[This post is from Matt’s point of view.]
His heart stutter-stepped at the idea of leaving her and he felt sick, but in the end, he knew he had to listen. He squeezed her hand one last time, ignoring the pain, then let go. The blade he’d made her in another life lay next to her foot and she stooped to pick it up.
“Hurry,” she said. “I won’t draw from you until you’re beyond those walls and safe, Matt.”
Hecate wavered on her feet and his stomach twisted. She didn’t look back at him. His injured hand curled into a fist.
“Go,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. “Go, Matt.”
“I’ll be waiting for you,” he said, then turned. The first few steps were slow, then became a jog, then finally a sprint to cover the last two dozen meters between him and the gates. He could see Thom above, white-faced even as Thordin ordered someone below to open the gate.
The gates opened barely a crack and Matt ducked through that crack, warhammer and all. The looks on his friends’ faces wrenched at his heart almost as badly as leaving Hecate out in the field had. Carolyn reached him first, her hand closing around his arm even as J.T. and Jack secured the gates again behind him.
“Where have you been?” she asked in a shaking voice. “Your sister’s been worried. We’ve all been worried.”
“I was safe,” Matt murmured, glancing up toward his ashen-faced brother-in-law.
How do I tell them?
Maybe they already know.
The look on Thom’s face told him that he’d seen everything out on the field and was trying to fathom what it meant—probably correctly, too.
“That’s Hecate out there.”
It wasn’t a question. All Matt could do was nod.
“She brought you here.”
“It was her idea,” Matt said, his voice weak. What else was he supposed to say?
“You’re bleeding,” Carolyn said, looking down at his hand. “What happened?”
Matt didn’t answer, just kept staring at Thom until his brother-in-law winced and looked away.
“Doesn’t matter,” Matt said. “I’ll be okay. She’s going to try to end this by herself.”
“They wanted both of you,” Thom said. “We told them we didn’t know where you were.”
It wasn’t a lie.
Matt felt sick. “Now they’ll think you lied.”
“They thought we were lying anyway,” Thordin said quickly. “Put it out of your head, Matt. We’ve got work to do.”
In that, he was certainly right.
“I won’t dry from you until you’re beyond those walls and safe, Matt.”
I’ve been trying to think of what “dry” means in this case. I also can’t think of a substitute word that would fit the rest of the chapter.
It was supposed to be draw. I’ve fixed it.
Ah, that makes sense. I had forgotten about the blood bond they had made… …a whole two days ago.
I was up in MI in July (the other side of the state). I had forgotten how good it smells there (the earth/plants/etc.). In CA, it mostly smells dry and dusty.