Page 59 of Kiss of Smoke

His eyes blazed like flames amidst the streaks of scarlet on his face. “You’re going to be fine, Briallen,” he said, but he didn’t sound like the Robin I knew. I’d never heard him sound like that before.

I reached out and managed to hook my fingers in his. The air came a little easier now, and I whispered, “It’s going to be fine. Everything will be okay.”

Robin just stared at me, his eyes full of raw pain that told me he very much didn’t believe it was going to be fine.

I heard footsteps approaching, and then Jack and Gwyn were in my view, the three of them leaning over me.

Jack touched my shoulder with shaking hands. Gwyn’s lips drew back over his teeth in a vicious snarl. “Don’t you dare fucking die on us, Bananas.”

I would’ve smiled, but the burning pain of the cold iron slugs made it impossible.

Jack took a deep breath, and then I felt ice flooding through my burning arm. “I’ll freeze the wounds over. Maybe that will buy us enough time to get to a healer…”

“We need to get the cold iron out,” Robin said grimly. “It’s already poisoning her.”

I didn’t really want to know what I looked like—my skin was probably already leached of color, turning gray as the cold iron spread through my veins.

“Take me home, please,” I whispered.

A muscle twitched in Robin’s jaw. “We’re not going to let you die.”

Jack put his hands on my stomach, and more of the coldness flooded me. I felt the crackle of ice breaking over my ribs as I inhaled.

“I want to go home,” I insisted, squeezing Robin’s fingers as tightly as I could.

Gwyn gripped my other hand. “Do what she says, Jack. Grayfog can round up the rest of them on his own. Bring us home.”

I had wondered if they’d finally cut down the rest of the Unstained Souls, but that question seemed oddly unimportant to me at the moment. The Ghosthand was gone, and now they’d be scattered without a leader, easy to round up and arrest.

Jack swore, then wrapped his arms around us, squeezing his eyes tightly shut.

A blizzard flurried around us, and I exhaled a cloud of frost as the temperature dropped.

It melted quickly, and I felt the soft springiness of long grass under me. Robin’s backyard, veiled in its perpetual twilight, seemed like a lovely place to end this pain.

“You stay here,” Robin said, stroking my face. “We’ll get a healer, and you’ll be fine.”

I felt the trees singing to me in low voices. They were a familiar chorus now, because Robin’s home was my home.

They’d brought me to exactly the right place.

“I don’t need a healer.” I licked my lips, tasting blood. Even with my wounds frozen over, the cold iron was sapping me of strength. If I wanted to live to see another day, I’d have to do this now. “Bring me somewhere open. No other trees.”

Robin and Jack exchanged a look, both of them wearing shell-shocked expressions of disbelief.

“We need to extract the cold iron…” Jack said, but from the look on his face, I must’ve been bad enough that even he didn’t believe that a healer would be able to save me in time.

How ironic that just before I needed her the most, I’d given Carabosse her eternal rest. But I had one final card up my sleeve.

“Briallen?” Gwyn asked, his voice catching his throat. He pushed a lock of bloody hair out of my face.

I huffed out a soft laugh, and felt blood gather in the corner of my mouth. “What did I tell you all about dryad tricks? We don’t tell you everything we can do.”

Robin looked into my eyes, then he set his jaw. “Take her over there. Clear the grass out.”

Gwyn immediately did as he said, and Jack and Robin slid their arms under me.

“I’m sorry,” Robin whispered. “This is going to hurt.”

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