Page 55
“Stop running.” He strikes again, his mouth literally frothing with rage. “Coward.”
I dodge him in another flash of purple, slightly less easily this time. We haven’t tested the depths of Vesper’s magical well. Running out of luck right now is the worst possible scenario. We have to end this, and quickly.
The third time he attacks, I’m ready. I slice at him with my sickles, creating a whirling wall of blades he quickly retreats from. But the Fool manages to stay ahead of us as I pursue. I actually welcome the blankness that falls over me, just like it did earlier. I don’t have to feel anything at all right now. Not fear. Not horror. Not sorrow. I just have to kill this monster before he has a chance to kill us.
My confidence is nearly my undoing. I’m so busy looking for where to strike him down that I don’t expect him to rally. Instead of going for my face and body, he drops and kicks out, tangling his leg with mine and Vesper’s to sending us reeling. Vesper falls, and I actually feel the moment their luck leaves me. My movements become less sure, the opening I leave for the Fool large enough to drive a cart through.
He takes advantage and punches me in the face so hard I’m nearly certain I see the face of the Moon, tragic and perfect and oh so disappointed. The next thing I know, I’m on my back in the street and the Fool is kicking my sickles away.
He grins and drops down to straddle my body. Saliva drips from his fangs onto my face, a putrid promise of pain. I throw my hands up and catch him in the neck, struggling to keep him back. He’s too strong. He lunges for my throat, putting all his strength and weight behind the attack. My arms bend despite my best efforts. The only thing I can do is choose where the attack hits. In desperation, I try to dodge even as I push him right. As a result, his massive jaws close around my shoulder instead of my throat.
When I was twelve, I fell off a roof while running from the Wands. I was fortunate enough to land in a pile of trash, which hid me from them, but it did nothing to cushion me. I broke my arm and badly, the kind of bad that drained what little resources we had because Mouse couldn’t set it himself. It was blinding white agony, the kind of pain that makes animals gnaw off their own limbs to escape. This is so much worse.
My entire body goes slack as the Fool’s fangs grind against my bones and blood spurts. My arms fall uselessly to my sides, my body no longer following my brain’s frantic commands. I think I scream, but I can’t hear anything past the roaring in my ears, the hot spike behind my eyes.
This is the end. The Fool’s next strike will be the one that knocks me unconscious if I’m lucky. If I’m not, I’ll be aware when he kills me, feel him rip me to pieces …
The Fool rears back again, his muzzle open in a bloody grin. “You taste good, Moon. Give me another—” He screams as light erupts from his chest. Something wet spatters my face. The weight of him crushing my ribs, my lungs, disappears.
I blink rapidly, trying to clear away the red film from my vision. “Whaa—”
“Kestrel.” Vesper awkwardly crawls to me and props my head on their thigh. “Kestrel, talk to me.”
“I’m fine. Thank you so much for your concern,” comes a dry voice overhead.
I blink some more, finally able to see clearly enough to register Cato standing over me, panting. Even as I watch, the blinding light of his hands fades down to a gentle glow. “You…” I try to continue, but the words come out garbled. My jaw feels funny … I’m worried it’s broken.
“Killed him. Yeah.” He bends over and props his hands on his thighs. His breath comes in heavy gasps and his eyes aren’t quite focusing. Even as fucked up as he is, he didn’t let me die. He saved me.
“Hold still, Kestrel.” Vesper gently prods my shoulder and I scream. They mutter under their breath, “This is bad.”
“I can carry her again.” Cato lists a little to the side. There’s a nasty bruise staining the side of his face and his left eye is nearly swollen shut.
“Nnn,” is all I can get out before pain steals my voice.
Vesper ignores me. “Her shoulder is torn to pieces. We need to stop the bleeding before—”
“She screamed and I just lit up the night sky.” He lowers himself to one knee with exaggerated care. “Any champion who was close enough to see or hear the fight will be headed our way.” He glances up, his unswollen eye squinting. “If the Moon works the same way the Sun does, exposing the wounds to Their light will help heal her. It’s good we’re not in a new Moon cycle. We just need to keep her alive until sunrise and the temple will do the rest.”
“That’s not—”
“Or we can leave her here and save ourselves. Those are our options, Vesper. Choose.”
Vesper curses him so creatively, I would be impressed if I could think of anything but the screaming pain radiating through my shoulder and jaw. I want to tell them to leave me, but I don’t want to die, not like this. Fuck, everything hurts.
“Fine. You carry her. Just let me wrap her shoulder as best I can first.”
“Hurry.”
Vesper rips off a piece of my clothing and winces. “This is going to hurt. I’m sorry.” They loop it around my shoulder and tie it tightly. The pressure explodes behind my eyes. I tense, digging my heels into the flagstones, and I scream again. It hurts. It hurts so badly, I want nothing more than to pass out. Fuck, maybe death is preferable to this.
Cato scoops me up once again, this time with significantly more gentleness. I think. It’s hard to be sure when the move jostles my shoulder and I can’t grit my teeth through a scream because my fucking jaw.
“Hush,” he snaps. “I’m doing the best I can, but if you bring down the others on us, I am leaving you.”
The harshness grounds me more effectively than anything else. I press my face to his shoulder, muffling another cry at the way the contact spirals my pain higher. He smells warm and fresh, the kind of scent that’s truly hard to define, despite the blood coating both of us. It’s almost enough to distract me from how terribly tonight has gone.
Two hits. That’s all it took for the Fool to lay me out, to make me helpless and completely reliant on my allies not to betray or abandon me.
