Page 36 of Winter's Edge
The window. The window in the room Faust had kept me in. Not ideal, but I knew exactly where it was, and if I was right in the layout of the building, it should lead to the back of the tavern. Which could be ten times worse. And if I got stuck in the window?
Shit. But I didn't want to spend all my time looking for a door that led outside, either, unless I doubled back and went out the front again…
My shoulder screamed so brutally that it made my head swim. What if I couldn't even make it through the window without passing out from pain? Blood had tracked all the way down my side by then and was dribbling into my boot. If I wasn't already, I'd soon be leaving a trail that would lead right to me. Best to end the trail by doubling back.
I started to do just that when footsteps thudded behind the corner I'd turned five seconds ago, heavy and fast. My heart pitched into my throat. Too late.
But they couldn't see me yet. Not until they took one more right turn.
I sped my steps, silenced my panicked breaths, and willed the blood on my body tostayon my body for a little longer.
"Where is she? Where the fuck is she?" the bald man shouted from somewhere, his voice farther away than the footfalls closing in.
The violence in his voice chased up and over my shoulders as if to grab me and drag me back. It cut down my spine, shrill and sharp as the memory of my mother, and just as terrifying.
I sidestepped into the window room and shut the door with as little sound as possible. The vague sense of fur in here briefly registered, but I didn't have time to rescue the wolf pup.I didn’t even know where it was.
I scrambled for the window, remembering that I'd already unlocked it. Without the use of my left arm, it took for fucking ever to get it open. I shoved and pushed, every single movement drilling more pain into my shoulder even though I wasn't even using it.
Finally, a cold blast of air hit my face, a small dash of hope. It brought tears to my eyes. Using one of the chairs at the table to stand on, I poked my head out, listening. Eerily quiet other than the rush of wind. Good enough. I pulled my walking stick through and hit the end into the hard-packed snow outside.
So, landing should be fun. I winced at the thought.
I wriggled through, first one shoulder and then my injured one. It scraped against the edge, pulling the tear in my flesh even wider. I opened my mouth to scream but swallowed it back. Tears streamed down my face as I forced myself to go farther.
Don’t pass out. Please don’t pass out.
A sob choked its way out of my mouth when I finally cleared the edge. I allowed myself a second more of crying because I fucking deserved it. Then I dragged myself the rest of the way through. Gravity helped a little, and then I dropped to the snow in a crumpled ball.
I'd gotten out. Now came the hard part. If I walked toward the right, parallel to the road I'd come in on, I would eventually get to the forest again. After that? Well, I wouldn't know until I got there. So I hauled myself up with help from my walking stick and kept going. Tree branches tugged at my hair as I passed, so the Crimson Forest must’ve butted up against the back of the tavern. I stayed close to the walls of the buildings, though I often had to stray around what sounded like tin barrels and wooden crates after I nudged them with my walking stick. Technically, I wasn’t in the Crimson Forest if I stuck close to the buildings. At least I thought so.
The sound of smoky women's laughter filtered from my right, so I guessed I was close to the brothel. To Jade. Everything inside me magnetized toward that sound, toward her, but I couldn't go to her now. The idea of leaving her there shredded through flesh and bone worse than any bullet ever could.
While I crossedthe road that had led into town, I would be all alone in the wide-open nothing before I disappeared into the Slipjoint Forest. I had to be quick. If anyone saw me from the edge of town and knew what I'd done, they might give chase. News traveled fast in small towns, so I'd heard.
As soon as my walking stick hit open air instead of the side of a building and my feet hit the steep incline leading to the road, I knew I'd just about made it out of Old Man’s Den.
With nothing to block the wind, it reached down my throat and stole my breath in its frozen fist. It hurt, everything hurt as I pushed on. I was coming at the forest at a different angle, but once I was across the road and hidden by the cover of trees—
"There!" a voice shouted from the direction I'd just come.
"No," I said, the word like a squeaky sob.
I hurried across the road and then down the small hill on the other side, my boots slipping on the uneven terrain. Footfalls crashed far behind me. I needed to get as far from the town as possible where Archer would be waiting for me.
Mightbe waiting for me.
I stumbled but quickly righted myself. I was practically running now, swinging my walking stick in wide arcs so it would find the trees before my face did. But the naked branches still whipped at my cheeks, snagged at my hair.
"I will split your cunt open and make you bleed, you hear me?" The bald man. Still far behind me but drawing closer.
He was going to kill me. No question. And he wouldn't stop coming after me until I was very dead.
Desperation clawed at my throat.Tears froze to my face, and I lifted my scarf higher to brush them away.
"Archer," I whispered, and then a little louder, "Archer!"
There wasn’t another way out of this. Not bargaining, since my stupid mouth had gotten me into this mess in the first place. I had a full quiver of arrows, but from the loud crashes of feet behind me, I wouldn't have enough. I had fake poison, which was completely useless, even if some of my pursuers changed into wolves.
