Page 32 of Bought By the Revenant
“Portal,” he says simply. “It’s the only way to save you in time.”
The realization dawns on me through the fog of blood loss. The church has a portal. That’s how Thorne and his men always found me, no matter how far I ran or how well I hid. I had wondered how three men from an isolated village could have such resources, how they traveled so quickly between cities when it took me days of hard travel. They weren’t tracking me with some supernatural aid from their god, as they often told me. They were using technology that most villages could never afford. Every time they lost my trail, they likely returned to Witherglen through the portal, regrouped with fresh supplies,and set out again when they had new information about my whereabouts. The bitter irony makes me want to laugh, but I have no strength for it. All this time, I believed I was running from superstition and ignorance, when my pursuers were using one of the most advanced technologies on Alia Terra to hunt me down.
Riven carries me into a small room behind the altar that I never knew existed during all my years in Witherglen. The portal shimmers, its surface rippling with colors. When we step through, the world dissolves into swirling patterns that my weakened mind can’t process. The sensation is completely disorienting, and for a moment I think it means that my soul is leaving my body. I’ve never traveled through a portal before.
Then we emerge in what appears to be a library. Bookshelves stretch from floor to ceiling, filled with volumes beyond counting. I can’t focus on the details as Riven lays me on a couch that probably cost more than a house in my old village. He tears a strip from his shirt and wraps it tightly around my wounded arm, trying to stop the bleeding.
“Stay with me, Amity,” he says. “Just a little longer.”
The library door bursts open, and a middle-aged man with a substantial belly wrapped in a silk robe storms in, followed by a thin servant who wrings his hands nervously.
“This was not the agreement!” the man sputters. “You must pay again for using my portal a second time! The fee is…”
Riven ignores him, lifting me once more and brushing past the protesting man as if he doesn’t exist. We move through corridors that blur together in my fading vision, then out into morning light that seems impossibly bright. Down the road, I see the carriage with Olaf in the driver’s seat.
“To the mansion,” Riven says. “As fast as possible. She’s dying.”
Olaf snaps the reins, and the carriage lurches into motion. Riven holds me on his lap, cradling me against his chest as the wheels bounce over the uneven road. Each jolt sends pain shooting through my body, but the pain feels increasingly distant, as if happening to someone else while I merely observe. The makeshift bandage on my arm is soaked through with fresh blood, and I know Riven wasn’t exaggerating when he said I’m dying. The thought that hurts most is leaving Riven when he’s already endured so much loneliness. I’ll become another loss in his long life, another reason for him to hide from the world.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I should have told you about Witherglen, about the drought, about why they wanted me dead.”
“Don’t speak,” he says. “Save your strength.”
But I need to explain before it’s too late, I need him to understand why I kept this from him.
“They thought I used magic to save a mother and child during a difficult birth. Then the drought came, and they believed their god was angry with me. I never told you... I’m sorry... I didn’t want to burden you... And I wanted to leave the past in the past. I never thought they’d keep hunting me after you bought me.”
“None of that matters now,” Riven insists. “Stay with me.”
I try to focus on his face, on those white eyes that once frightened me but now represent everything good and kind in my world. How strange that what I once considered monstrous now looks beautiful to me. I want to tell him that I love him, that in our brief time together he gave me more happiness than I’d known in years, but my lips won’t form the words no matter how hard I try.
Darkness creeps in from the edges of my vision. Riven’s voice seems to come from farther and farther away, as if he’s calling to me from across a great distance that grows with each heartbeat. I struggle to keep my eyes open, to hold onto his face for justa little longer, fighting against the pull of unconsciousness with everything I have left.
“Please, my love, stay awake,” he begs. “We’re almost there. I will fix you. Please, stay awake.”
I try harder than I’ve ever tried at anything in my life. For him, I fight against the darkness with every bit of strength remaining in my body. But it’s stronger than my will, and my body has nothing left to give. My eyes close despite all my efforts to keep them open, and Riven’s desperate pleas fade into silence as the world disappears.
Chapter Sixteen
Riven
Her eyes close, and I feel like I can’t breathe anymore.
“Amity?” I shake her gently at first, then harder when she doesn’t respond. “Amity!”
She’s limp in my arms, her head rolling back against my shoulder. Her skin has turned an awful blue color, and the makeshift bandage is completely soaked through. I press my fingers to the side of her neck, searching for her pulse. I find it after a terrifying moment of nothing, but it’s weak and uneven. We have at least an hour and a half before we reach the mansion, and I don’t know if she’ll survive that long.
“Faster,” I tell Olaf, though he’s already pushing the horses harder than he should on these terrible roads.
With trembling fingers, I brush Amity’s cheek. “Wake up. You must stay awake.”
Her eyelids twitch but don’t open, and panic takes hold of me, because I know what happens when wounded people slip away into sleep they can’t wake from. I slap her cheek again, harder, even though it makes me sick to strike her.
“Please, Amity. Open your eyes.”
Her lashes finally part. Her blue eyes are cloudy and unfocused. She tries to speak but no sound comes out of her mouth, just a soft exhale that barely stirs the air.
“Don’t try to talk,” I say. “Just stay with me. Focus on my voice.”
