The concern in his eyes turns to fear. “You’re hurt.” His forehead quickly creases. “But those are fresh wounds. They can’t be from the monster this morning.” His eyes briefly widen with apparent realization before his jaw clenches and his gaze flickers to the nearby women. “The fae did this?”
My response is a low murmur. “Before their commander arrived.”
His lips press into an unhappy line. He immediately reaches for his shirt, tugging the base of it clear of his long pants and pulling it up and over his head, leaving him bare-chested.
He pushes the material toward me. “Use this to bind the wounds as tightly as you can. I need to get you to Tamra right away.”
When I take the material, careful not to touch him in the process, he steps away from me, but I try to call him back. “Gallium, I’m not alone.”
At that moment, the four fae women pass by, carrying the Vandawolf’s stretcher. Seeing them, one at each corner of the stretcher, their muscles straining, brings home to me just how large and heavy the Vandawolf is.
I’m not sure how I dragged him through the wasteland for all of those hours and up into this mountain.
Gallium is turned away from me, so I can’t see his face, but he stiffens and his voice is strained. “The Vandawolf is with you.”
I can’t be sure how Gallium feels about the Vandawolf right now. The Vandawolf kept him and Tamra alive for the last ten years, but they harbor justified rage about their separation from me and the way the humans treated me. More specifically, the fact that the Vandawolf was complicit in that treatment.
When he set us all free this morning, Tamra was vocal about her feelings: She didn’t want me to go back to help him fight the monstrous wolf. Gallium was quieter about his opinions at the time. He didn’t try to stop me, but he must have hoped I would leave my past behind.
“Barely,” I say. “The Vandawolf isbarelywith me. I’m not sure if he’s still alive, and I can’t…” I try to breathe, forcing myself to continue speaking. “He needs Tamra’s help more than I do.”
Gallium half-turns back to me, his expression closed off, but his response is quiet. “She can’t help the dead.”
I won’t let the Vandawolf out of my sight and I take a quick step after him, staying wide of my brother.
“He isn’t dead. He can’t be.” My voice hardens and I close my fist around the medallion and take hold of its cruelty. “He wouldn’t fucking dare.”
Gallium seems to reconsider me as he keeps pace with me. His lips part and the tension around his eyes increases. He appears wary of me now—and so he should be. Whatever resurgence of my own mind I experienced when I first saw him, it’s disappearing.
He hurries ahead of me. “I’ll find out.”
As I follow my brother toward the mouth of the cave, keeping the stretcher within my view, I quickly peel up the plates of my armor and slide his shirt around my body beneath them. I try to cover as many of the stab wounds as I can, and then I pull the material tight. I tie it off, knowing it won’t stop much of the blood, but it’s a start.
Outside the cave, Gliss has slid to the ground. She approaches the bird’s head, stroking its neck and quietly murmuring to it, as if she’s intent on keeping it calm.
Nearby, Elowynn has stepped up beside the women holding the stretcher and is now standing between Gallium and the Vandawolf.
Gallium approaches her at a quick pace but slows when he reaches her.
I’m surprised at the way her mask slips as she watches him approach, her gaze flitting across his now-naked chest, her lips slightly pursed and her forehead creased, as if he perplexes her somehow.
“We need to get back to Tamra as soon as possible,” he says. “But first, I need to check the Vandawolf.”
“The what?”
Gallium inclines his head to the stretcher. “That man. He’s called ‘the Vandawolf.’”
Elowynn stiffens and her eyes widen. “Thisis the wolf you spoke of?” Her incredulous gaze flashes to me before returning to Gallium. “But your sister’s protecting him. Why would she defend the wolf you said imprisoned her?”
Her speech surprises me. Only a short time ago, she accused me of being a leader or a queen, and yet now it seems she already knew I was a prisoner because my brother told her so.
I remind myself of what I know of the fae: They’re cunning. They will play games. I can’t trust anything they say or do.
“Don’t ask me to explain my sister’s motivations,” Gallium replies, and I wish I could see his face because it sounds like he’s speaking through gritted teeth.
Elowynn’s expression softens. “Very well.”
She stands aside and Gallium pauses there for a moment, his head turning, as if he’s contemplating the Vandawolf’s wounds.
