“Fass,” I croaked as the man fell.
He screamed for less than a second before Thunder ripped out his throat.
I stumbled toward Seamus and was yanked to a stop, my head snapping backward as someone wrenched at my braid.
Then I was falling. Panic filled me as I landed flat on my back.
There were people all around, their legs filling my vision. I tried to roll, but was stopped as the human kneeled on my chest.
Get the pistol, Seamus. Get the rifle that human dropped.
“Fass,” I wheezed, using up what breath was left in my lungs, hoping Thunder would hear me. I searched my empty sheaths. I’d used and lost my knives and given Seamus my pistol.
The man leaned down, his smile glaringly white in his darkly painted face.
Then, he was gone.
Coughing, I tried to see who had pulled him off me.
“Flower,” Seamus groaned, his voice barely a whisper.
I turned my head and found my cousin, half propped against a tree, his eyes wide and terrified.
His hands were pressing against his lower belly where the vest I’d given him ended.
“No,” I choked, scrambling toward him on my hands and knees, my arm buckling beneath me.
“It hurts,” he whispered, his voice shaking.
“You’re okay,” I assured him, tearing off my hoodie. Everything around me disappeared as I pressed it against his wound. “You’ll be fine.”
“I wasn’t fast enough,” he groaned. “I got him, but I wasn’t fast enough.”
“You did well,” I replied, pressing harder as blood seeped through the sweatshirt.
He was so goddamn pale.
The noise around us died in increments. First, the yelling stopped. Then the shooting. Then the grunts and thumps of hand-to-hand violence.
I didn’t even realize when the forest around us was quiet again.
“Seamus,” Uncle Dalton called frantically.
“Over here,” I called back. “See, your dad’s here. Everything’s gonna be fine.”
“Stop,” Erik’s voice seemed to come from everywhere. “Rosemary, I need you to back away from the boy.”
“What?” I looked over my shoulder. “No, I?—”
“Move, Rosemary,” Uncle Dalton ordered angrily.
I looked back at my hands, the only thing staunching the bleeding. I couldn’t let go. If I let go?—
“Please,” Uncle Dalton whispered.
That broken word was the only thing that had me scrambling backward. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on or why they’d want me to leave Seamus. Had I done something wrong? What the hell was happening?
As soon as I was about twenty feet away, Uncle Dalton rushed forward.
