And then I found him, lying face down on the ground, a mere three steps away from my bed.“Terrick!”It took all my strength to turn him over.
His eyes were open but glassy and unfocused. “Terrick!” I shook him, tugged on his arms, screamed into his ears—I did whatever I could think of to rouse him. He remained still and lifeless.
He’d died trying to wake me from my nightmare.
And, while I understand now that his demise was not my doing—his heart was failing long before that torturous night—at the time, only one thought possessed my mind:I killed him.
I wanted to die too. For what was the point of living? The fire had takeneverythingfrom me. As long as it held me in its wicked clutches, it would continue to steal everything I loved and cared for.
I sobbed as I curled beside Terrick’s body. I pressed my face into his chest as the flames roared around us, consuming the building. And I pleaded for the fire to take me.
The fire, of course, would not harm me. It couldn’t.
28
Death Before Lunch
On the road again. Joy.
Reunited with my not-so-noble steed, who tried to kick every horse who came within a twelve-foot radius of her rear end. Double joy.
Riding out in a fucking monsoon.Triple joy.With cherries on top.
It started raining an hour after we left Niall. And it didn’t just drizzle. Nope. This was the kind of rain that caused mass flooding. Because it came down too hard and too fast and the ground was goingWTF??
And y’know what didn’t mix? Wet (wool) clothes and a leather saddle.Ho-ly hell.I got some major rug burns on my ass.
But I wasn’t alone in my misery.
Cheriour looked grumpy as fuck with his hair plastered to his forehead and his clothes and boots squishing every time he shifted in the saddle. Kaelan wrapped a shirt around his head to create a makeshift hood. It kept his eyes dry, but most of the water shot down the back of his shirt instead. Moira’s long-legged bay stallion kept losing his shoes in the muck. “There’snothingI can do,” she snapped when, after the third time, Cheriour berated her for holding the group up. “He’s never had great hooves. And the mud’s pulling his shoes right off.” She stomped on the spongy ground to emphasize her point.
Only two people seemed okay with our situation. Belanna rode at the very front of the group, one hand perched on her hip while she merrily swung her legs against her horse’s sides. Braxton was a few rows back and spent most of the trip screech-singing some upbeat tunes.
The whack-a-doodle blood ran thick in that family.
It was a slow trek. By mid-afternoon, the ground had turned treacherous. As in,use caution, or you’ll wipe out.I learned that lesson the hard way.
We were cantering through the woods. Sacrifice had already been struggling with the ground, doing a lot of tripping and grunting. As we rounded a corner, we passed a stopped horse and his black-bearded rider. “Wee lad’s kicked himself,” the black-bearded man grunted as he lifted his horse’s foreleg.
The horse turned his head toward Sacrifice. Almost as if to say,hello.
And Sacrifice, the little bitch, saw his friendly gesture as a threat and decided he needed to be eliminated. ASAP. Her little ears flattened, and her hind end swung around in a massive kick.
“Whoa!”
Me and the man screamed in unison. His horse squealed and leapt into the air. Sacrifice’s back legs slid out from under her. She groaned. I yelled. The ground rose to meet me and…
Splat.
My shoulder smashed into the mud. Thankfully, it was a soft landing. And Sacrifice got her feet under her before she crashed on top of me. But man, oh man, if I didn’t almost crap my pants.
“Easy lassie,” the black-bearded man called as Sacrifice snorted and darted sideways. She gave me a wide-eyed look, as though shocked to find me off her back.
“You alright?” The man asked me.
I gave him a thumbs up. “I’m good. No broken bones.”I think.I wriggled around a bit before I stood up. Just to be sure. Nope. Nothing broken. But my whole left side wascoatedin a thick layer of goop.
“You,” I waggled my finger at Sacrifice as I snatched her reins, “really need to turn your bitch mode off.”
