‘A-Arianell?’ I hear her voice. It’s breathless and riddled with panic.
My feet are moving before I’ve even registered that I’m running again. I push past flax and prickly bushes; they whip at my arms, digging into my skin and tugging at my shirt.
‘Nocthare!’
I stop dead in my tracks and whirl around to the voice behind me. Like a bucket of ice water has been dumped over me, my blood runs viciously cold.
Isla is on her knees, her body smeared with blood; it’s streaked across the lower half of her face. There’s mud and dried nettles stuck to herclothing, as if she’s been rolling on the ground … and in her arms is Aiden Redford. His head is lolled to one side, his entire chest has been carved open, and his eyes – they’re closed.
‘Oh god!’ My voice breaks. ‘Is he—’
Isla’s head shakes; there are tears streaming down her dirty cheeks. ‘Not yet. But s-soon.’
My brain tries to assess the damage. He’s not dead, yet. He’s still breathing. Maybe just unconscious. But Stars, that’s a lot of blood and the claw marks through his chest are severe. In fact, I’m not so sure he is alive. Just to be sure, I find myself moving closer, scanning for the rise and fall of his mutilated chest. Sure enough, once I get within touching distance, there is the faintest of movement.
‘His breathing is shallow,’ I tell her. ‘We need to get him to a healer, and fast. I’ll carry his legs if you lift him by the arms.’ I start moving toward his feet, assuming the issue here is that she can’t carry him back on her own. But the full situation dawns on me the second I look down at his legs.
Isla’s sharp inhale has my hands shaking.
‘I tried t-to get it off, but I couldn’t,’ she stutters, looking up at me with so much pain in her eyes, it’s staggering.
‘It’s all right!’ I attempt to soothe my quivering voice. Even as I look back down at Aiden’s left leg … or rather, what’s left of it.
Animal traps. Someone planted fucking animal traps out here? Who would do that? The metal contraption has chewed through Aiden’s flesh, muscle and bones as if they’re made of paper. It’s horrific. The pain he must have felt … my stomach churns just thinking of it.
‘We’re going to get him out of this,’ I promise Isla, hoping to convey with my eyes that I won’t leave her alone in this. ‘We’ll do it together, okay?’
Isla wipes her tears with her sleeve and nods. She gently lays Aiden down on the ground and walks to my side, where she crouches down.
‘What do you want me to do?’ she asks, her voice stronger now. As if having a plan or a purpose is all she needs to find her strength again.
‘I’m going to need you to pry open the clamps. While you do that, I’ll pull his leg out.’ I take in the chunks of flesh that are missing, like she tried to open the trap herself but couldn’t pull him free at the same time, only for it to snap shut and tear more of his leg away.
We move silently, her getting into position with a hand on either side of the jaw -like clamps, while I grab hold of his leg, just above the carnage.
I count us down and once I hit three, she grunts, prying the metal mouth open. Her arms shake as the thick spikes take away blood and tissue as they inch apart. My hands tighten on his calf as I try not to gag. The second there’s a large enough opening, I pull his dismembered limb out.
The trap snaps shut with a loud clang, causing me to jump and drop Aiden’s leg. Behind me, I hear an agonised groan slip from his lips. Shit. He’s awake.
‘Aiden!’ Isla rushes to his head. Her hands push his hair away from his forehead as she leans over him. She whispers something that I can’t distinguish. Not that I think I want to. There’s something private about the way she whispers to him, even as his eyes are closed. I wonder if they’re closer than they’ve let on.
It takes us a few minutes to find a good rhythm, with me carrying Aiden by his legs and Isla holding him under his arms. I was glad to find out none of the blood on Isla was her own. Other than a few surface - level scratches, she’s unharmed. I, on the other hand, have never been in more pain. It’s why I’m carrying the lighter end of his body as we stumble through the forest.
The trek is slow, but we make it, clearing the tree line to find Sebastian already running our way as if he’d decided the time was up, and he was heading in to come looking for us. His green eyes flare wide as he takes in the scene.
‘Nicks! We need healers right the fuck now!’ he shouts against the wind. Everyone starts yelling orders as the gravity of Aiden’s situation sinks in. Cillian is sprinting for us as we lower Aiden to the grass. He skids to a halt near his head and drops. The following ten minutes is awhirlwind that passes me by in a blur. Isla tells everyone what happened. Nicks sends Jed and another combat leader into the forest to find Aiden’s shadow walker. I didn’t eventhinkabout the fact he could still have been roaming around in there. Isla sprints off to get the healers currently training in the Training Centre to come out here immediately.
‘He won’t make it to the infirmary, it’s too far away,’ Nicks states as he starts peeling back what remains of Aiden’s bloodied and torn t-shirt. He slices the rest of it open with a blade and then, much to my horror, flames engulf his hands and he begins cauterising some of the larger wounds.
Sebastian moves to my side; his assessing eyes roam the length of my body from top to bottom. ‘You’re in pain. We need to get your back looked at.’
‘I’m fine,’ I lie. Well, it’s only somewhat of a lie; my pain isn’t even comparable to Aiden’s. He’s on the brink of death. I can sit with my wounds a little longer.
‘That wasn’t a question, Nocthare. You’re swaying on your damn feet,’ he points out.
Am I? Huh. I didn’t realise. My headdidspin for a moment before, though I thought that was just the burning smell of flesh beneath Nicks’s hands.
Just then, the healers finally arrive, several of them, dressed in training clothes similar to mine, though theirs are in shades of light blue, grey and white. They fan out, descending on Nicks and Aiden, and the former gives them a clipped rundown on Aiden’s situation. One of them – Tanya, I realise – lifts her hand authoritatively. ‘Give us space!’ she commands. ‘We need to work.’
