I shrugged. It was hardly the worst insult in the world. ‘Kirsty…’
‘Did you kill him?’ she demanded.
Good grief. My skin prickled again. ‘No.’
Her nose wrinkled. ‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ she whispered. ‘Why isn’t it working? What are you doing? Why isn’t it working?’
The penny finally dropped. ‘You’re a Truth Seeker.’ And I’d half-wished for that kind of ability. Dread spun through me then, before I could stop it, I felt her Gift. It was as if something in my blood called out to hers. Nausea, worse than before, flooded through me. I gasped and stumbled. ‘Get away from here.’
She shook her head in confusion. ‘What…? I feel strange.’
‘Kirsty,’ I said though gritted teeth. ‘Run!’ I turned and started running away from her, hoping that the distance between us would work but it was too late; I could feel her power pumping through my veins. She gave a soft moan and there was a thud. I looked round. She’d already collapsed and was lying unmoving in the snow. ‘Shite.’
The drone returned at that moment, its buzzing filling the sky. I was well aware of how this looked: Kirsty Kincaid was unconscious and I was standing next to her. I cursed loudly. The Carnegie MC might have said that anything went as far as the challenge was concerned but my popularity would hardly increase if the people watching back at the Cruaich thought I’d done her in. Maybe I had.
I edged closer and knelt down to check her pulse. It was still strong. As long as she could get to safety, she’d be fine. ‘You need to get someone here!’ I yelled up to the drone. ‘She needs medical attention!’
‘Uh Integrity,’ Bob said, muffled within the folds of my scarf, ‘they’re not going to help her.’
‘You don’t know that,’ I snapped.
‘It’s the name of the game. You come out here, you take the consequences.’
‘How do you know?’
‘Because I’m a magnific…’
‘Shut up.’ I eyed Kirsty’s prone form. Damn it, Bob was probably right. If I wanted to win I had to leave her behind, but if I left her behind she’d freeze to death. Apparently it was the price you had to pay for daring to compete. I sighed in irritation, then scooped her up in my arms and threw her over my shoulder in a fireman’s lift. Bob scuttled to my opposite shoulder. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked.
I threw a rude gesture towards the drone. It didn’t react but continued to hover above us, transmitting every image. Bloody thing.
‘She’ll die if I don’t do something. There’s no point taking her back to the starting point because there’s no one there. I’ll just have to bring her with us.’ To the people watching, it probably looked like I was talking to myself. Screw them.
‘She’ll slow you down,’ Bob said.
‘No shit.’
‘She attacked you.’
‘She scraped my face and pulled my hair,’ I returned. ‘I think I’ll live. Besides, she obviously thought she was justified.’
‘Are you making excuses for her?’
I shrugged. ‘It’s my fault she’s unconscious.’
‘You’ll come in last if you do this,’ Bob warned.
I rather thought that Kirsty would come in last but I took his point. ‘I won’t be last if I’m smart,’ I said.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
I smirked and twisted to my left, plunging into the trees and leaving the footsteps and the path behind.
‘Uh Integrity!’ Bob shrieked. ‘What are you doing?’
‘It was a long shot to think I’d catch up with the others,’ I said. ‘The map only leads to the first clue. There’s nothing that says I can’t skip it and find the flags instead.’
‘How will you find the flags without directions?’
