"Why didn't you say something?" she hissed.
She sounded nearly frantic but frustrated enough for my attitude to gather up some energy for a retort.
"I did," I muttered. "Tried. And you had my blood on your hands. Not my fault you didn't notice."
I cracked my eyes open to look at her as her hands pulled away. In my agonized state, I wanted her to touch me, wanted her hands on me, and not just because I craved her warmth. My mind felt too hazy to try to decipher why that was.
She stared at the dried blood on her hands and on her pants with a look I might have called horror. If I didn't know better.
I closed my eyes again, my breath rattling as I managed a snort. She hadn't cared that I was bleeding out until it proved a danger to my life. Of course she couldn't allow her prize to die, not when it would contradict her orders to bring me back alive so I could be studied and used.
Perhaps it would be better if I died here.
A stinging slap to my cheek jerked my eyes open. Legacy, now that she had slapped me back to semi-consciousness, tore a strip from the bottom of her tunic to bind my wound. The muscles in her stomach were on full display as she lifted the hem to her mouth to tear it with her teeth, and I nearly swallowed my thick tongue.
Nice to know that even in the midst of nearly passing out, my mind still made note of the important things.
“Why did you hit me?” I mumbled.
I shifted restlessly, or at least tried to. My body did not seem to want to obey my commands. I lay completely still, my body tense with anticipation and pain.
She delicately wrapped the torn remnants of her tunic around my leg. A searing, white-hot sensation shot through me with every tug, causing me to grit my teeth in agony. The fabric pressed against my skin, a sharp contrast to the dull ache that throbbed beneath it.
As she finished tying the makeshift bandage, sweat glistened on her brow, and her breath came in short gasps. If I didn’t know any better, I might have thought the expression on her face looked sympathetic, but between one blink and the next, she’d replaced it with her usual flat expression.
“Because if you sleep now, you won’t wake up. You have to stay with me.” Her voice gave away no more than her face, and her shoulders hunched forward, closing herself off from me.
“As if I’ve had a choice thus far,” I muttered.
Despite what she’d said, I struggled to stay conscious. I faded in and out, and it wasn’t long before I succumbed completely. The last thing I heard was Legacy’s voice, but I couldn’t make out what she said.
It didn’t matter. It was too late to make a difference.
The pain had faded because I was already gone.
Chapter
Eighteen
Someday soon, I wouldn’t wake up from my adventures.
It was a grim thought, the only one in my head, as I worked my way back to the land of the living.
I have been through a lot in the last…I wasn't even sure how long. Time seemed to have run together entirely. I had been blown up by magic, snatched by a giant bird, dropped, kidnapped by Legacy, dehydrated, starved, and beaten. Then I had used my magic to escape, a feat in itself, nearly drowned, and gotten caught again. A slight lull, another escape, shot with a crossbow, and then captured again.
All in all, that was what? At least three head wounds, maybe more. Perhaps my mind had been so thoroughly scrambled that I might never wake up again. Given the way my head felt now, it wasn’t all that farfetched.
"I know you're awake," a voice said, and something smacked next to my ear, as if something had been thrown at my head.
My eyes flew open, and immediately I regretted it. The light wasn't overly bright, just a few candles flickering in the corner of my vision, but it still felt as if someone had plunged a dagger deep into my skull. I winced.
"You threw something at me," I croaked.
My throat felt dry, like it had been stuffed with cotton, enough to tell me that it had been quite some time since I had last drunk anything.
But not so long that I didn't remember what had happened, nor recognize the voice. Legacy. Which meant that she was the one who had tossed something at my head.
"I did," she agreed, not sounding the slightest bit repentant.
