Page 38 of Winter's Edge
As fast as my next heartbeat, vision slid behind my eyes. I gasped at the suddenness of it, at what it meant. Darkness crowded in around my huddled form, but there I was, as petrified as the boulder behind my back.
Behind the sour smell of my own fear, I smelled a faint whiff of caramel and wood smoke.
"Archer?" A wave of tears stole my whisper and turned his name into a croak.
I couldn’t see him, just me out of his eyes. Feet padded closer and then wetness grazed my knuckles. His tongue, I realized. Then he stepped closer and licked my face.
I threw my arms around his neck and buried my face in his fur. He was here. He seemed okay. He'd waited however long I'd been gone for me to come back to him. My chest swelled until I thought it might burst because I hadn't known if I would ever see him again.
He leaned his head into mine before he pulled away and took the side of my hand into his mouth. His teeth clamped down slightly, and he pulled. Time to go, he was saying. I stood, leaving my hand in his mouth so he could lead me. He went quickly back the way I'd come around the large boulder, his paws much softer on the snow than my clunky boots. I closed my eyes so I could feel where we were going; seeing through Archer wasn’t telling me what I needed to know.
Voices sounded far behind us. Not close enough to hear words, but plenty close enough.
Archer pulled harder with a bit more teeth. My heartbeat spiking, I moved as fast as I could go. Finally, my foot knocked against wood, a familiar, hollow sound, and I stepped up onto the wooden sleigh. Relief flushed through me, but froze at my knees and locked them up tight.
Threaded through the voices came several wolf howls.
Archer released me then and sprang to the front of the sleigh. A sense of urgency tightened the air around us and squeezed. I gripped the crossbar, and then we were off, faster than we'd come here. The sleigh bounced so high that I looped my one working arm around the bar and ducked down to avoid decapitation by tree branch.
If only that had been my only worry.
Feet pounded the snow behind us, even faster than Archer could pull me. Wolves. Closing in on our heels.
I leaned over the crossbar to put my arrow between my teeth and yank my scarf from around my head without letting go of the sleigh. With only one working arm, I wouldn't be able to hang on and shoot at the same time. But with my scarf, I could tie myself to the sleigh. Not the greatest solution, but it was all I had. Turning to face the back of the sleigh, I worked as fast as I could, looping the scarf around both the bar and the waist of my coat and tying a tight knot using both hands.
My shoulder screamed with the effort, but I had to ignore it.
Growls vibrated the air.Claws scraped the back of the sleigh. Heavy panting breaths sounded from all around us between thunderous footfalls. They were circling us, just as they had me in the Crimson Forest.
I transferred the arrow from my mouth to my hand and jabbed toward the back of the sleigh, again and again. A warning not to get too close. They would, of course, but from a different angle. So I stabbed every which way and mixed up the pattern to try to deter them from lunging.
Archer took a sharp turn, and one side of the sleigh tilted dangerously. My boots slid across the surface, and I knew for sure I'd fall off. But the sleigh righted itself before I did, crashing back to the snow with bone-jarring force.
Before I righted my balance, teeth snapped toward my arrow hand. I jerked it away and then thrust the arrow again. It sank home, and a loud yip echoed through the night.
But that seemed to piss the wolves off even more. More scrapes at the back of the sleigh, which I realized slowed us down with the extra weight of their paws, no matter how brief. I kicked my feet out and used the arrow. I couldn't do this for much longer though. The scarf at my waist was loosening, and if I paused to tie it, those couple seconds would cost me.
Archer yipped, which sprang my eyes open. Through him, I saw another wolf bound off to his side with a bloody grin as though he'd just taken a bite out of Archer.
Dread swallowed up my neck with prickling heat. How were we going to get out of these woods alive?
Archer sped his pace even more as if he'd just had the same thought. The sleigh bounced even harder, so hard that my scarf slipped loose at the exact moment my feet jerked out from underneath me. I started to fall sideways.
Terror seized everything inside of me. Images of a violent death by a pack of wolves flashed through my mind, exactly how it had played out the time before. Only worse.
I flashed my arms out to catch my fall. My arm, my injured one, smashed against the crossbar. I sucked in a breath at the horrible pain. Shadows edged in around my consciousness, but a powerful jaw clamping down on my other arm triggered a new kind of pain that chased those shadows away. I screamed and yanked my arm away on instinct. Flesh ripped but I freed myself and hauled myself to my feet again, hanging on to the crossbar as tightly as I could. I'd lost my arrow. Good thing I had a dozen more.
But when I went to reach for one, the pain in both my arms nearly sagged me to my knees.
"Archer," I tried to say, but the bouncing sleigh hurtling into the wind swallowed it whole. Without a weapon, I wouldn't last for much longer on this sleigh. I had feet to kick, but they didn't carry the threat to kill like a sharp arrow had.
He barked as if he sensed I was in trouble. Or maybe he looked around to me. I didn't know because I still had my eyes squeezed shut, too afraid to see through him what else was coming.
Nothing good, it turned out.
The sleigh felt like it was sailing right off a cliff. My stomach jumped into my throat and choked off my scream. I was freefalling, my body spiraling through the air. I grasped at nothingness, scooping up giant fistfuls of it. Then I landed on a drift of powdery snow. Not hard, which shocked the breath from my lungs because I expected it to be bone-crunching.
A snarling growl emitted from several feet back but not directed at me. A whole symphony of growls met it and peppered my skin with goose bumps. Archer against the entire wolf pack, I guessed.
