With his back to me, there’s only so much I can tell from the set of his shoulders and brief glimpses of the side of his face, and for the life of me, I can’t seem to make my legs move beyond the mouth of the cave.
These damn wounds.The makeshift bandage Gallium gave me isn’t making much of an impact, the blood already seeping through.
Gallium leans across the stretcher, turning his ear to the Vandawolf’s face without touching him.
He straightens. “He’s still breathing, but he doesn’t have long. With these wounds, it’s astonishing that he’s alive at all.”
“He’s fighting to live,” I whisper, a cold smile crossing my lips. “He probably wants the chance to tell me to leave him again.”
I pull myself away from the rock, forcing myself to use the pain and the energy in the anger that comes with it.
“He has your Queen’s protection,” I say to Elowynn. “If you don’t want him to die on your watch—which I understand could be an act of treason—then you will take him to my sister immediately. She can heal him.”
Behind Elowynn, Gliss is visible to me where she has remained at the bird’s head. The bird arches its neck to peer in my direction with two very intelligent-looking eyes. Its feathers ruffle softly in the breeze.
As for Gliss, she’s staring hard at Elowynn, who turns to her sister, as if there’s some sort of silent communication happening between them again.
Elowynn gives Gliss a small shake of her head before she turns back to me.
“It’s too dangerous to carry the Vandawolf on a thunderbird,” she says to me. “We will walk, as you originally said. If he dies along the way, that’s unavoidable.”
My brow furrows. My declaration that I would walk beside him was only relevant when I assumed there was no other form of transportation. “How long is the walk?”
“On foot, it will take us all night to reach the outskirts of our encampment.”
I grit my teeth. “He won’t live that long.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but that’s the best we can do.”
I glare at the creature she called a thunderbird and the saddle with two seats. “No, it isn’t. I’m commandeering this beast. I will carry the Vandawolf on it.”
Elowynn’s eyes widen with apparent alarm. “Onmythunderbird?”
“Yes,” I say.
“No.” Her eyebrows draw down, but I’m certain I detect real fear in her eyes. “Your power is too dangerous. You could kill Concord just by touching her.”
Concord.
The bird has a name.
The fear in Elowynn’s eyes is real. I’m sure of it now. She loves this bird. The same way I love my brother and sister.
Love creates leverage.
I allow my smile to grow as my heart becomes colder and colder and colder…
“That’s true,” I say, advancing on Elowynn. “My power is a danger to every living thing. But you no longer have a choice.”
As I approach, I ignore the way Gallium’s lips have parted and how his brow is quickly drawing down. He doesn’t like what I’m saying and there’s a part of me that understands that.
Still, I plow on, keeping my focus on Elowynn and not the growing horror in my brother’s eyes or the rising anger in the women around me.
“You will either allow me to take this bird while you lead the way on one of the other birds you undoubtedly have circling the air right now,” I say. “Or I will kill it.”
Elowynn takes a sharp breath. Her hand flies to her shoulder, where I’m sure her weapon lies against her armor.
“Do it,” I say, my fist clenching and unclenching around my medallion, my other hand on my hammer’s handle. “Draw your weapon,fae, and see what happens.”
