Hearts Under Ice - CS Patra Page 0,99
his Earthly immune system. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m okay. I might be a little ill, but—”
“No buts, Donnie. You need some warmth, right away.” She said, helping him sit up. She took her own coat off and put it on him. The cold was terrible, but seeing him in this situation was worse. She could always borrow a coat from Mina or Sara when they found her. “I’ll try to get you a coat in your size when we reach another village.”
“What about you, though?” he asked, letting out another sneeze. She rubbed his back as he shivered. “I’m sorry about that. I know what you’re going to say. It was kind of dumb to walk out of there and try to find my way around. I just couldn’t stay there. Something didn’t feel right.”
“I know. This entire world is trippy, and I have no idea who to trust. Did the Queen do anything to you?” she asked, looking him over. Aside from being sick, he didn’t seem injured. “She didn’t hurt you, did she?”
“No, why would she do that?” he was confused. “Wait, how did you get this far, anyway? You did come with other people, right? Where are they?”
“I, um—” Olivia trailed off. “I kind of left them behind.”
“You did what?” he coughed and shook his head. “No, Olivia, you shouldn’t have done that! Do you even know how to get around this world?”
“Donnie, please. I couldn’t wait any longer, either. They wanted to wait, and were stopping in too many places. I knew you didn’t have much time. So I ran from them and tried to get here on my own. It’s a good thing I did, because look at you! You’re in horrible condition, and you need to see a doctor, right away! I’m glad I found you in time! Of course, I had help from the Brotherhood. They got me to you.”
Donnie blinked. “Back that up a little bit. You got help from who now?”
“The Brotherhood of Iced Blood.” His jaw fell open, so she quickly tried to explain and calm him down. “Don’t say anything! I know what you’re thinking! You think they’re dangerous and they’re trying to trap us, but they’re not!”
“How do you know that for a fact? What did they tell you?” Donnie stood up and felt his own forehead. Olivia was right—he definitely had a fever and a cold. But he also had the one thing that he wanted. All he needed now was his bed to sleep in. “They could be toying with you.”
“That’s what I thought, too. I didn’t tell them everything about me because I’m still so confused. I don’t know who to believe right now. Our friends say that the Queen is a good person. The others say that she’s evil. Who am I supposed to trust in this, Donnie? You’re the only one that makes sense right now.”
“I make sense, even though my nose is stuffed up and I can’t speak properly?” he joked. “Seriously though, I don’t think we should take anything that anyone else says as the truth. From now on, you and I will stick together. We’ll get through this, and we won’t trust anyone but each other. The one thing I need to do is find a way to get out of here. From what I can tell, this world does have some technology, but it’s not as advanced as back home. Throwing in the fact that we’re stuck in the middle of the woods, it will be hard to make anything that could take us back home. I could always go back in my prison, but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. Someone will find out that I escaped, and they could trap me again or punish me for leaving. They called me bait earlier.”
“So I’ve heard. The truth is, I have no idea who the real bait is supposed to be. I still can’t figure out this world. I feel guilty for leaving Ms. Howard and everyone else behind, but—” Olivia saw that he had put his hand on top of hers. It felt so cold that she could feel it through her gloves. “Donnie, as much as I hate to admit it, we need to find that prison you were in and get warm. Maybe we’ll have to go back to that room and get your stuff. We’re not getting anything over here.”
“It’ll take me a long time to make something, Olivia. Considering the fact that