Page 32 of Soul of Thorns
“About an hour.” I fall into step beside her. “We still have four or so before sunset, I’d guess.”
“Let’s grab our things and head toward the wall. We can find a place to see without being seen.”
I frown. “You’re up for that?”
She nods.
I’m not sure what the right choice is. Clearly, Caelynn needs... something. Rest. A break. Hope. But I’m not sure what sitting in that stone nook will achieve toward that goal, and getting information on the fire wall is important.
I let the silence settle between us, only the crunch of rubble beneath our boots sounds around us for the next few minutes. We reach the cave, and Caelynn ducks in first. She assembles our abandoned supplies with renewed purpose, and I just watch her for a few moments—there isn’t room for both of us moving around in that little nook anyway.
She shoves my blanket inside my backpack hastily. Followed by a sheathed dagger—I have two others strapped to my body—and a water bottle. She zips it up and tosses it to me.
She finishes grabbing the rest of the supplies and crawls out of the hole. She slings her own pack over her back. “Ready?” she says, already stomping south, but I grab her arm to stop her.
She frowns. “What?”
I step closer, towering over her, finger gently gripping the lapel of her leather jacket. “Are you really okay?” I whisper.
“Yeah,” she says, her voice high pitched. A lie? I narrow my eyes. She looks more energized than before, livelier than even minutes ago. Maybe she is okay. But I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong.
“You’re sure? Nothing is... wrong?”
“Everything is wrong.” She lets out a bitter laugh, but her shoulders slump, and one side of her mouth tips into a small smile.
“I mean, besides... everything.” I rub the back of my neck. Everything is wrong, she’s certainly right about that. I knew my time in the Schorchedlands would be torturous, but once she showed up, things grew significantly worse. Now, my only chance at completing my mission will mean leaving my soulmate behind in this terrible place. Not myonlychance, I remind myself. I’ll find a way.
“I’m fine.”
“Nothing hurts? There’s nothing I can do to help you?”
She purses her lips, and then her gaze flickers down to her forearm.
“Let me see,” I demand.
She scrunches up her nose. “It’s nothing. Just a scrape from the wolf attack.”
“Let me see,” I demand again.
She sighs and then drops her backpack and rips her jacket off her body, leaving only a cotton shirt, stained with brown and red. She pulls the sleeve up carefully as it sticks to greyed flesh.
My stomach roils as she exposes a gaping wound on her forearm. “Cae...” I gasp.
She frowns. “It wasn’t that bad before,” she mutters. “I don’t think.”
“Sit,” I bark. “In the cave, actually.” I shake my head. We’ve got to be smart about this. She needs to be healed before we head out into dangerous territory again.
“You don’t need to heal it,” she says half-heartedly.
“Have you seen it?” I exclaim. “I can see your bone, Cae.” Not only is the wound large, skin and flesh torn away, but it doesn’t look right. It isn’t red and swollen like I’d expect. It’s colorless, white flesh and darker in certain splotches, appearing grey. Like her arm is... dying. In only a few hours since the injury occurred.
“It looks worse than it is. Doesn’t even hurt.”
“We are not going back out there until I heal it.”
She grumbles and scoots back inside the cave. I drop my backpack and pull my own jacket off, then I drop to my knees.
She gasps, eyes wide as I crawl toward her. My eyes flit over her body. Shit, not supposed to be thinking about that sort of thing right now, Rev.Caelynn has a potentially fatal wound. Make it better. Then you can think about fucking her.
