Page 78 of Reaper's Quest

With a sharp yelp, I yanked away from his hold. He shifted to examine my back and shoulders, then he adjusted to hold me from the other side. Against my weak protests, he lifted me into his arms and dashed through the streets. He navigated the roads and alleys with ease, weaving deeper into the unfamiliar territory of the citadel and away from Aoes’s pub.

Try as I might to pay attention to where we were going, my eyes grew in weight with each step. I felt cold, nauseous, and had never been more out of sorts in my entire existence. My head dropped against his chest, and I closed my eyes.

To the sound of heavy banging, I peeled my eyes open, sort of.

Where are we? Did I lose time?

Winter kicked his foot time and time again against a wooden door. When it swung open, a blurry vision of an attractive woman, exotic in coloring, stood in the threshold. Her upturned, whiskey eyes widened, and her mouth went slack. He pushed past her without an invitation or a word of greeting, carrying me straight to the back room and setting me on a small rickety bed with care.

He took a step back and became little more than a haze in my unfocused vision. My sight narrowed, became unclear, and extra dark and fuzzy around the edges.

“Sorry to impose on you,” he said to the woman. “But she needs help, and I didn’t know where else to go. I thought maybe…”

“You presume too much,” the woman replied. “I haven’t seen you in weeks, and then you show up here with…with that stranger? What do you expect me to do?”

The woman stood beyond my line of sight, but I imagined her making a pointed gesture in my direction. Possibly to my rather unresponsive state.

My eyes slid shut, yet I continued to collect their words among the pounding in my head.

“Please,” Winter beseeched. “Help her as best you can. You know I can’t take her home. Especially not like this.”

His comment raised new questions in my mind, but all curiosity quickly became lost to the exhaustion and throbbing of my body.

Shuffling sounds replaced conversation, and minutes disguised as hours passed. A sweltering hand pressed to my cheek.

“Raven?” Winter’s voice sounded tender, beseeching. “I need you to take this.”

My eyelids fought against the effort to look at him. He held a small cup close to my lips.

“Can you do that for me?” His gaze pleaded for my compliance.

When I lifted my head ever so slightly, he tilted the cup to my lips, and I swallowed the liquid held within. Bitter with a touch of more bitter.

“That should help with the pain.” His horribly fake and unfelt smile bordered on sullen. He leaned in close, resting his cheek a breath from mine. “I’m sorry for what has to happen next.”

20

Winter cut and slashed at my clothing, ripping the coverings away from my wounds in order to access and treat my injuries. Each tug and tear jostled my body, sending rockets of agony through my system.

I gritted my teeth and tried not to shriek, but I wanted to scream.

He was stripping me naked, and I didn’t even care.

The fires of hell pressed into my side, and I wished to lurch away, only Winter held me firm, and I had no strength left with which to fight. His female friend jabbed something thin and sharp into my side, not once but twice. She clearly meant to torture me. I could grasp no other explanation.

My vision blurred further, darkened, turned red, thenblinded me with unfathomable light. My sight shifted into constant, inconsistent change.

“Aldine,” I muttered. “I should have searched for Valen instead…instead…instead of what I did.”

“Why Valen?” Winter asked, his voice soft yet curious and ebbing with concern.

The question shook me a smidgen closer to awareness. I lay on my side, and I couldn’t see Winter’s face because he stood at my back, addressing my more prominent wounds. Although, I wasn’t sure I’d have seen him much better if he stood directly in front of me.

“To help Aldine.” I closed my eyes.

The torment dulled, and something heavy dragged my consciousness downward. My shallow, ragged breaths began to smooth into a rhythm.

The work Winter and his friend did continued to jar my body, but I no longer cared. Or felt. I found myself falling—falling away from the moment. Slipping freely into a much-desired peace. Away from myself.