Page 54 of Apples Dipped in Gold
I had been so angry with him before this, but I was too afraid to be angry now.
I closed my eyes and managed a shaky, shallow breath. Then Lore wrapped his arms around me tight, as if he thought he could keep my body still, and I rested my head against his chest. I could hear his heart beating, an easy thrum. I wondered how he could be so calm before such horror, but it was likely not the first time he’d seen something so terrible. I had certainly butchered animals before under the orders of my brother, but this…this was different.
After some time, my breaths matched Lore’s, and I felt less unsteady on my feet.
“My brothers did this,” I said as I pulled away from him.
“I guessed as much,” said Lore.
“Cardic said they were ahead,” I said. “What if they circle back? What if—”
“Samara,” said Lore, leaning forward to kiss my forehead. His lips were warm, and they lingered as he spoke against my skin. “I willneverlet them harm you again.”
Now my heart was racing for a different reason.
He pulled away and slipped his hand in mine.
“We cannot linger here,” he said, pulling me along.
I dug in my heels. “We cannot leave them like this, Lore.”
“If we stay, there is a greater chance they will find us.”
“Lore,” I whispered, desperate. “This will haunt me.”
I was sure that was what my brothers intended.
Lore stared down at me, his gaze hard and his jaw set. After a few seconds, he turned to observe the animals. It was evident they had been here for some time, because their blood had ceased to drip. All of it pooled on the ground beneath them.
“We do not have time to bury them,” he said.
“Then we will lay them in a line on the ground,” I said. “It is better than where they hang now.”
He studied me for a minute, and I wondered what he was thinking. Perhaps he was trying to decide if he could live with disappointing me.
I hoped he couldn’t.
“The moment I hear so much as a twig break or a pebble roll, we depart,” he said. “No matter who is left.”
I nodded vigorously in agreement.
Lore turned, and I watched him climb up the nearest tree as if it were a ladder, arms braced around the trunk, his toes digging into the bark. When he reached the first bough, he pulled himself up and walked gracefully along its length like it was nothing but flat ground. He stopped when he reached the first animal, a rabbit that twisted this way and that. Lore knelt and drew a knife. As soon as the blade touched the rope, it was severed, reminding me of the knife I was given seven years ago—likely the very one Jackal had used to carry out this massacre.
With the rope cut, the rabbit fell, hitting the ground with a grotesque thud. I covered my mouth with my hand, unprepared for the sound or the additional horror of watching these animals abused in death.
I knew my brothers were cruel. They had often threatened to hurt Mouse and Rooster, but they usually took their anger out on me instead. Was this what happened when they couldn’t?
My stomach revolted at the thought.
It wasn’t until I tried to move the rabbit from where it landed that everything I’d eaten for breakfast came back up. I only made it a few steps before I vomited, my eyes blurry with tears.
This was horrible, and my brothers knew it.
They wanted me to feel responsible for each one of these deaths, and I did.
As I straightened, Lore handed me a waterskin.
“It’s wine,” he said. “But it will get the taste out.”
