Chapter 11

Chapter

Eleven

CALLISTO

Pain grips tightly to me as my world shifts around me. I'm disoriented and my mind is foggy, but it takes only a moment to realize that I'm on the back of a horse… no… I'm on the back of Banks.

A snug arm is around me. It's pressing against the claw marks across my chest, but maybe there's really not a better place to hold on. My body sways back and I slam my head against his shoulder before startling myself.

"Sorry," I mutter.

"Shh, we're being followed," he whispers, grip tight on me. It's almost painfully tight but I don't know if I've ever felt more secure. Like he's never going to let anyone touch me ever again.

"Can you sit on your own?"

"Hmm?"

He lets go of me and I feel like I'm falling. I need that protective arm back. I need him to hold on to me; I feel lost without him. I try to reach for him, but suddenly he's gone, and I feel cold air against my back. I reach forward to grab Banks's mane before realizing that he doesn't have much of a mane to even hold on to.

There's noise behind me. People shouting, but I can't quite understand it. Are they not the king's soldiers? Did someone else attack the kingdom? But if they did, who are they?

"Wait, I can help," I say as I fumble for Banks's reins as the mule keeps taking me farther from them. "Whoa. Banks, whoa." I pull on the reins, but the mule fights through it. I don't want to hurt him, but I need to get to Silas. I can help. I twist one rein, knowing that if his head is turned, he'll have to turn his body, but he fights through it.

"Dammit, Banks," I complain as I decide I'll just get off, then. I slip my leg over the back of the saddle and go to slide down, but the world rotates and I fall, slamming down on my back as pain tears through me.

"Fuck. Fuck," I whisper, my hands digging into the dirt a moment before I feel a strange darkness surround me. It's such an eerie feeling that consumes me. I feel like the world is crashing around me and death is breathing down my neck.

Screams fill the air, and then suddenly… silence.

My heart is pounding wildly in my chest. I don't know what the fuck just happened… but I need to find Silas. I can help him. I can…

I try to get up, but I can't, and when I look down, I realize that my fall has worsened the bleeding. Banks lowers his head and nibbles on my shirt.

Now that I don't need him to stop, he stops?

"I… need to help," I say as I grab his head, hoping he can help pull me up. He doesn't get me to my feet, but I do manage to get on my hands and knees. If I could just get close, it'd be fine. I just… need to get close?—

"What the fuck are you doing?" Silas yells as he rushes for me.

"Helping you… obviously," I respond, but he looks perfectly fine. He doesn't appear wounded at all and clearly didn't need a lick of my help.

He drops the sword and quickly picks me up. "I told you to stay put," he says, voice sharp.

"I… wouldn't have fallen off if Banks had listened."

"He did listen! I told him to take you away," he says as I feel a bit foolish.

"I… didn't want you to get hurt," I protest as he guides me onto Banks's back. "I didn't want you to…"

Silas climbs up behind me and pushes Banks into a gallop as I feel a strange magic wrap around me. It's gone before I can even question what it is.

"Am I dying?" I ask. Is that what that feeling was? Me just running headfirst toward my grave?

"Not if you stop doing foolish things like jumping off mules," he growls.

"I wanted to save you. And then you'd be like ‘Wow, he saved me. He's so amazing.'"

"Trust me, right now, we just need to get you somewhere safe. If you live, you can have the rest of your life to save me."

"That sounds like you like me," I mutter as I rest my head against his shoulder. I can't keep my eyes open anymore and can only listen to the sound of hoofbeats on the hard-packed earth.

"I don't know what I'm doing with you," he says.

"It's because you like me."

"I have other things to worry about."

"You must definitely like me, then."

"You're delirious from blood loss. You probably should stop talking. I feel like the more you talk, the more blood you'll lose."

That really can't be right. "But I like hearing your voice. It makes me feel better. It's healing me."

"Shh, why don't you rest?" His voice is gentle in my ear, and I feel shockingly at ease being held up against him.

"I'll rest when I'm dead."

"Aren't you in pain?"

"A significant amount."

"Then why don't we kill that monster of yours? It'll just attack you again," he says, surely not talking about my Dandelion.

"Nah, he likes me. This was just a love tap."

"If you hadn't been wearing enough clothes to clothe an army, that nasty thing would have disemboweled you."

"After the king stabbed me, it was simply a love tap," I decide.

"Love tap, my ass," he growls. "If that thing even looks at anyone wrong, it's dead, you hear me?"

"You're so feisty and protective of me… does it mean you like me?"

Silas just sighs and holds me tightly as I nod off.

When I wake, it's because someone is trying to murder me. I'm even more devastated to find out that it's Silas who is trying it.

"Why are you doing this?" I cry as I try to crawl away.

"Settle your ass down and don't move," he growls.

I don't know where I am, but it looks like a barn of some kind. To my left is Dandelion, who still seems to be sleeping off the poison, and Banks, who is chewing on some hay.

"Where are we?" I ask as Titus bobs around my head.

"Just a momentary stop," he says. "You need to rest."

Pain tears into me as I realize that he's saying one thing but definitely doing another.

"Please stop, please stop. What the fuck are you doing? How the hell am I to rest when you're murdering me?"

"I'm closing your wound," he says as he pins me down before he stabs at me with the needle again. He's clearly out to murder me. "You were unconscious, so I thought it'd be a good time."

"Huh…" I mutter as darkness dances before me.

When I wake again, I'm bundled up in blankets and hear something move to my left. I see Dandelion struggling to lift his head, but it seems like too much work, and he slams back down on his side.

"If you drink some water, it'll help with the poison," I say, not seeing Silas anywhere.

I slowly crawl out of my warm cocoon that Silas placed me in and grab the bucket of water that's probably for Banks. Dragging it, I crawl over to Dandelion who is chained up to some pretty hefty posts. In his current state, he definitely couldn't get free from where the chains are hooked to the shackles that have been on his legs since before I bought him.

"You need to drink," I say, but Dandelion doesn't seem to be interested in doing anything. I push his head up and guide it into the bucket. "Come on, drink."

He watches me through slitted eyes, not at all enthused to see me, but I keep urging him.

"I didn't mean to poison you… I thought you were going to kill me," I admit.

Dandelion slowly lowers his muzzled mouth into the water and takes a drink. The water turns red from the ill-fitting muzzle that I wish I could take off him.

"There, that's better, right?" I ask.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Silas yells as he rushes across the barn. He grabs me and yanks me back so quickly that I end up spilling the water.

I'm kind of startled by the whole thing. "I was just getting him water."

Silas does not look pleased. I'm not sure if I've ever seen him look so angry. "I shackled him on that side of the barn so he couldn't reach you, so you go to him? I know you have some weird misconception that he's your friend, but he literally tried killing you. So you go back to him?"

"He's fine. He likes me," I say, but I guess I can see why he's upset. He has risked his life for me, and he clearly doesn't trust Dandelion.

Silas ignores me as he dusts the hay and straw off me before forcing me back into my cocoon. "I was gone for two minutes. Two minutes."

"Huh."

He sighs and tucks me back in. "Go back to sleep. At least then you're not getting into shit."

Silas sits down and guides my head on his lap before pressing a canteen of water against my lips. I take a few drinks before sinking back down onto his legs. He doesn't move me, which makes me feel quite happy, so I close my eyes and drift back off to sleep, but my sleep is fitful.

In it, I'm alone… so alone. There's nothing out there but death and it haunts my every step. And when I've finally given up, when I've finally decided that death is all that awaits me, I feel a gentle hand on me. I'm lying in someone's arms as life drains out of me.