Page 28 of Spirit Rites
I move, and he drops my wrist. I drop down to the ground next to him. “Take all the time you need.”
"How’s your arm?” he asks after a minute.
It aches, but I don’t tell him that. “It’s fine because somebody swam me across the water like a crazy person. Who even does that anyway? Who’s strong enough to swim across a river like that carrying another person?”
He gives me a small smile, and I’m grateful to see it. “Sounds like a crazy person,” he says quietly.
“Completely crazy!”
We sit in silence after that, and I manage to keep my mouth shut and let him recover. My mind, however, is anything but quiet. I do a mental calculation of how long it’s been. I figure it’s been somewhere between eight and nine hours since he got bit. Panic rushes through me, even as I try to keep it at bay. I glance at Kaldar out of the corner of my eye. He’s really having a hard time recovering from that swim, and I hate that it’s because of me. I am going to have to figure out what to do. I am not letting the Jaguar Kingdom’s king die on my watch. “You’re thinking hard over there.” Kaldar’s voice breaks my train of thought. I turn to him and find him studying me.
I don’t look away, and I don’t smile. “I’m going to figure this out, Kaldar.” My knee bounces as I talk, and adrenaline fills me. “But I can’t sit here. I need to move and start searching forsomething that can help. You can sit here and recover.Pleasesit here and recover, but I have to keep moving. I have to find something to help.” He nods, and relief fills me. I stand to my feet. “I won’t go far, so I can hear you if you call me.”
He stands to his feet, once again towering over me. “I’ll go with you.”
I take one look at his face, at the set of his jaw, and know it’s not even worth arguing. I’ve seen this look on Rysden a time or two. Nothing is going to change his mind. I meet his eyes and hope he sees how serious I am right now. “If you get too sick or weak, you need to tell me, Kaldar.” He looks like he’s going to argue, and I push in. “If we can’t be honest with each other, this isn’t going to work.”
He steps forward, bringing him closer to me. He meets my gaze. “I will never lie to you, Kinsley.”
I can’t look away from those green eyes. “I won’t lie to you either.” I don’t know why, but it feels important to tell him that right now. He nods and turns away. I’m not sure what comes over me, but I reach out and stop him with a hand on his arm. He looks back at me, and suddenly, I don’t know what I was going to say. My words seem to just shrivel up. Well, that’s not totally true; I think I just get too scared to say them. But I force myself to. “You’re a good man, Kaldar. We’ll get you out of this and back to your kingdom.” His eyes shadow, but he nods and turns away from me.
I spend the next several hours scouring the entire forest for anything that I recognize that has healing properties. I know what the plant looked like that Farrah used on Harper, but I haven’t seen anything that looks even close to it. Either they don’t have that plant in the Jaguar Kingdom, or it’s too hidden in here. “We need to stop,” Kaldar says, as the sun starts to begin its descent.
“We can’t stop. We have to keep going. I’ll find it; I know I will. I just have to keep—”
“Kinsley,Ihave to stop.”
His words catch my attention immediately. “Of course. I’m sorry. Come on. We’ll find a place to stay for the night, and I’ll find something for us to eat.” I stride forward, kicking myself for not stopping sooner. I’m so used to him going for hours on end. I push the worry from my mind and focus on finding a place we can spend a few hours. “This will work.” Kaldar drops to the ground and puts his head on his knees. I rub a hand over my forehead.What are we going to do?I step over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. He surprises me by reaching his hand up to cover mine. Emotion clogs my throat, and I swallow hard. “I’m going to find something for us to eat.”
The one nice thing about this place we’ve been trapped in is that there have been plenty of water sources. I head towards one now. Thankfully, it doesn’t take me too long to catch some fish for dinner. When I get back to camp, Kaldar is laying on the ground. I hurry over to him, nearly dropping the fish. I set them on a large rock and drop next to him. “Kaldar.”
“I’m okay. Just resting.” His words are soft, but at least he responded.
I blow out a breath and push myself to my feet. It takes a little longer than normal to start a fire, skin the fish, and cook it. Working with one arm is tedious, but eventually I get the work done. I let the fish cool before I carry some over to Kaldar on a stick. “Hey.” I shake him gently. I breathe a sigh of relief when his eyes open. “I have food for you,” I tell him softly. He pushes himself into a sitting position.
“Thank you.”
Chapter 14
While he eats, I work on making a place where he can sleep. There’s no way I’m sleeping tonight. I’ll be the one to keep watch. Even if he managed to stay awake, there’s no way he can fight against anything that comes our way. He’s too weak. Of course, I’m not a much better option; but I’m all we’ve got. I clear away anything that can be moved and go to work finding branches that can be used for some sort of covering. When I finish, I’m dripping with sweat; and my injured arm is pulsing with pain. I ignore it and head back over to Kaldar. “All right. It’s ready.” I keep my voice bright and cheerful. “It’s not nearly as nice as the ones you make, but it will do for tonight.”
He stands to his feet, and I put a steadying hand on his back. I frown. “Kaldar, you’re really hot.”
“Thanks.” His one-word grunt does nothing to ease my worries.
“Seriously.”
We walk over to the shelter I made. “Do you want me to take the first shift?” he asks.
“No. I’ve got the first shift; you can take the second one.” I don’t tell him I have no plans of waking him; my goal is just to help him survive the night. He lays down on the hard ground and is out almost immediately. I stand to my feet, but a hand grabs the back of my leg, right above my ankle. I nearly jump out of my skin and whirl around.
“Stay with me.” The words are quiet, and it takes me a moment to even understand his words. They’re slurred together, but I get the gist of what he’s trying to say. My heart stringstug, and I find myself agreeing. Even though I didn’t make this shelter for two, I manage to squeeze myself into the spot next to Kaldar. He reaches out his hand, and I pause only for a second before I take it in mine.
“Just rest now, Kaldar. Everything will be okay in the morning.” It only takes seconds for his breathing to even out, and I know he’s asleep. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to center myself. We’ve got maybe another twelve hours. At the most. Dread pools in my stomach.What am I going to do?
I sit next to Kaldar for hours before I have to move. My backside is numb, and I’m too panicky to sit here any longer. I start to stand up, but a hand stops me. I go still. I thought he was asleep. “Stay,” he whispers.
I don’t have the heart to argue with him. “Okay.” I shift positions and try to get comfortable.
