Shadow of Doubt - Hailey Edwards Page 0,83

catch-up.

While he fought a losing battle with the water closing over his head, I swam to assist Ford.

“I got this,” he yelled. “Find Midas.”

Permission granted, I dove in the last place I saw him. I had excellent night vision, but it was too dark to see with vegetation blocking light from the surface. I swam and raked my hands through the murky depths, heart a drumbeat in my ears, until my fingertips snagged on damp fabric.

Fisting my hand in the material, I jerked and was rewarded with a masculine body colliding with mine.

Relief built in my chest until the pressure threatened to burst my lungs.

I kicked as hard as I could, propelling us both to the surface where Ford was waiting with helping hands and a bloody face.

Together, we dragged Midas onto land, and I started CPR.

“Come on,” I grunted, keeping my chest compressions precise. “Wake up, Goldilocks.”

Water burbled from the corner of his mouth, and his breath caught.

“That’s it.” I kept going. “You’re too pretty to die waterlogged. All that beautiful hair? Forget it. You look like a drowned rat.” Only when he coughed and spluttered did I dare quit. “I knew it.” I wiped the soft blond waves out of his eyes and off his face. “You really are that vain. Guess I can’t complain, though. Vanity just saved your life.”

“No,” he rasped, reaching for my hand. “You…”

A curious shadow sniffed his side, and I remembered why he needed a rescue in the first place.

“Pardon me.” I gripped the tattered remains of his shirt and ripped it down the middle. “I need to see what we’re dealing with here.” The visual was…not great. “Ford?”

“I already called for a healer.”

“Good.” I used the soggy and generally useless tee to apply pressure to the gaping wound on his side. “Eyes open, Goldilocks. No sweet dreams just yet.”

“You…”

“Whatever it is, save it.” I stroked his hair with one hand while keeping the other on his abdomen, telling myself it was to comfort him and not me. “You can tell me later.”

“…saved…me.”

“Did you not hear me?” I tugged on his ear. “Hush.”

The right corner of his mouth twitched in a smile it couldn’t quite manage.

The healer arrived with his retinue in tow, and I stepped aside to give him room to work. Judging by the reverence shown to him by Ford, he must be a fae gwyllgi.

Midas’s blood stained my hands, and I wanted nothing more than to wash them clean, but I wasn’t done yet.

“Siemen is dead.” I examined Ford, his face a mess of claw marks. “Where’s Bonnie?”

“I got in a few good hits.” He wiped blood off his forehead. “She went down and didn’t come up again.”

“Are you sure?” A niggling doubt prodded the back of my mind. “Are you one hundred percent certain?”

Stabbing pain gave me an insta-migraine as Ambrose poked at me.

Ah.

That would be the source of the persistent doubt I was experiencing.

“Stay here.” I touched Ford’s arm. “You need to be seen by the healer too.”

“What about you?” He cupped my cheek in his wide, warm palm. “Your arm...”

“It won’t fall off.” I gave him greater incentive. “You need to protect the healer.”

“He brought guards.” Ford was onto my tricks. “No healer leaves the den without them these days.”

“They don’t know what they’re up against.” I was out of time to argue. “I do.” Hating to pull rank, I did it for his own good. “This is my job. Let me do it. You stay here with Midas.”

“Search the perimeter of the pond,” I told Ambrose once we were safely out of range of the others. “If by some miracle either of them survived their bath, I need to know if I should rinse and repeat.”

The stubborn shadow didn’t budge an inch, but he did hold out his hand.

“For pity’s sake.” I dug in my pocket for the handful of chocolates I kept there for him and tossed one into the void. “Are you serious?” I tossed a second. “Lives are at stake.” A third. “Get your ass in gear.”

Six ganache squares later, Ambrose shot like an arrow across the pond to sniff down any fresh magic. That left me performing a visual sweep of the area while canvassing its edge.

“I thought you would understand,” a soft voice came from the darkness. “Of all people, you should have understood the thirst for power, the craving for more and better things.”

Slowly, I turned toward the speaker, yanking as hard as I could on the tether binding me