Page 76 of Between Soul and Vessel
“Easy now, tough guy,” Folkoln said as he strolled over to them. “You’ve been out for a while.
“How long?” Kaleb spoke wearily, his arm slung over Lyra’s shoulders.
“About four days,” Folkoln replied.
“Did we all make it?” Kaleb asked.
“Soren is the only one unaccounted for,” Folkoln answered.
Kaleb nodded, drowsy eyes shifting over to us, then—
“Fallon!” he yelled, voice desperate. Seeing her, as she was, must have been like a bolt of electricity, because he was racing over to us. Lyra scrambled after him.
At Fallon’s side, he sank to his knees, their gazes locked. He slid his shaking fingers to her cheek, and she cupped his hand, her fingers stained with blood. “It’s going to be okay,” he said. His head jerked up to mine, face etched with worry. “What do we do?” His eyes locked on my arm, and they grew even larger. “Shit!”
“It’ll grow back,” I reassured him. “Worry about Fallon.”
“Reassuring,” Fallon grimaced, voice saturated with sarcasm.
“Should we take the fang out?” Ryker asked, looking at me. “Or is it better to leave it in?”
“It’s not the fang I’m worried about,” I said as I surveyed the wound. Surrounding it, a web of black had started to spider out. My attention shifted to my arm, looking to see if I, too, had been infected by the hydra’s venom, but I spotted nothing. Either the toxin hadn’t had a chance to spread yet, or the head that bit me wasn’t venomous.
My gaze returned to Fallon.
Back home, Fallon couldn’t die again because she was already, well, dead. But here, in these foreign lands, I didn’t know what would happen to her soul.
Icouldsuck the venom from her, but if I wasn’t immune to it, like I was with snake venom, that could cause a host of problems—problems that could deter me from getting to Sage, and that was something I was not willing to risk.
“We need to find someone who knows about the hydra’s venom,” I told them. “A healer.”
“Fuck the healer,” Folkoln hissed as he crouched beside Fallon’s wounded leg. His hand wrapped around the broken tooth, and he pulled it out before anyone could stop him.
“Folkoln,” Ryker growled.
But Folkoln paid him no mind. Carelessly, he tossed the fang to the side, sending it skittering against the stone. He bent forward and, with his eyes on Fallon’s, said, “Just remember, Little Bird, out of all theseso-calledmen, who had the balls to save your life today.”
“Folkoln, wait,” I snarled, reaching for him with my good hand—my only hand.
But he flipped his middle finger at me as he placed his mouth against her wound and began to suck outthe venom.
Von
“This is it,” Ryker said hours later as we approached a section of the tunnel partially caved in on one side.
The crumbled stone had fallen into the river, squeezing off the passage of water and forging it into turbulent, angry rapids. Rubble was strewn about, making the terrain treacherous and uneven, a good place for a mortal to break one of their many brittle bones. Through the jagged hole, daylight beamed, giving the reddish rocks a yellow glow.
“Finally!” Kaleb exclaimed as he jostled Fallon further up on his back. Lyra leapt up and down beside him, sharing in the small victory.
“There are plenty of plants and game on the other side. A freshwater stream as well,” Ryker said, an unconscious Harper in his arms. “Fallon and I made a camp out there where we stayed during the nights. During the day, we’d come back inside the tunnel to try to find you guys. Little didwe know we were going to find a fucking hydra.”
“Did you ever travel further downstream?” I asked, my gaze set ahead, while the rest of them looked at the exit.
Fallon picked up her head from Kaleb’s back. “No,” she rasped, her voice weak but slowly improving since Folkoln had sucked the venom from her wound a few hours ago. “We had planned to go tomorrow if we didn’t find anyone today.”
“Soren could have floated further down the river,” I stated, hating the idea of remaining in this fucking tunnel any longer, but it was something that might be necessary—Soren was essential because he was the only connection we had to Sage. Since we arrived, I had tried to speak to her through our bond, but that private bridge remained broken.
So, if I was going to find Sage, I needed to find Soren first.
