Practical Boots (The Torn Book 1) by C. E. Murphy

Author:C. E. Murphy [Murphy, C. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Miz Kit Productions
Published: 2021-06-03T18:30:00+00:00

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Davos looked different in the Waste: smaller, reedier, as if he drew sustenance from the World and with it, size. He was too dark to go pale, but shock dropped his jaw and, while he was off guard, Cat twisted her grip on his wrist and bent him where she wanted him to go. Rick went with him—Rick, who had been in Davos's grasp when Cat stepped, and for whom Cat could not now spare a glance—Rick went with him, fell, and was released to lie gaping on the indefinable floor of the Waste. Mouth by Davos's ear, Cat said, "In a minute I'm gonna go do your bullshit errand and fetch your sister, but right now you're going to give Rick the antidote, and don't even try to tell me you don't have it on you."

"I don't—"

Cat twisted harder, and while he shrieked, drew a knife from her boot with her free hand. She laid the cold iron blade against his throat, smiled, and murmured, "Don't play with me, Davos. You feel it already, don't you? I can make it burn a long, long time before you even start to die, and that's not even taking into account the wither of the Waste. I could stay here forever, if I had to, but you can't. You need a world, whether it's the World, or the Torn. Don't imagine I don't know that it's your sister who travels back and forth, not you. You lack the stuff to survive here. So you can save Rick now, or be a long time dying."

Davos's snarls turned to gasped whimpers of pain, between which words slid out. "You'll poison the antidote if you don't get that iron off me."

"You have less than a minute to make me believe that." Cat moved the blade away and Davos turned his head, green eyes full of loathing, to glare at her.

"There's a knife in my belt. I need to get it."

"Rick," Cat said, "get the knife from his belt."

Rick stuttered an agreement and crawled to his feet like a man who didn't believe the surface he moved across would hold him. Which was fair enough: the Waste could easily not, although with Cat nearby it was more likely to remain stable than it might have otherwise been. The worst of it, Cat knew, was that there was no visible difference between what they stood on and everything else. It didn't lend a sense of security to motion, although she'd always been confident of her ability to move through and across it.

But she was half of the Torn, and Rick was all of the World. He fumbled the blade from Davos's belt and held it out to Cat like he was afraid it would bite. She felt Davos's muscles tense and moved her iron knife closer to his eye. "I wouldn't."

His lip curled, but he relaxed again. Cat nodded toward Rick. "Cut him."

"What?" Rick's voice skirled and Cat gave him a tight smile.

"If holding the cold iron against him means poisoning the antidote, then his blood is the antidote.

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