A Rose of Steel: A Steampunk Beauty and the Beast Retelling (The Mechanical Kingdoms Quartet Book 1) by Katherine Macdonald

Author:Katherine Macdonald [Macdonald, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen: Prison Break

Beau hurried towards him, but Hunter was already stumbling to his feet, Clover fast behind, half of the bots whirring at his side.

“I tried to tell him to slow down—” he yammered, looking wildly at Beau and Asami.

“She’s gone, she’s gone, they’ve got her…” Hunter muttered, as Beau steered him into a seat in the lab. Asami raced to get a medical kit, returning to pry off his jacket. He waved her away. “No, don’t worry about me, I’m fine…”

“You’re covered in blood,” she rushed. “Stars, is that a bullet wound?” She examined a hole in his shoulder, pulsing with red.

“It’s fine, but Snow, Snow’s—”

“Mission went wrong,” Clover explained. “Snowdrop’s been taken into custody.”

Beau froze. “And Dandelion?”

“Keeping eyes on her. At the moment, they’re holding her in one of the lower rings. If they move her—”

“She can’t be taken to the palace,” Hunter muttered, his words as slippery as his blood-soaked chest. “She can’t be. I need to get her—”

He tried to rise, but both Beau and Asami pushed him back.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” she said. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“I have to get her back—”

“We’ll get her back,” Beau insisted. “But you’re staying here, soldier.”

Clover glanced at Asami. “Can you help him?”

“I’m not a surgeon. I can clean and dress the wound, but anything else—”

“You’re not leaving me here!”

Asami sighed. “Clover, can you run along to the train carriage and fetch the basket beside the bed, and the sewing kit from the adjoining car?”

Clover did not ask twice. He raced off and was back before Hunter could protest too much. The basket was still packed with all the medical supplies Beau’s mysterious friend had left; she had not yet had the opportunity to organise it. She whisked through the vials now, measuring out a large dose into a syringe, taking a rough guess at Hunter’s weight.

“Something for the pain,” she said, administering it into his arm.

Hunter stared at her, his body relaxing. “It’s fine,” he insisted thickly. “I’m fine…”

His chin slumped against his chest, his breathing slowed. He was out cold.

Clover’s eyes darted to the wound, as if worried he might have passed out from blood loss. Beau merely raised an eyebrow at her. “You knocked him out.”

“Do you blame me?”

“No, I’m just wishing I thought of it.”

Asami bit back a smile. “Clover, please go and put some water on to boil and then come back and explain everything.”

Slowly, Clover did so, and Asami listened patiently, pausing only to fetch the whistling kettle. She doctored Hunter as best she could while Clover continued with the story. A robbery of some sort. More guards than they were expecting. Details that didn’t really matter apart from the final one; where Snowdrop was being held, a facility in the lower ring.

“We… we can get her out, right?” he said tremorously, sounding very young. “We have to get her out.”

“We’ll do our best,” said Beau, already moving to the maps.

Asami watched him work, watched his eyes race over blueprints, plans, notes about guard rotas and securities.

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