The Stains of the Crown

Chapter Twelve

Trigger Warnings: Wounds, medical care.

Dirt flings up into my fur as we run. Jovi leads the way, Finley slightly behind. The last of the sunlight flickers through the leaves, leaving little patches of light on both us and the ground. We'd been running since noon, and it was beginning to get dark quickly, and cold. We'd turned back towards the castle three hours ago, but we were still far from the castle.

I hear a scream in the distance. The light goes from gold to an odd shade of purple. 'Horrible timing,' I think, running past my mates towards the sound.

'Echo!' They shout through the link. As I run, I listen for the girls voice. Once I hear it, I listen for her footsteps. Clumsy, too rushed, untrained. The footsteps of prey. I push myself harder. My mates continue shouting in the link, which annoys me. This girl was clearly in danger, and they were trying to stop me from helping.

I keep running, seeing the flicker of torches in the distance, more and more appearing as I run. As I start to get closer, I can see a woman in a bloodstained white dress, barely feet from the men with the torches, the mob. The girl screams again, stumbling over the dirt. I run up next to her. She stares for a second before gripping the fur on my shoulders and throwing herself onto my back. I turn to run towards my mates, but one of the men slices my hip, making me howl in pain, nearly knocking the girl off. As I run, I think of the sword. It was jagged and black, gold laid into the blade. I'd never seen a sword like that.

'Echo, you're hurt! Let one of us take her.' I shake my head, running past them.

'The mob is still too close. Just keep running.' They do as I say, following me for about an hour before I collapse into the dirt. The girl climbs off, looking down at my wound.

"Hold still, this is going to hurt." She sticks her fingers into the wound, pulling out a small shard of black and gold. I huff out a jagged breath, my entire leg burning like hellfire. "Okay, you can shift back now." I do as she says, taking note of the way she slides the shard into the pocket of her dress. Finley walks up to me, nudging me with her nose. I grab her shoulders, wincing as I throw my wounded leg over her. The girl climbs onto Jovi, and then we're running again. I see the castle in the distance, my head beginning to spin.

"Finley, I need you to go faster," I say, struggling to stay upright.

'What's wrong?'

"I'm dizzy, but I haven't lost enough blood to cause that. I think something is wrong with the blade that cut me. It didn't look right," I pant.

"There was a rumor that one of the guards had figured out how to mix demon horn into the steel," the woman says.

'What does that mean, Echo?' I wince, the pain getting worse the faster we go.

"Demon horns aren't just for aesthetic purposes. Some of them are poisonous, and allegedly if you mix them with gold, it works faster. That sword had gold in it." Finley picks up the pace even more, jostling me roughly. I grip her fur as tightly as I can, desperate to stay awake.

'We don't have much farther. Hold on, baby.' By the time we reach the gates, I'm nearly dangling from Finley's back. She doesn't bother shifting. She just runs up to the castle doors.

"I'm about to go unconscious. Get Delilah. She'll tell you what to do, and it'll sound batshit, but just trust her," I slur. I barely get the words out before the world goes dark.

I wake up to the infernal beeping of my own heartbeat. Or rather, the machine that reads it. Somewhere in the room, someone rustles papers. I slowly open my eyes, expecting the harsh overhead light to blind me. Instead, I'm greeted with the soft glow of a lamp in the corner. I look over at the stack of papers next to a chair. In the chair sits Queen Amira. I take a deep breath before sitting up, wincing at the pull of my stitches.