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“Apply pressure here,” she said, apparently forgetting about the whole conversation. She took his hand and pressed it against his side. He winced as pain seared through his middle.

“Absolutely not. That’s the worst.” He shook his head and yanked his hand away.

Lily huffed a sound of disbelief and stood, but her ankle gave out and she almost fell in her heels.

“Don’t you want to take off your shoes?” Shayne asked. “You’ll appreciate the feeling of the grass on your bare feet, trust me.”

A rattling sounded in the distance, followed by heavy breathing and the stomping of hooves. Shayne turned his ear in that direction, hoping, praying to the sky deities, pleading…

He closed his eyes and his hands slowly pulled into fists. He’d hoped the House of Riothin would have been more preoccupied with trying to save the life of their High Lord than coming after him, but he supposed that was just wishful thinking.

Lily had no idea how close they were because her human ears failed her. “You need rest,” she said. She looked around in the forest. “I think I see some kind of house up ahead. Let’s go there.”

“No, Lily.” Shayne grabbed the tree at his back. He winced as he pulled himself to his feet, clinging to the bark with a shaking hand. “We need to keep running. They’ve found us.” He padded his waist for his fairsabers, but he found something else instead. “Speaking of which…” He drew out a human gun—one meant for killing fairies. He held it out to her. “I brought your favourite thing in the universe.”

Lily blinked a few times like she was second guessing what she was seeing. But her thoughts were taking too long, so Shayne grabbed her hand and shoved the gun into it. “If I pass out,” he said, and her eyes darted up to his with ample wildness, “shoot everything in sight and run.” He pulled a few cartridges of ammo out of his pockets, too.

“Shayne…” she whispered.

He already knew. Even before she’d said his name with such fear and begging, he knew this was not a fight she could handle. That everything she just went through was racing through her mind, about to drive her into madness. That she wasveryclose to breaking; a strong creature in a fragile state. That she had perhaps learned the hard way that in the Ever Corners there were things far worse than death. And all at once, he decided he could not ask her to fight them, even if she did wish to be considered an always-strong-and-never-weak sort of human.

And so, he picked up his crossbow. He put a hand on her cheek as his eyes darted up to the fairies racing through the trees toward them, sliding off their deer and drawing their fairsabers. There were at least a dozen. He kept his gaze on them as he leaned against her ear and whispered. “Lily Baker,” he said. “Close your eyes and count to ten.”

Her eyes slid shut. Shayne stepped around her and raised his crossbow. He fired at the nearest fairy, and then he drew his fairsaber to take care of the rest.

“One,” Lily obediently said behind him.

He dug his fairsaber deep into all the fairy flesh he could reach.

“Two.”

Someone got a hit in against his wrist and he jerked back.

“Three.”

He spun, cutting two at the same time, but he missed the third and got stabbed through his leg.

“Four.”

He growled and threw his fairsaber at the fairy who’d stabbed him. By some miracle, it went clean through the fairy’s body and the fairy toppled over. Shayne rolled out of the way before he could be crushed.

“Five.”

He picked up a rock and hurled it at the others as he scooted backward over the grass, his leg leaking blood through his pants.

“Six.”

A fairsaber appeared over him and he sprang to the left as it stabbed downward, missing him by an inch. He kicked the fairy in the stomach.

“Seven.”

The fairy wobbled, so Shayne stole his fairsaber and sliced his legs.

“Eight.”

The same fairy grabbed Shayne’s hands and tried to wrestle his fairsaber out of them until Shayne grabbed a handful of dirt and whipped it into the fairy’s mouth.

“Nine.”