Page 9 of Wings of Lies
“You can see me?” he asked, shocked.
I nodded and sat up, not bothering to brush myself off. Dirt and grime covered me, along with blood, urine, and sweat. A little more dirt didn’t matter.
“Am I not supposed to?” I eyed his jeans and the green sweater that swallowed his skinny frame.
If he were one of my captors, he wouldn’t look so surprised, right?
He tilted his head to the side. “Are—” He snapped his head up, breaking off his sentence.
Soft voices sounded in the distance. The stranger’s face paled. “Get up, skinny girl!” he said, gesturing to me.
I wanted to, but like a disconnected fuse, my legs only twitched. My muscles refused to lift my helpless sacks of bones.
“Get up!” He waved his hands frantically.
I wanted to. I wanted to stand as badly as I wanted to breathe. But I’d given my everything and had nothing left.
“I can’t,” I said, eyes a silent plea to the stranger.
He looked between the noise in the distance and me, then crouched and grabbed my arm.
“What—”
He pulled me across his shoulders like a scarf. “Sorry, kind of. But this isn’t going to be comfortable for you. Just hold on.”
I only nodded as he took off away from the voices.
Either I weighed nothing, or this guy had more muscles than I realized as he sprinted through the trees. Also, he possibly had night vision as he avoided stumbling in the darkness, weaving through the forest, and running faster than I thought possible.
“Where are we going?” My voice bobbed up and down. His shoulder pressed into my lungs with each push off the ground.
“So far straight. Maybe a turn here or there. Then straight again to get far away and keep our pretty little heads.”
I snorted.
“I’m glad you think this is funny. Currently, my kidney thinks otherwise as you repeatedly beat it with your knee,” he said, barely winded. Which was odd, considering he ran at breakneck speed while carrying me.
“I don’t. It’s just the way you said it.”
He nodded. “Glad I could help. Now, mind telling me why a young girl dressed for summer wanders through this forest during fall, all alone, and looking half dead?” The ease at which that sentence came out of his mouth gave me pause.Was this situation normal in these woods, or was he trying to keep the mood light for my benefit?
The nippy night made more sense now. At least his body heat seeped through his sweater, chasing away most of the goosebumps covering my exposed limbs.
Choosing not to answer his question, I asked my own, using the same tone. “Mind telling me why a young guy like yourself wanders through this forest during fall, all alone, and acting like he’s supposed to be invisible?”
It was his turn to snort as he leaped over a log, not breaking his stride. “Touché.”
My eyes narrowed, panning between the back of his head and the forest behind us. I couldn’t tell if our pursuers were there. But I took the lack of noise as a good sign.
“Are you going to answer me? Or better yet, tell me how you knew we were in danger?” It might’ve been some other danger I didn’t know about, but I suspected it wasn’t, and he somehow sensed it.
His back vibrated with laughter. “Naw. So, interesting young girl who wanders through forests not dressed for the weather, where’s that leave us?”
Why did he keep calling me a young girl? I was definitely not as young as his tone implied. “How about with names? So, you can quit acting like I’m twelve.”
He jumped over a small trickle of water, and the landing jostled me lower. Heaving me back into place, he resumed the sprint with labored breaths.
“But you’re pretty small. I mean, I can feel all your bony limbs. There’s hardly any weight to you. Maybe thirteen, then?”
