It hurt, a gnawing, twisting pain in his back. Next to him, Cameron swayed in his saddle, looking pale, either from shock or blood loss.
They’re going to kill us, Thom thought bleakly, gripping his saddle pommel with a white-knuckled grip. They’re absolutely going to kill us. He stared at Seamus’s back, watched the former master of the Wild Hunt shift gingerly on his mount’s back.
“You still haven’t told us what those were, Seamus,” Thom rasped, gingerly probing his side. The makeshift bandages he and J.T. had wound around his chest were tight, pressing hard against where claws had raked across his back on the right hand side, scoring flesh, his ribs and reflexes the only things that saving him from being hurt much, much worse. “Never mind how and why they tracked us down.”
“If I had an answer to the latter, I’d give it to you,” Seamus said wearily, glancing back over his shoulder toward Thom and Cameron. J.T. was bringing up the rear, weary but largely unhurt after their close encounter with shadow-birthed monsters of some variety or another. “As for the former, I assume that shadowspawn isn’t explanation enough?”
“For now it is,” Thom said. “But it won’t be forever.”
Seamus made a soft sound, shifting again in his saddle. They were pretty sure his arm and a few ribs were broken, despite his insistence that his ribs, at least, were just fine. Thom knew a lie about that kind of thing when he heard it, considering how many times the same lie had passed his own lips.
He was pretty sure that J.T. knew it was bullshit, too.
“How much further is it?” Cameron asked quietly.
“Not far,” Thom assured him. “Not too much farther.” He glanced sidelong at his friend. “Are you going to make it?”
“I have to, don’t I?”
The smile Cameron shot him was a death’s head grin. Thom grimaced.
“It’s not much farther,” he said again, and hoped against hope that they found a home still safe and secure when they got there.
He didn’t think that was too much to hope for.
What world has *he* been living in for the past year? He should know better than that. 🙂