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Chapter 19

THERE WAS THE SOUND OF RUNNING FEET FROST KEPT ME PINNED to the ith only his chest, drawing a gun frouns in opposite directions down the hallway To draw the other gun, he&039;d been forced to h off of un at the sht to trap ht, no logic, just truth Frost had given me those few moments to think I aimed away fro feet They would be upon us in seconds

I wasn&039;t scared anyer, part terror, part things there are no words for Galen was hurt, I would hurt theht that didn&039;t say hurt but said another word I pushed it back and aier had actually started to squeeze dohen I realized it was Nicca and Biddy, and the rest of the guards who had been with Frost in the hallway before Amatheon and I took our little trip I letI started to shake al a bullet through Nicca&039;s chest If the gun had had a shorter pull A bullet through an arm or shoulder could be healed, but one in the heart, well, sometimes yes and soun in his hand, sword in hers They were both ariers and lions Dangerous simply because of what they are I had never seen resolve such as this on Nicca&039;s face

Frost stayed with ht of anotherhurt because of ing to the gun with both hands to make sure it pointed only at stone, I would have pushed Frost away Stupid, but until I kne badly Galen was hurt, I didn&039;t want to risk anyone else Especially stupid since the rest of the guards had just run around the corner Magic filled the air, crawling over my skin The sound of metal on metal A man cried out, and then a woe I wanted no one else to risk theer thes I did not want to cry away So softly All else was sainst stone, footfalls, ht was over The question was, Who had won? If Doyle or Frost had been with them, I wouldn&039;t have doubted the outco, tense and ready in front ofdown both directions of the hallway, as if he didn&039;t trust anyone else to keep watch Without Doyle here, neither did I

The two men trusted no one else as un to believe that only these two could keep un to put my faith in these two men and lose it in the others?

Hawthorne cahtly with blood, as if someone had taken a red ink pen and shaken it at hi his blade with a piece of cloth that looked as if it had been jerked off someone&039;s body "It is over"

Adair was at his back, helmet tucked under one arm Without his hair to cushion his helainst his neck, where it had rubbed "They are subdued or as dead as we can un still held carefully in un, Princess"

I looked at his arrogant face, but saw the pain in his eyes "Why?" I asked

"Because I do not trust what you will do with it, if he is as gravely injured as he appeared to be"

My heart was suddenly ha painfully in my chest, as if I couldn&039;t quite breathe around it I opened , but finally closed it I sed and it hurt, as if I were trying not to choke I just nodded, and put the gun back where it belonged I settled my cloak over it, as a matter of habit Don&039;t want to ruin the line of the clothes if you can help it Habit is e have when the inside of our head is screa, and we&039;re so scared that it sits like dry ues

Frost stepped away frouns, but I didn&039;t stay to watch him finish the s for the corner One word kept going through my head over and over, Galen, Galen, Galen Too scared to finish the thought Too scared to do anything but run for hi to the Goddess harder than I&039;d ever prayed before I&039;d just been in her presence, so she would have listened But I didn&039;t pray to her or any deity I knew If it was a prayer, it was a prayer to Galen I cleared the corner, and saw hi bent under his body, and blood everywhere A sea of blood, across the stone floor, spilling out and around hiht finished in my head, the only prayer I had to offer Galen, don&039;t be dead, don&039;t be dead, Galen, please, don&039;t be dead

Chapter 20

I FELL TO MY KNEES BESIDE HIM THE BRIGHT RED OF THE BLOOD frareener than I knew it to be Ain all of faerie Now I hesitated,over his face I wanted to touch him, have him open his eyes and smile up at me I was afraid to touch him, afraid he would be cold to the touch, afraid to know

I made myself touch the side of his face His skin was cool but not cold A tightness in my chest eased ainst his skin, searching Nothing, nothing, then a faint flutter The reliefdown the side of his neck into the curls at the back of his head, but they were heavy with blood I raised ht with blood "Where is it all co from?" I didn&039;t realize I&039;d said it aloud until Adair answered me "We have not had time to check for his wounds, Princess"

I nodded to let hi stopped"

Adair knelt at Galen&039;s shoulders "I have sent for a healer"

I shook my head "His skin is cool We need to stop this blood loss now, not wait for a healer"

"A sidhe who can die frolanced up to find Kieran, Lord of Knives, kneeling with his hands bound behind his back But Ivi still kept the lord at sword point Kieran had only one hand of power, and it was the onlythe sidhe consider him weak But that one hand was a deadly one He could use his ic like a blade to stab deep into the body, even from a distance I kne Galen had fallen without even drawing a blade or a gun But why aaze traveled to the other three kneeling there The rest were all wouard That did not surpriseon his side,His hands were tied behind his back, but there was a s to seep out from him His face was turned away froht, but now, unless he could heal Galen, I didn&039;t care who he was

Adair helped me turn Galen onto his side He was liain, past the taste of panic There were tounds in his back, deep and clean Somehow, miraculously, they hadout this quickly wasn&039;t from a wound in his back, especially if it missed the heart

We eased hiainst the blood-slick floor, there was a fresh gush of blood fros, and found the third wound, high up on the thigh They&039;d cut his femoral artery A human could bleed out in twentyout The fact that it was only seeping meant that he had lost most of the blood in his body Which meant that even if soht not recover The sidhe can take a lot of wounds, a lot of blood loss, but there has to be enough blood left to keep the body running, the heart pu in front of ue with his division of labor, not with Galen lying lireat deal easier to kill than Galen

But Frost had watched as we found the wounds "Where is the healer that you sent for?"

Adair shook his head "I do not know"

"We&039;re running out of time," I said "We have to close the wounds and keep what little blood he has left inside him"

"I can close his wounds," a wo prisoners s at us Her hair was the color of yellow corn silk, her eyes triple colors of blue, silver, with an inner circle of light, if light had a single color I&039;d never knohat to call the final color of Hafwyn&039;s eyes

The other women said, "No You cannot help them You betray our s

Hafwyn shrugged with her hands still bound behind her "We are captured, and our master is still imprisoned I think it would not be a mistake to have some favor on other shores"

She raised one of her dark eyebrows With her very blond hair, in a huht dye, but in a race where your eyes could be three different colors, as black eyebrows and blond hair?

"You are a traitor to your oath if you do this," Melangell said There was blood running down her face from a wound that had split the side of her helmet If she&039;d been human, her brains would have spilled out, but she was barely bleeding

"I never made an oath to Prince Cel," Hafwyn said "It was Prince Essus I vowed to serve When he died, no one asked if ould serve Cel, ere si has my oath of loyalty" She looked atin her face, soe

"Can she really heal him?" I asked

"She can close his wounds," Adair said, "but that&039;s all"

"It is more than any of the rest of us can do for hih, in truth, it never occurred to me to ask Galen&039;s assassins if they could help heal hione with those words, but he si a fact

"Do we trust her?" Nicca asked

I laid a hand against Galen&039;s cooling skin "No," I said, "but untie her anyway" Earlier that day I had been ready to give Galen up to an unknown lover But that was different fro for someone else if I kneas happy But to never see that sain I couldn&039;t stand that