There were a few close calls.
My body is so battered that I keep going in and out of awareness. I’m in a daze, staring up at the chunky sky while the snow numbs me.
The gray clouds are all thick and bitten off. Like a pack of wild dogs got into the rising dough and started chomping bitsoff. Those clouds keep spitting off chunks of frost too, like a lathered tongue that won’t stop dripping.
Just like my eyes.
I have no way to get home. Everyone and everything I know and love is back in Annwyn, and I’m here, with no way to get back.
A shudder goes through me, either from sadness or the freezing cold. Even though the numbness is nice, I know if I don’t move soon, I’m in danger of never moving again.
I still don’t try to get up.
But then, I’m jerked into sharp awareness when a face suddenly appears over me.
“You,” he spits, and I squint, only to realize with a jolt that it’s one of the twins. Not the one I impersonated, but the other… What was his name?
Friano.
Seeing him makes the new antler sprouting from my ear flare with pain. Makesallof my pains flare, actually.
“Thanks for ordering that I get beaten within an inch of my life, you ass,” I garble out. I can still taste blood.
“How did you get over here?” he shouts, his dark eyes wild, shiny black hair now damp and stringy like he rolled around in the snow. “My brother fell with all the others, butyousurvived? You don’t deserve to breathe.”
He sounds furious. I don’t really care. “Fuck. Off.”
His hand lashes out, grabbing me by the ankle, and he starts to drag me. A gasp tears free, pain popping punctures into my vision as his grip digs into my brutalized body.
I try to flip over on instinct to scrabble away from him, but he tosses me aside, making my body roll a few times before stopping. My ribs scream as I try not to puke.
“Did you touch it?” he demands, though it takes me a couple seconds to respond.
“Touch…what?” I pant out.
He looks crazed. “If you ruined it, I willruin you!”
At this point, I’m already pretty ruined, but I think I’ll keep that to myself.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say as I try to sit up.
Gnashing his teeth, he swings his foot back, and I flinch automatically, bracing for the kick that’s headed right for my face.
But it never comes.
There’s a noise, and then I rear back in surprise when I see Friano getting tossed into the snow by someone. I stare in shock when I realize it’s a soldier.
AnOreansoldier.
He’s wearing black armor that matches his short hair and the stubble across his jaw. His skin is paler than mine, and his face is twisted in hate as he glares down at the twin.
He yanks a sword from the scabbard at his waist. “You’ve just breathed your last,” he vows darkly.
Friano raises his arm to ward him off, legs scrabbling in the snow, but that’s when I notice something on the ground just behind him.
Something green.
My eyes widen, and right when the Orean starts to cut his sword toward Friano, I yell, “Wait!”
