“Does she look mauled?” Adam snapped. With the danger no longer imminent, his anger and frustration reached the boiling point.
“You really aren’t going to make her climb those stairs, are you?” Harry asked.
His jaw set, shoulders tense, Adam lifted Persephone into his arms and marched her up the stairs. She made not even a squeak of protest.
“Should we send for the apothecary?” Harry asked.
“And have him eaten alive at the castle gates?”
That seemed to drive home the precariousness of the situation. “The pack hasn’t backed off, then?”
Adam shook his head. “I’ve armed the stable staff.”
“’Pon rep!”
“Cut the cant, Harry.” They reached the stairwell leading up to the family wing. “Where’s Mother?”
“Sitting room, I think.”
“Send her to Persephone’s room.”
Harry went directly to comply. Adam felt his arms and legs beginning to give out. He couldn’t remember ever being more completely spent. With an inward sigh of relief, he laid Persephone on her bed. She kept her eyes closed.
Adam sat on the bed beside her, ready to collapse.
“Adam?” he heard Persephone whisper.
He shifted to look down at her. In the brighter light of her room, Adam could see an enormous purple bruise already forming just above her left eye, which had begun to swell shut, and a trickle of blood cut a track across her forehead.
“Are we safe now?” Persephone asked as quietly as before.
“Yes.” As if to contradict him, a howl, closer than any he’d heard within the walls of the castle, sounded at that moment.
Persephone didn’t shudder as Adam expected her to. “I am never going to ride again as long as I live,” she declared feebly.
“I doubt that.” Adam felt himself sag.
“I was afraid no one would find me.”
Adam’s heart skipped a beat. Throughout their ordeal he’d refused to even consider what could have happened to her out there. What if he hadn’t been out, if Persephone hadn’t been found? She would be dead.
Suddenly, he had no more strength. Adam dropped onto the bed, stretched out beside her, greatcoat still hanging around him, damp from the fog. He closed his eyes and drifted into a dreamless, restless sleep.
* * *
“Merciful heavens!”
Adam stirred at the sound, recognizing Mother’s voice.
“They’re not dead, Mother Harriet.” That was Harry.
Adam opened his eyes and looked across the room at them.
“I think Adam hoped you could help see to Persephone. We cannot send for an apothecary or surgeon with the pack still prowling at the gates.”
“Heavens.” Mother swayed a little.
“Help her to a seat, Harry.” Adam pulled himself to a seated position, still a little groggy.
