All's Fair in Revenge

Chapter 38: He Who Rose from the Darkness

Startled by the sound of a crackling fire and the smell of cooked meat, my eyes snapped open. I sat up straighter than a staff, the world whirling before me in a haze brown and green tones.

"Whoa, easy," said a rough voice with a gentle hand placed on my shoulder.

I smacked it away, or at least I tried. "Where?"

"Good morning to you, too."

"How?"

"You have a lot of questions for someone who's tasted death. Can't you take a moment to breathe and let the antivenin work?" He gestured to the green poultice on my hand and thigh.

Thorne handed me a cup of steaming liquid then and I greedily took it. "Don't get too excited. It's only water and a few herbs. I wasn't expecting to be out here this long."

I sipped it with shaking hands, the heat warming me from the inside out. "How long?"

Thorne slinked to the ground where I sat crossed-legged on what must have been his cloak. He wore the same ridding clothes I'd admired at the start of the hunt. He held the bottom of the cup to keep it from spilling over and burning me. "Four days."

I almost dropped the water. "Four days?"

"Almost five." His eyes swept the rosy-pink colors of dusk high above us. "The search party gave up two days ago."

I glanced at him. "But not you?"

"No. Not me."

"Even though I shot you?"

"Especially because you shot me," he answered, his eyes lit from within. "I knew you were alive, but even so your mother might've killed me had I suggested —"

My heart sank. "My mother?"

"She arrived the day after the hunt."

Palms scraping my face, I sighed. "I wish the snakes had taken me."

"Speaking of..." he pulled a stick from the fire a thick length of meat skewered onto it, "Hungry?"

"Is that...?"

He bit a chunk off, the steam escaping through his nostrils like a dragon. "It is. Figured it was the least it could do given it tried to kill you and all."

And almost succeeded.

I frowned, the thought souring my empty stomach. "No, thanks. I've endured enough snake for a lifetime."

"More for me." Thorne chewed, sifting air through his teeth as he ate the too-hot snake meat. I appreciated that he didn't push the issue further. Thorne, for all his faults—which I found to be too few and far between as the days progressed—had never once coerced me into anything.

After swallowing, he placed the skewer down on a rock and changed the subject. "From what I saw, you shouldn't have survived. No Kelvian should've. Most certainly not a healer. What happened out there?"

Blue the color of frostbite stained my nail beds, but other than that there was no sign of the dark energy buzzing along my bones. I shrugged. "Lightning. Everything touching the metal must have been electrocuted."

Thorne studied me and nodded. "Thank the goddesses you found the only stone statue then."

Moments passed by, my mind threatening to replay my almost-death over and over until I shattered. I wriggled on the ground, unable to get comfortable, unable to still. I could still feel the slithering bodies all over me, suffocating me like a silk pillowcase.