Page 73 of Ruling the Green

Or what had been the wrists I’d known.

Now, the skin was burned away.

Instead, I saw the pale, cord-like structures of my tendons and the red-pink of my muscle. But nestled deeply in the wound was a hint of white.

Bone.

I was seeing my bone.

Bile rose up my throat.

Before I could be sick, though, another voice came closer.

“Run!” Nira yelled. “We have to run.”

“Why?” Vishen asked, jumping to his feet.

Nira broke into the clearing, soaked through, but carrying my clothes and our weapons.

“A regiment is coming,” Nira, breathless, told us. “I don’t know if they heard something or what, but they’re coming. And we can’t be caught out here like this.”

“Fuck,” Jet hissed.

He leaned forward, slipping his arms under my legs and around my back, lifting me into his arms.

Then we were running.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Jet

“Nira!” Vishen screamed as we reached the lake, finding the woman floating, still as a corpse, but her eyes open and blinking, in the center of the still water.

He ran in as my gaze moved to the bank, searching for Serin. Her pants and shoes were in a pile, but she wasn’t there. She wasn’t in the water.

But the bank was soaked and freshly eroded. Almost like a wave had…

The story she’d told me came back. About the man who’d tried to take advantage of her.

Was that what happened? Serin was bathing and some creep came along?

Had Nira tried to fight them off and ended up in the water? Had the lake tried to save Serin… and failed?

Too many questions.

Not a single answer.

My gaze just landed on a rock with a bright spot of blood when I heard water cascading down.

Turning, I saw Vishen carrying Nira out of the water.

“It was like the water was holding onto her,” Vishen said, panting for breath.

“It wouldn’t let me go,” Nira agreed.

We could question her, get answers.

But I didn’t have time.