin shaft come out of me, close to my left armpit.
Laughter erupts, sounding far too close for comfort.
"I got her! Look, I hit her," the buffoon guffaws, voices joining in his mirth.
Oh, god. I’ve never been the religious type, but oh god, oh god, oh god. Someone shot me with a bloody arrow. A little to the right and they would have shot my fucking heart!
It did look thin at first, but after I know it’s an arrow? I’ve never seen one as thick. No wonder it pierced right through flesh and bones.
Pain makes me lose all other senses, blinding, all consuming. I shiver all over,still too shocked to move, when a force coming from my throbbing shoulders drags me backward.
Oh no.
