Bleed for Me by Brie Tart

Author:Brie Tart [Tart, Brie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dapper Cat Books
Published: 2020-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

The world clouded for a second as Helen stumbled back. She breathed in, and the left side of her chest burned. The next inhale made her cough. She tasted blood in the back of her throat.

Why wasn’t her Unseelie aura fixing it? Was her Elf-Struck side suppressing it? Pain permeated her clouded thoughts. The lights blinked back on.

Dylan flinched as he pulled his sword out of her. He grimaced and held his forehead. “Fucking oaths. I’ve…I’ve gotta try again.”

Helen hacked as she backed up another step. It rattled through her whole rib cage. She shook her head at Dylan as she held her slick side. Blood trickled between her fingers, soaking her shirt. Was she begging with her eyes as she looked at him?

“Quick and dramatic… I haven’t promised myself into a corner,” Dylan muttered to himself, a singular determination coming to his face. “I can handle this.”

Helen turned her back on Dylan and went to run. Base survival instincts warred with the desire to please him. She managed another couple steps toward the dark green shipping crate where Maggie left the portal. It was only a few more yards. She could make it before the world became too fuzzy, before vertigo made the floor spin too much.

“Hel, stay still.” Dylan’s request didn’t echo through her mind—the diamond-eyed dog pendant under her shirt made sure of that—but it tugged on her the same way, promising another hit of what she wanted. “Let me finish this.”

Helen wobbled to a stop on her unsteady legs. Her short, shallow breaths gave her body meager puffs of air at a time. She fell to her knees.

Dylan’s footsteps tapped closer behind her, light and steady.

Helen stiffened, bracing herself for the inevitable sword in her back.

Dylan cried out. No stabbing pain came. Helen blinked over her shoulder.

He reeled back, holding his head with his jaw clenched. His fingers dug into his scalp. Was it the same pain as before? Something different?

Someone hoisted her arm over strong shoulders at the same height as hers. She looked over. A waterlogged Yoel supported her, his black hair sticking to his cheek while droplets trickled from the tip of his nose. He dragged Helen to her feet and pulled her toward the green crate, one jerking step at a time.

Sudden terror gripped Helen’s chest as the serene peace she’d been riding came down all at once. Dylan wanted her to stay. He had to finish his job, for Lucy. She tried to wrench herself away.

Yoel reinforced his stifling hold as he hauled her toward the shipping crate, no matter how much she thrashed.

“Let me…Lemme go.” Helen hacked on new blood and phlegm that built in her throat.

“Not yet.” Yoel had gotten her a few feet away from the crate, ready to turn the corner and escape through the portal waiting for them. “Not much further now.”

Something pitched Yoel forward. Helen fell with him.

Yoel hit the floor and hissed as he grabbed at his back.

Helen landed beside him. Pangs exploded through her entire side with the impact, and she heaved.

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