The Girl from Shadow Springs by Ellie Cypher

Author:Ellie Cypher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2021-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22 So Brings the Dawn

With a massive heave, the man repositioned me over his shoulders. There came another set of footfalls. Heavier than the man’s who were carrying me.

“Reckon they’re worth something?” the man carrying me asked, a heavy hand falling on the back of my knees. Hard enough that a fresh bruise were already blooming.

“Well, they gotta be worth more than the dogs.”

“But dogs eat less.” Both men let our rough laughs. Hard laughs. The kind of laugh a girl weren’t too keen on hearing if she wanted to make it out alive.

I choked back saliva as I ground my teeth and kicked. The man holding me let out a grunt of pain as heel met rib cage. The man’s grip tightened.

After a few minutes, our abductors once again began bantering back and forth. If I hadn’t been so angry, I would have been red-faced. Stars above, is this what men talk about?

In the darkness of the hood, I tried to tune them out and instead strained for any sign of Cody. And were rewarded by a low, breathy moan from beside me. Just one. But it were him. He were alive.

The scuffing of leather against wood marked a sudden transition from cold to warmth across my skin. My body prickled with the newborn heat.

Then without warning I found myself dropping through the air, ass first.

I gave an involuntary grunt as I hit the frozen ground. Gasping for breath under my hood only swirled my head with the unwelcome taste of dirty smoke. I spluttered, coughing. A second later, Cody were tossed down next to me. His breathing labored. He slumped against my shoulder, shivering against me, the ragged pulse of his heart beating against my side. He murmured something I couldn’t understand.

“Be okay. Please be okay,” I whispered. He didn’t reply. Pain flashed through me that had little to do with where we were. Echo of words I’d whispered into my sister’s ear not so long ago, it weren’t lost on me.

I tried to roll, to move enough to maybe see him under the edge of my hood, but unbalanced, fell instead. Hissing through my teeth against the pain that shot up my shoulder. Heavy-booted feet came to stop in front of me, the slit of vision I had under the edge of hood just enough to see a set of leather shoes. Bloodred, they stood heavy in dirty slush. I took store of all the shoes, keeping their sight to memory. Just in case I ever got the chance to repay them.

“Enough of that,” the man grunted. Amused. And hit me. I bit back my cry. I’d not give him the satisfaction of my pain. Grunting his clear disappointment, the man strode away.

The trail of conversation ebbed as the men left the tent, and with them went near all my strength. I puddled to the floor. It were as if someone had let out the plug. Every ache, bruise, welt came flooding into my body. All at once.

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