You’re with me.” We close the distance and hug each other with complete abandon. “I’m so happy to see you.”
“Ditto, number girl. I’ve missed you every day. Thoughts of you kept me going.” His grip on me tightens. “Why is six afraid of seven?”
I laugh. This boy! He’s always loved to tease me. “Why else? Because seven eight nine.”
He buries his head against my shoulder. Even through my coat I feel something warm and wet. Tears of his own? “I’d hoped you escaped. Sometimes I heard screams...”
“Yeah.” A tremor rocks him and seeps into me. “Yeah. I did escape. I made it outside the asylum, but last time I was unprepared for the cold. A group of Russians caught me. They did... The things they...”
“I know. I know.” I can imagine. I stroke his hair. “It’s over, done. You’re safe now.”
His next tremor is stronger. “The next morning, they brought me back to Vans. I was locked in an underground facility where the guards are trained.”
I pull back and fit my gloves over my hands. “How’d you get free yesterday?”
“Some pink-haired girl came through and opened my door.”
Bow. I owe her. Him. Whatever! “Have you found any other inmates out here?”
His voice is low and filled with countless regrets as he replies, “No one living. You?”
“The same.” There has to be more we can do. I won’t accept failure.
A moan drifts on the wind, and I turn toward the sound. “Did you hear that?”
Another moan, softer but no less agonized.
“Yeah.” He fits his mask over his face. “Come on,” he says and races forward.
I replace my mask, as well, and though I hate to leave the dead kid out in the open, I follow Clay. Take care of the living, and let the dead take care of the dead. The sound leads us to a small clearing surrounded by thriving evergreens, but there’s no sign of the Prynne uniform.
I take a risk, calling, “This is Tenley Lockwood. I know someone’s here, but I’m having trouble finding you. I don’t want to hurt you. I just—”
A pile of rocks rattles, and a trembling, gloveless hand reaches out.
“Here!” I shout to Clay, desperate as I sprint over. I dig through the stones to discover—
Sloan. Her partially frozen face is tinted blue, but she has a pulse. Faint, but there. She’s not shivering, and I know that’s a bad, bad sign.
Clay falls at my side and helps me pull her the rest of the way from the rubble.
My desperation escalates as I grab the coat from my backpack and wrap it around her shoulders, then remove my gloves yet again to shove them onto her hands. “Do you know how to start a fire?”
“No, but even if I did, the guards—”
“If they find us, we’ll fight them, but we have to get her warm now.” The cave is too far away. She won’t survive the uphill trek, and I’m not sure we’re strong enough to make it.
“All right. Okay. I’ll do my best.”
Zero! “We need help,” I mutter.
If telling Archer to stay away actually forced him to stay away, maybe summoning him would force him to appear?
A girl had to try.
“Archer,” I call. “Bow. Whatever your name is. I’m asking for help.” I remember what I shouted to the shadow at Killian’s bidding, the restrictions I put in place, and add, “If you can hear me, you can come closer now.”
“Oh, I can hear you.” Ice crunches in the distance.
I jump to my feet, the scalpel clasped and ready for action. Just in case. Clay moves beside me, holding a rock, just as ready. I remember his withdrawals, how unsteady he was. Now he looks clean and sober.
A guy I don’t recognize steps into the clearing, both of his hands lifted, palms out. A sign of surrender. His hair is the color of spun gold, and he’s impossibly handsome. He has the kind of face you’d see on a magazine. World’s Sexiest Male.
He is the saint to Killian’s sinner.
Like Killian, he’s without a coat. He’s wearing a T-shirt that hugs the massive cut of his biceps. Also like Killian, he’s tall and gloriously muscled.
“Stay where you are,” Clay commands. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.”
“Why would you hurt me? Ten asked for my help.” The newcomer takes one more step, landing in a beam of moonlight. “Here I am.”
“You heard her call for Archer, could have decided to pretend you’re him to take advantage of her.”
His gaze locks with mine,