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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Ryker

“How are your wounds?” Ruby asked me.

“I broke the shaft off, but the arrowhead is still in my leg.”

She winced and glanced down at the torn, red cloth over where the arrow had punctured my thigh. It had stopped bleeding, but my flesh was still raw and puckered.

Tucker stopped beside Ruby and rested his hand on the tree I was leaning against. He studied me and Ellery while Ruby spoke.

“It will have to be cut out,” she said.

“I know,” I told her.

“I can do it. I have some experience with injuries.”

“I’ll help,” Tucker offered.

“No,” I said as I grasped his wrist. “You’re still not a wanted criminal, and someone has to get to Dahlia to warn her. My father knows of her, and after today, he’ll figure out she was helping to keep my relationship with Ellery hidden.”

Dahlia was the prostitute I’d paid to say I was sleeping with her so I could hide my relationship with Ellery from my father. I’d fought with her during the Ghoul War and trusted her to keep my secret.

And now I had to keep her safe. She and Tucker had also fought together and knew each other, so she would trust what he told her.

“I’ll go to her,” Tucker said.

“Be careful. They could already be there.”

“I will.”

When Tucker opened a portal and vanished into it, I turned to Ruby. “Let’s get this thing out.”

She went to gather some more supplies. When she returned, I shifted Ellery so Ruby could access my leg better.

Ellery didn’t wake, but her head fell into the hollow of my neck, and her breath warmed my throat. Her tangled hair tickled my nose, but I didn’t brush it away.

I lay my head against the tree and gritted my teeth as I resolved not to move; I couldn’t wake her. Ruby cut away my pant leg, chopping it off a couple of inches above the wound.

Then she went to work on digging the arrow out. When she finally succeeded in removing it Ruby cleaned and bandaged the wound.

When she finished, Tucker returned. He didn’t have to say anything; the look on his face told me I’d sent him too late.

Guilt tugged at me as I bit out a curse. I should have thought of Dahlia sooner, but I’d been so focused on the weapons room and Ellery that I failed to save the woman who’d helped me.

“ Fuck! ” I hissed.

Tucker knelt beside me to inspect the gash in my side. “She could still be alive; the bordello was on fire, and I saw no signs of anyone, not even bodies. They might have taken her.”

“If they did, she’d be better off dead.”

Tucker didn’t argue with me. He knew well what it was like to be imprisoned and at the mercy of those who took joy in others’ suffering.

“Then we will save her,” Tucker said.

I rested my head against the tree as Tucker prodded my side. Dahlia was one more amsirah I’d failed, and there were so many more hoping I would save them. I wouldn’t let them down. And if she was alive, I’d save her.

“This is healing nicely,” Tucker said.

“It will be fine by tomorrow,” I assured him.

“Are you going to tell us what happened with Ivan?”

His question created a stillness in the camp that wasn’t there before. After arriving here, I doubted the women had much time to tell their story.

But now everyone was on pins and needles. Those who hadn’t been close enough to originally hear the question caught the whispers of it spreading through camp until, eventually, most of the amsirah stilled before coming closer.

Some women who’d fled the palace with us also came closer. “We haven’t said much,” one of the women said. “There wasn’t time.”

That was understandable, as it had all happened so fast. And now we were wanted criminals hiding deep in the Revenant Woods and about to start a war. I’d prefer to take Ellery to my tree house and settle her in so she could rest more comfortably, but I couldn’t risk waking her.

“Well, there’s plenty of time now,” I said as I held Ellery closer while they settled in to hear the tale of Ivan’s demise.