Spin the Shadows (Dark and Wicked Fae #1) - Cate Corvin Page 0,73
at the ruined bodies in it, I saw why they never wanted me to step foot on their island again.
And all I felt at the sight of the monstrosity I’d released was relief.
24
I stumbled away from the terrible tree, slipping in water and blood and nearly stumbling when I reached Robin’s side.
“You’ve got to get up,” I told him. I stroked his back over and over, my palm sliding over slick wetness.
He let out a low groan and managed to sit up a few inches.
The dark veins were spreading rapidly over his face and reaching up into his hairline. He looked down at the neat hole in his chest and let out a strange sound.
I realized he was laughing.
“Robin, if you’re well enough to laugh, you’re well enough to get up and get out of here. We need to find a healer.”
At least the bleeding had significantly slowed down, although that wasn’t entirely a good thing when it came to Faebane. It just meant that his blood was congealing inside him.
He touched the stain on his no-longer-white shirt and looked up at me. “You have to keep going, Briallen. Find him. Finish what we started.”
I set my lips in a firm line, determined not to let him see them trembling. “I’m not leaving you to die here. It’d be undignified, boss.”
A faint smile crossed his face, but it was erased almost immediately by another wince of pain. “Finish it, or this was all for nothing.”
“Robin…” I let my whisper trail off.
He was right. If Brightkin sobered up enough to realize the mess he was in, he would flee Avilion. If he took the human girls with him, we’d never see them again.
I stroked his back one last time and stood up. I was covered in mud, and blood that wasn’t mine, but I wasn’t remotely tired after pushing my magic into that tree.
If anything, I was flooded with energy, like an internal dam had finally broken and was allowed to flow at full power.
But even though I needed to go, I couldn’t bear to walk away and leave Robin to die alone in the depths of the Undercity.
A breeze crawled through the tunnel, icy and fresh.
I never thought I’d be so happy to feel him. Jack came from the direction Brightkin had run, his eyes stealing over the tree I’d made and the corpses it was slowly consuming.
He grimaced at the sight of Robin on his knees, but the black veins creeping down Robin’s arm made it obvious what the problem was.
“Can you help him?” I demanded.
Robin leaned forward again, his breaths coming fast and shallow. If we didn’t get him out, it wouldn’t be long before it was too late.
Jack didn’t bother to roll up his sleeves. He stepped forward, gently nudging me aside, and put his hand over the hole in Robin’s chest.
Ice crept outwards from his fingertips, covering Robin in a fine, lacy frost. My boss’s lips slowly began to turn blue.
“I’ll slow the Faebane,” Jack said. His pale gaze flicked up to me. “But it comes with a price. Nothing is free.”
I took a step back, willing to pay whatever price he asked for, but Robin coughed again. “Wait.”
He reached up and ripped the golden badge off his chest with trembling fingers and held it out to me.
I took it, swallowing hard. The metal was ice cold from Jack’s power.
“They have to listen to you,” he breathed, and coughed out more blood. “The acting Left Hand.”
I wrapped my fingers around the badge until it cut into the edges of my palm, and nodded once before sprinting the way Jack had come.
It was a long tunnel that felt nearly endless. I didn’t feel the pain in my cut feet as I followed the tracks pressed into the mud, moving as fast as I could without stumbling and falling.
Jack’s footsteps were a straight line, but Brightkin’s were harder to follow; he’d meandered, turned around, and they zig-zagged across the tunnel floor.
I swore when the tunnel branched into three new ones. Two of them had muddied floors, but Brightkin’s tracks veered towards the dry, packed dirt earth of the third. Only a few evaporating water droplets remained from his passage.
Still swearing, I forced myself to slow down as I entered the tunnel. The little oil lanterns overhead made the shadows dance on the mossy stone walls, and that’s when I saw it: a streak of violet sparkles that were out of place against the cool gray rock.