It doesn’t take me long to find them. Both are locked together in the pantry. Tied with their backs to one another, gagged and bound on the floor.
I’m not sure why Martha wasn’t able to stop this from happening with her witchcraft, but I don’t have the time nor the inclination to ask her. As soon as I release them, I rush back to Jeremiah, the medic close on my heels.
BIRDIE
I can’t really clean up the dried blood on my body, not without seeing Logan’s corpse again. Instead, I try to make myself as decent as possible and rush to Jeremiah’s side while Colt gets the help that he desperately needs.
Taking Jeremiah’s hand, I hold it in mine and lift it against my chest. I whisper to him, begging him to please be okay. He has to be okay. I can’t let something happen to him because of me. I don’t know if I would be able to live with myself.
Jeremiah saved me. I heard the scuffle in the bedroom and I just had a feeling that something was very wrong. Then I heard a loud thud and that was when I grabbed the small knife from the tray of food next to me for protection.
Then everything happened in slow motion. It didn’t just happen in slow motion the way that sometimes things feel as though they are slowing down. It really all did slow down, almost to a stop. I don’t know if it was mine or Martha’s magic that caused it, but had it not happened, I would be dead right now.
Maybe it was the gods intervening. I don’t know much about the gods of this world, but I have a feeling if they’re up there, they could have definitely put a stop to Logan and the black magic that filled his body.
Logan broke into the room. He tried to speak, but everything came out garbled. He took a few slow steps toward me, his gun in his hand. He lifted his weapon, a slow smile appearing on his lips. Then, before he could pull the trigger, I lunged toward him and buried the knife in his throat.
I killed him.
I killed my husband’s best friend.
The bedroom door flies open, breaking me from my thoughts, and standing in front of me is a very distraught Colt, with a small army behind him. A man that I assume must be a doctor rushes past him and sinks down across from me on the other side of Jeremiah.
He begins to assess him, and that’s when Colt forces me to stand and give them space.
“Put him on my bed,” Colt announces.
The doctor along with a couple other men carefully pick him up and place him gently on the bed. I watch in horror as Colt wraps one of his arms around my shoulders and tucks me warm and safe against his side.
“Will he be okay?” I whisper.
Colt doesn’t answer me, probably because he has no fucking clue if he’s going to be okay or not. Instead, he just holds me and we watch the doctor work. He cleans the wound, then he starts poking around and when Jeremiah moans out in pain, I have to turn my face into Colt’s chest.
My entire body hurts just thinking about the fact that they don’t have modern medicine, then I selfishly start thinking about giving birth with no medicine, with no painkillers and I really start to internally freak the fuck out.
There are men moving around us, then someone calls out Colt’s name just as the doctor is stitching Jeremiah up. Colt doesn’t leave my side, he tells the men to wait in his office, that he will talk to them as soon as he knows Jeremiah will be okay.
The doctor explains that he was shot, he’s found bullet fragments, removed them, and hopefully there won’t be an infection. He’s cleaned the wound and stitched him up, now we just wait.
Again, the lack of modern medicine is truly sinking in and I’m realizing that this place isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, even if I’m some kind of old west queen and I’ve fallen completely in love with my husband.
“I’ll stay with him, you do whatever you need to,” I whisper.
“We will stay with him,” Martha’s voice calls out.
I don’t turn to her, but I really want to. Instead, I tilt my head back and look into Colt’s eyes. His gaze searches my face, assessing, he must approve of what he sees because he simply nods his head, then takes a step back from me.
“The strength of my wife, it has no bounds,” he murmurs before he dips his chin and touches his mouth to mine in a brush of a kiss. “I will just be in my office downstairs. Do not hesitate if you need me, just call out for me.”
Without another word, he brushes past me and Martha as he leaves the room. Martha doesn’t hesitate even a moment, she rushes toward me, wrapping her arms around me, she pulls me in for a hug.
“You’re okay?” she asks on a whisper.
“I’m okay.”
“My magic is depleted after Florence and the black magic. Logan caught us off guard and tied Ernest and I together. I tried everything I could to get us out of our bonds, but I was just too weak. I won’t be much good for a few months.”
Lifting my hands, I cup her cheeks. “I slowed time down. Jeremiah warned me from the other room. I don’t know how I did it, I thought maybe it was you, but it must have been me, I slowed time down and I was able to attack first.”
Martha’s eyes widen before a curve appears on her lips. “Amazing.”
We spend
