Page 34 of Omen of ice
“No!” The word tears from my throat like a million shards of jagged glass.
I tear at his tunic. The sound of ripping material echoes off the trees, as does the sound of my breath, coming in quick, uneven rasps.
“Brace yourself,” I say, gripping the handle.
One.
Two.
Three.
I pull the blade from his side. He grunts and grits his teeth. The injury between his ribs and hip bone is bad but not life-threatening. At least not for a Fae. Several inches higher, though…
“Thank the Goddess.” I exhale and press one palm against the wound while I yank at the sleeve of his tunic with the other. Balling it up, I press it tight to staunch the blood flow, which is already beginning to slow.
“If you’re done groping me, I’d like to get up now.” He cracks his left eye open and pushes my hand away, replacing it with his own.
I roll my eyes and shiver against a rush of sudden cold. Lunal wasn’t perfect, and life there wasn’t easy, but Goddess how I miss the sunshine and warmth. I stand to retrieve my cloak from where I’d dropped it, but when I go to step away, everything spins wildly out of focus. Pain sears my side. Scorching hot, it steals the air from my lungs.
My legs give out, and I collapse. “What—” I wrap my arms around my middle and look down. Blood. There’s so much blood.
Valen is beside me in an instant. “Tania?” His voice is tight with concern. “What happened? Let me see!”
I try to focus on the surrounding area, on his voice, but everything swims in and out. Have more Fae appeared? Have I been pierced by another arrow? Nicked in the fight without knowing it? Maybe the adrenaline kept me from feeling the wound?
No. I was fine. Untouched save for a few cuts and bruises and that very first graze. “Nothing to warrant this much—” I gasp. “Blood. Where’s it coming—”
Valen mimics what I did to him. His search reveals an identical wound to his, one that wasn’t there moments ago.
One that for a humanislife-threatening.
Supporting my head, he tilts me down. There’s a wild look in his eyes, and his breathing is rapid and uneven. Panicked. He’spanicked. “Lie as still as you— I need to stop the bleeding!” His hand presses against my side, to the left of the wound, and my body numbs. “The cold will help constrict the blood vessels. Slow the bleeding.”
“Or freeze me solid.” My teeth chatter as he presses something into the wound. Despite the numbness, I still feel the sting of it. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“Human anatomy is similar to Fae. I won’t freeze anything internal you might need.” The pressure increases. “Now be quiet or I’ll freeze your lips shut.”
I bite back an acidic retort and let him work, relaxing a little when some of the pain ebbs.
A few moments later, he rocks back on his heels, calmer. “I think I got the wound to stop bleeding. We’ll have to have someone in the village look at it before making the journey back to the estate, just in case.”
“Someone in the— Absolutely not.” I bite back a scream as I push myself into a sitting position. If I don’t get off the ground soon, my ass is going to be a permanent block of ice. “People from the village just tried tokillus. We, in turn,killed them. You want to go to one of them for medical attention?”
He folds his arms, completely unbothered by the missing sleeve. “To be fair, they were nothing more than thugs. Maybe no one in the village will care?”
I shake my head and brush some snow from my leathers. “We’ll just take the ride a bit slower and be careful. I’ll use a medical sigil, then deal with it when we get back to the estate.”
“If you don’t bleed out by then.”
“Don’t be dramatic. You stopped the bleeding.” I’m trying to stay as calm as I can, but inside, I’m screaming. The pain from the wound is nothing compared to the bigger picture.
Valen was the one stabbed—and I suffered the wound right along with him.
A mistake… I made a mistake while inking the rebirth sigil. That’s the only explanation.
I need to get back to the estate and figure out how to fix this.
“This is a bad idea,” he prods.
