Amaris studied her. Gris’s muscles flexed and strained as she fought his dead weight. Amaris unwrapped her legs but was ready for when he slipped from Gris’s hold.
No way she does it.Amaris took a breath to dive to the bottom and push off the river floor to give Gris any bit of help, but she grunted and stood, deadlifting Theodoric out of the water.Holy shit!
Gris grabbed Amaris’s arm and hurtled her onto the fallen tree. Seizing under his arms again, she dragged him toward the shore. Amaris froze, draped over the tree. She’d never seen anything like it. Gris was pretty much her size with the strength of Viv.
“Let’s go!” Gris shouted to her.
The rushing current looked all too appealing to make a quick escape, but Gris fought her sobs as she dragged Theodoric down the moss-covered tree.
I’m going to regret this.Amaris swung her legs over and got her feet underneath her. Her muscles were riddled with fatigue, and her legs burned with each step. Gris hauled Theodoric off the tree, sprawling him on his back in the grass. He still wasn’t breathing.
Amaris flailed her arms, fighting her balance against the slippery moss as she ran the last few paces. Jumping down, she rushed toward his head. She bent down and gave him another rescue breath, ignoring his bad breath.
Jeez, brush your teeth lately?
Theodoric’s chest rose but settled as Amaris removed her lips. She took her left hand and began compressing on his chest.
“Do you have your cell phone? Call nine-one-one,” Amaris said.
Gris stood with her arms pinned at her sides. Her eyes trained on Amaris pressing against Theodoric’s chest.
“Give me your cell phone.” Amaris could understand her shock. Most family members would be hysterical.
Gris furrowed her brow, and the question she uttered was airy. “Cell phone?”
“If you don’t call for an ambulance right now, he could die!”
“What in the realm is an ambulance?”
“Go get the others,” Amaris demanded as her thoughts began to spin.A cell phone…an ambulance…is she seriously this clueless?An icy chill shot down Amaris’s spine as she pulled back her hand and leaned over to give Theodoric another breath. She considered their matching clothes and the possibility they could be part of a cult that didn’t give them access to the world.
She brushed her lips against his as she gave another breath and resumed compressions. She tried not to focus on his chapped lips but what was unraveling around her. Maybe it was all a vivid hallucination from being doped up on morphine while she lay in a hospital bed with a broken neck. She kept compressing.
Maybe I’m not,she considered. Her hand wouldn’t hurt this bad if she was, or maybe her mind had a sick way of dealing with its subconscious. She gave another breath and concluded,This is just a desperate nightmare.
She wished she had her ambulance, her airway equipment, her automated vent. She brushed bits of moss off Theodoric’s cheek for a breathand resumed pumping against his chest. She wished she had Viv and Charlie here to run the call with her, for her vitals monitor and drug box. Sweat and water mixed along her forehead, trickling off the bridge of her nose as she used her entire body to power her compressions. One handed wasn’t sustainable. He needed to start breathing, or she needed a damn ambulance.
She leaned down and forced one more breath. He lurched forward, smacking his head into hers. She fell back, groaning and gripping at her skull.Fuck, he has a hard-ass head.
Theodoric rolled over, vomiting and coughing up the water from his lungs. Short gasps followed a coughing fit. He rolled over and tried to sit up.
“Hold up. Catch your breath first,” Amaris said, reaching for him.
He whipped back his arm, swatting her hand away as another cough spewed more water from his chest. His fingers dug into the dirt, his body sucking in whatever air it could. He tried to stand, but his leg buckled as he planted one foot beneath himself.
Amaris shoved her shoulder into his chest, keeping him from face-planting. “Will you sit here for a minute? Gris went to get the others for help. We need to get you to a hospital.”
“A…what?” he breathed.
Her eyes snapped up to meet his. He didn’t know what she was talking about either. She brushed back the hair clinging to his forehead. A massive gash sat above his brows, fresh blood leaking from the cut. Maybe he was concussed.
Theodoric pushed her hand away with a wince and sat back on his heels. She gripped his shoulder, refusing to let go and risk him falling and further adding to the head trauma. He dragged his head up. Those stupid bright eyes had small bits of gold catching the sun, but they shifted, and Amaris turned to the men following closely behind Gris.
Immediately, Amaris’s body trembled with furious anger.They fucking kidnapped me.But she didn’t release her grip on his shoulder. She could’ve gotten away, but she’d saved him.
“What happened?” the sandy-haired man burst out, running toward them. He gruffly took Theodoric’s face in his hand, brushing back his hair to examine the cut oozing blood down the bridge of his nose.
“I’m fine, Bennet,” Theodoric whined, pulling his head free from the man’s grasp.
