Page 44 of Elora and the Crow

She stood and blew out the candles as Cece grabbed her bag. “He’s at the complex?”

“No, the forest,” Elora said. “He’s calling for me, but it’s weak. We have to hurry, Cece.”

* * *

“Elora, wait up,”Cece puffed.

“Hurry, Cece,” Elora said as she gasped in more oxygen into her labouring body. She muttered another incantation, and the ball of blue flame hovering above her turned even brighter, illuminating the forest around them for at least twenty feet in every direction.

The snow was much deeper this far into the forest, and they’d been wading through it for nearly an hour. Elora’s pants were soaked to mid-thigh, she was freezing, and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d done this much physical activity.

“I have got to start going to the gym with you again,” she panted.

Cece huffed out a laugh. “It doesn’t seem to be helping me very much, currently. I used to think I was in shape.”

“You’re doing better than me,” Elora said. “I’m on the verge of collapse over here.”

“We should take a breather,” Cece said.

Elora shook her head. “I can’t. He needs me, Cece. I can feel it.”

She made a slight right, the flame following her unerringly as she pushed past some bushes and scrambled over a downed tree. She ignored the unease she was feeling. The spell in her head was like a compass and would guide her directly to Jonah, but getting out of the forest would be a lot more complicated.

Lost. You’re lost, Elora!

Grimly ignoring her inner voice, she continued on. Jonah needed her and -

“Jonah!”

She waded through the snow toward his body, lying too still in the snow. He wasn’t dead, he couldn’t be dead. If he were dead, she would know it in her bones, in herheart.

She fell on her knees beside Jonah, cupping his face as her heart hammered away in her chest. The flame’s light above her revealed Jonah’s pale face and the blood coating the snow beneath his head. “Jonah, honey, look at me. It’s Elora.”

To her immense relief, his eyelids fluttered open. He stared hazily at her before a small smile crossed his face. “Hi, baby.”

“Hi,” she said as Cece joined them.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“You didn’t call me like you were supposed to,” she said.

“Sorry.” His eyelids closed, and she patted his cheek lightly.

“Stay awake, Jonah.”

“Hurts,” he said. “Tired. Cold.”

“I know, honey, but we’re going to fix all of that.”

“Mmm, okay.” He kept his eyes closed.

Cece studied the blood-soaked snow around Jonah’s head. “Oh God, he has a bad head injury.”

“Yeah.” Elora ran her hands down Jonah’s side. God, he was so fucking cold. How he hadn’t died of hypothermia, she didn’t know. He wasn’t wearing his jacket, and he cried out when her hands passed over his ribs.

“Don’t,” he muttered. “Broken rib.”

“Fuck,” Elora said as Cece disappeared and then returned with Jonah’s leather jacket.

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