Page 142 of A Touch of Poison
I turned on my heel. “I need to get to—”
And that was when I saw.
A spill of red hair snaking across the ground.
I didn’t remember moving, just that I was at her side. “Kat?”
Face down, horribly still and pale. She looked too much like she had at unCavendish’s feet, dying. Yet the only injury I could see was a cut on her arm, and her skin wasn’t dried out like she’d been fed upon by a Horror. Her bow lay nearby, covered in bloody fingerprints. Her blood—poisonousblood.
Thiswasher work.
Her genius fucking work.
“Get this thing off her,” I bellowed as I yanked off my gauntlet. The instant I could, I pressed my palm to her ashen cheek, refusing to so much as blink at the sting of her poison, while Faolán, Rose, and the guards heaved the Horror to one side. “Katherine?”
With the softest sound, she frowned. Slowly, like waking from a deep, deep sleep, she stirred and her dark lashes fluttered against her cheek.
“Katherine, love,” I murmured, cradling her head, keeping my skin against hers. “It’s time to wake up. You’ve got two kills to celebrate.”
Two Horrors. Her incredible aim and her magic. A fucking miracle.
As her eyes opened and focused on me, the dread unclenched in my chest and pride surged in its place, hot and bright. “There you are.”
“I am.” She gave a tired smile, blinking slowly. “You found me in time. My poison…”
“Thank the fucking Stars.”
She touched my cheek, the leather of her gloves not nearly as soft as her skin. “Thankyou.”
I scoffed but pulled her closer, desperate to reassure myself that this was real. “You’re the one who survived—who killed two Horrors. I could kiss you for it.”
She bit her lip. “Why don’t you?” She tilted her head, mouth coming closer to mine, so I felt her next words. “Memento mori.”
Yes.Yes.
Time opened up. I bent in. My body throbbed with each heartbeat.
But then that heartbeat lurched. I jolted upright, searching for another Horror on instinct.
There was none.
Yet my gut said something was wrong. That usually meant danger.
Before I could shake it off, Kat pulled from my hold, a tight, false smile in place as she yanked her sleeve over the cut.
Rose helped her to her feet. “How did you…?” She eyed Kat, then the fallen Horrors.
The guards turned on her, gaping. As she explained that she’d shot them with poisoned arrows, I became aware that my gaze skipped right over something on the periphery of the group.
Make that someone.
I steeled myself and turned to Orpha. “This is about your prisoner.”
She bowed her head. “He’s woken up.”
54
Bastian
