We passed another row of buildings with crumbling bricks and lopsided windows. The farther we got to the edge of town, the more dilapidated the structures became until they gave way entirely to leafless trees, mounds of stones, and a crushed basalt trail leading toward the cave.
“We’re about to be out in the open here.” I paused at the edge of the last building and rested my hand against a splintered piece of wood. What kind of trees grew in this sulfurous air and moonlight I had no clue, but there would be time for questions later. I hoped.
At the moment, my biggest concern was my swimming vision and the frostbite stretching from my collarbone to the middle of my forearm. That was my biggest concern, anyway…until I turned around.
Discord stood behind me, both his arms icy-blue and tinged with black lattice. The unnatural color stretched across his left shoulder and climbed his neck to spiral in a wave pattern over his cheek. Just a hint of blue fanned out on the right side of his neck, but with the way he stood, hunched to one side, I imagined the magically frostbitten infection had cascaded down his ribcage, making him unable to stand fully upright.
“Where did they get you?” I scanned his form for a bloody wound or torn fabric where an arrow might have pierced his skin.
“Didn’t.” He gave his head a tiny shake and grimaced. The left side of his mouth didn’t move. “No time. Go alone.”
“Those shedims must’ve knocked you upside the head pretty hard. I am not leaving you here to freeze.” I grabbed his arm, ready to pull him down the trail, but his skin was so cold that it burned my hand.
“Ouch!” I jerked away.
“Go,” he ground out.
“Not without you.”
“You have to.” His upper lip turned completely blue.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do.” I crossed my arms and jutted out a hip. “You need healing more than I do.”
He growled, and the black lattice stretched to his nose.
I arched a brow.
He narrowed his right eye—the entire left side of his face had frozen solid—and he took a step and a half toward me. His right leg froze mid-stride, and he tipped over like an action figure that was posed wrong. He hit the ground with a grunt before letting out the deepest, most agonizing groan I had ever heard.
“Discord!” I kneeled beside him, my racing heart now thrumming in my throat.
“Go alone,” he managed to scratch out before his bottom lip turned blue too.
“Not a chance.” My freezer burn spread down to my wrist, and one side of my neck began to stiffen. I bit my lip and scanned my surroundings for a tarp or a blanket or an adult-sized baby sling. Anything that would help me drag his heavy, frozen ass to the cave.
“Wait here,” I said as if he had a choice, and I crept down the side of the building. A six-foot window with two busted panes occupied the center of the shack, and a brown curtain hung on the other side.
I hoped to Hecate the place was abandoned because I unhooked my backpack and slammed it into another pane, shattering the glass to reach the curtain. One good, hard yank tore it from half the rings, and I wrapped it around my good arm to pull it the rest of the way down before hightailing it back to my demon.
My stomach dropped into my boots when I found him. The icy skin on the side that hit the ground was cracked. If he froze any more solid, he might shatter.
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.” I dropped to my knees and worked the curtain beneath him while I still had use of both my hands. “Why is it affecting you so much faster? How many times were you hit?”
He didn’t answer.
I lifted his shoulders and slid the curtain beneath him. Then I lay him down and rolled him to one side, working the drapery beneath him until most of his weight was situated on the fabric. His boots would drag the ground, but this would have to do.
I tied the free end of the curtain to my backpack and buckled it into place before heaving forward like a sled dog. My stomach roiled and my head spun, but I plowed ahead, my leg muscles burning with the exertion as I trudged down the gravel path.
The air was still, the entire area way too quiet for my liking. The posse of demons who’d attacked us at the house hadn’t followed. Had the mysterious archer killed them all? Was someone in this goddess-forsaken realm actually on our side?
If so, why would they shoot at me? Maybe it was an accident. Maybe they were aiming for another demon. Maybe, maybe, maybe… My thoughts swirled and spiraled until I couldn’t hold on to any of them. Just a little bit farther, and we’d be at the cave entrance.
My legs trembled, my neck and upper back going completely stiff from the poison. I opened my mouth, but one side of my face had gone numb. I didn’t dare look back at Discord. I was still here, so that meant there was at least a little life left in him. That was enough for me.
“Hello?” I called into the cave. Beaded curtains that looked an awful lot like bones hung in the entrance, and I pushed through, dragging my demon into the…foyer? What did you call the entrance to a cave?
“Excuse me? Is there a seer who lives here? We need her help.” I unbuckled my backpack and slid it off my good arm first and then the frozen one. “We need an antidote for hoarfrost poison. I’m afraid we’re turning to ice.”
