His steps grow louder as he hurries through the clearing.
“Ashbourne, are you alright? What happened? Oh my gods…”
I can feel his hands resting on my shoulders, but I’m only faintly aware of him crouching down in front of me.
I can’t look at him.
I want to, I want to look away, but I can’t.
“Tell me you’re okay,” he demands, hands moving over my face and arms.
He surveys my injuries, cursing as he finds the gash at the back of my head.
“Fucking Blackclaw piece of shit,” he mutters. “Alright…okay…I need you to put this on.”
He doesn’t sound like himself. His voice is trembling and frantic, and his hands are moving too fast. Too rough. He’s never this rough with me.
“Princess, I need you to snap out of it. Can you hear me?”
Why does he keep calling me that?
I am not a princess. That much should be clear by now.
“We gotta move,” he urges. “We can’t stay here. Someone’s gonna smell this.”
I peer past him, staring at the bloodstain near my feet.
“Don’t worry about that,” he says. “I’ll handle it. You just?—”
I can’t hear what he says next. My ears are still ringing, and my head feels like it’s about to explode.
“Ashbourne, are you listening to me?”
He holds my face in his hands, trying to redirect my attention, but I can’t bring myself to look away. If I do, it will confirm what I’ve suspected all along—that I am, after all, a monster.
“Iris!” he snaps as he shakes my shoulders.
Somewhere between his gentle prodding and the deafening thump of my own heartbeat, I seem to have stopped breathing. But the force of his voice knocks the air back into me, and I sputter to life as I inhale sharply, taking in the face before me.
“Elliot?”
His name feels foreign on my tongue, even more so when it mixes with the copper tinge of Grey’s blood, sitting dormant in my mouth.
I’m going to throw up again.
“There she is. Hey…”
Elliot nods, eyes wide with recognition, as he takes my hands and wipes them clean with his shirt.
“You alright?” he asks, stretching the fabric to wipe my mouth, chin, and neck.
I manage a shaky nod.
“Good. That’s good. I need you to listen to me, okay? We can’t stay here. Someone is going to smell this, and I’ve got to clean it up before they do. I need you to go inside. Use the side entrance, take the back stairs, the ones that lead up from the prep kitchen. It’ll be empty, but don’t touch anything. And don’t let anyone see you. Go straight to my room and do. not. move. until I come get you. Do you understand?”
He pulls me to my feet in one swift motion, then waits as I find my balance. It takes me a moment to right myself, too busy trying to piece together what’s happening.
“Hey!” he shouts, snapping his fingers in front of my face. “Snap out of it. I know you can do this. Tell me you understand.”
