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“Axan. Tell him to stop.”
He looks behind us again.
It’s Keer. My brother’s here, and I can’t even get around his shoulder to see his face. I press my hand against his back, over the marks I just made with my nails.
“Keer, put me down!”
“Hold still.”
“I’m trying to talk to you. Stop running.”
He ducks under a branch, pressing my legs closer, and it scrapes through my hair.
“We’ve got you.”
“I know. I know you have. Please put me down!”
I try to turn again, but my shoulder hurts and his grip won’t give. Tears run up toward my forehead while I hang there. Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Rauk’s waiting for me. He’ll hear us. He has to hear us from here.
“Rauk!”
“Fuck.” Axan drops farther back, and Keer runs harder, jolting the breath out of me against his shoulder.
He takes us around another turn, and I can’t see the slope anymore, only Axan and the trees behind him. Rauk will get to the path and find my bow in the dirt, and he won’t know where I’ve gone.
I told him to rest. I told him I’d come back with fish.
He can’t think I just left.
I drag in enough air to try again, crying so hard now that I have to wipe my face against Keer’s back.
“Keer, please. Put me down. Let me explain.”
“No. You’re not thinking straight. We’ll talk at home.”
I’m not thinking straight? His next stride knocks my teeth together.
Something hits us from the side.
Keer’s arm comes off my legs, and I slide over his shoulder with nothing to hold. My back catches a tree on the way down. Bark scrapes through my shirt as I spin off it and hit the ground.
I can’t breathe.
My mouth’s open, but I can’t get anything in. I curl onto my side and claw at the leaves.
Keer crashes down farther along the path with Rauk on top of him.
Oh, shit.
Rauk has a fist in his hair. Keer catches that arm, his back arching as his bones start to crack. Black fur spreads over his shoulders and his shout breaks into a snarl as his face changes.
Keer, don’t.
Axan drops to his hands beside them. His spine rises under his skin while Rauk’s still trying to keep hold of Keer.
I push against the ground and get one thin gasp in. My back hurts all the way across.
