fighting, kept struggling, but I was weak, and he was stronger than
I was.
After a moment, I realized that I wasn’t being hurt, that whoever this was held me close and
I let out a breath. “Owen?” I asked in a low, tentative voice.
He drew me even closer, and I felt his hand gently slide through my tangled hair. “It’s me,” he whispered.
“It’s me, Gin.”
I finally managed to open my eyes, and I found myself staring into his bright, beautiful, violet eyes. I reached out and traced my fingers over his face, once again trying to smooth out the worry lines that marred his rugged features. He didn’t wince, and he didn’t pull away, despite the fact that my fingers were as cold as bony icicles, and
I left smears of blood and mud all over him. Instead, he caught my hand in his and pressed a soft kiss to my palm, right in the middle of my spider-rune scar.
“I’ve got you, Gin,” Owen said. “Just rest, baby. I’ve got you now. Nothing’s going to happen to you. I swear.”
I nodded and relaxed that much more. I knew that Owen would keep his promise, just as I’d managed to keep mine to him, despite all the odds. But before I could speak, before I could thank him for coming after me, the blackness rose again in my mind, swallowing up everything else.
Things were disjointed after that.
Every time I opened my eyes, I got a flash of something different. Owen picking me up and carrying me through the woods. Taking me to some sort of sheltered, rocky outcropping. Laying me down on a sleeping bag.
Making me drink some water. Taking off my vest. carefully pulling my clothes away from where they’d stuck to my arms and legs.
He cursed. At first, I wondered why, but then I realized that he must have seen the gunshot wound in my shoulder, the burns on my body, and all the other injuries that
I’d gotten. I wanted to tell him that it was okay, that they didn’t hurt too much, that I’d been through worse, but I drifted off once again.
The only things I remembered after that were the soft, soothing scent of vanilla and a few needles pricking here and there at my shoulder, arms, back, and legs. Owen must have brought some of Jo-Jo’s healing ointment with him. That was the only reason I could think of why the pain of my injuries slowly lessened . . .
I don’t know how much time passed before I woke up again. For a long while, I was drifting along in that peaceful blackness. Then I was snapped awake.
I was lying on my side on top of a sleeping bag. A small fire crackled in front of me, the smoke drifting above the shelf of rocks and then disappearing into the night sky. Owen sat in front of the fire, idling poking a stick into the flames. I lay there and watched the play of light and shadow on his face. He’d actually done it. He’d actually come back for me just like he said that he would.
I couldn’t quite believe it, but it meant the world to me.
If it had been Finn or even Bria, I wouldn’t have been so surprised. But Owen and I had been on such shaky ground lately. Still, despite everything that had happened between us, he’d come back for me. Even though it had been dangerous. Even though it would have been easier not to. Even though he could have been captured, tortured, and killed by Grimes and his men.
Despite all that, he’d still come back for me.
Owen must have sensed me staring at him, because he turned in my direction and smiled—a big, broad, beautiful smile that told me how happy he was that I was finally awake.
He started to get up and come over to me, but I waved him off.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
I sat up and winced, as a hundred dull aches and pains shot through my body. “Like I’m a very small rabbit that’s been shaken to within an inch of its life by a very large, very angry dog. Remind me never to go white-water rafting. At least, not without an actual raft.”
He laughed, and the sound wrapped around me like a warm, welcoming hug.
I stared up into the sky; it was dark, except for a smattering of stars twinkling far, far away. “What time is it?”
Owen held his watch up to the fire. “Just after midnight.”
I’d gone over the cliff sometime in the afternoon. I wondered if Grimes and his men were looking for me or if they’d assumed that I’d been dashed against the rocks and drowned in the rapids. Either way, there was nothing that I could do about it tonight.
I glanced around the camp he’d made, but I didn’t see any sign of anyone else’s gear.
“I came back alone,” Owen said, noticing my curious gaze. “Finn hadn’t made it back from his trip yet, and Bria wanted to come with me. Phillip too. But I didn’t give them the chance. I slipped away while they were tending to the others. I didn’t want to waste a second getting back to you.”
“Sophia? Warren?”
“Both safe at cooper’s house,” he answered. “It was slow going, but I was able to get them off the mountain and over there without any problems. Whatever you did to Grimes and his men kept them from chasing after us.” I nodded. I’d tell him about how I’d iced over the ridge later. Now came the question that I was dreading the answer to. “And Jo-Jo?”
“She’s doing much better,” Owen said. “cooper was able to rest and replenish his magic while we went after
Sophia. When he woke up, Jo-Jo was awake too, and she helped him use his Air magic to heal her more. She’s not a hundred percent, but she should be fine in a few days. cooper even had enough magic left to heal the worst of Sophia’s injuries. Warren’s too.”
I let out a breath. Warren, Sophia, and Jo-Jo were all safe and on the mend—for now.
I thought of what Grimes had said, about how he was going to go after Sophia again. He wouldn’t stop until he’d dragged her back up here to his twisted camp. He’d come looking for her sooner, rather than later, especially given what a mess I’d made of things. But Grimes was never getting his hands on Sophia again, I vowed. Because the next time I saw the bastard, I was going to end him.
“What about you?” Owen asked. “What happened?”
I told him everything that I had done to Grimes’s men and everything that Grimes and Hazel had said to me.
Owen listened in silence. Then, after a moment, he grinned. “You really set fire to his moonshine operation?
I would have loved to have seen the look on his face when he realized what you did.”
“It was rather impressive,” I said, grinning back at him. “At least, what I saw of it was. I was hoping that the flames would spread and burn the entire camp to the ground, but that was probably too much to wish for.”
“Probably,” he agreed. “Men like Grimes always seem to have nine lives.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing that I do too.”
Owen returned my grin for a moment, but the expression quickly slid off his face, and his features turned serious once more. He stared at me before his gaze dropped back down to the fire. He started stirring the flames with his stick again. I wondered what he was thinking about, but I decided not to ask. He’d tell me in his own time, and there were other things that I wanted to know right then.
“How did you find me?”
“Well, when I hiked back to the ridge, I didn’t see you anywhere in the camp. All I saw was a charred building and some guys putting out the smoldering remains of a fire. So I hiked back to the pit and the tombstones. I didn’t know what was going on or where you were, but eventually, I was able to creep up and eavesdrop on a couple of Grimes’s men. They were talking about how you’d jumped off a cliff and into the river. So I got out Fletcher’s maps, since I’d brought them back with me, and I tried to figure out where you might have ended up downriver.”
