Page 66 of Quiver

“You’re right.” Kylie forced a smile. “She’s more useful than she looks.”

Fletcher rolled her eyes. “Same for you.”

“Yeah, maybe not you in this moment.” Kylie’s hand slipped behind her head, cradling it firmly. “But I guess I can forgive you.”

“For what?”

“What do you want? I’m feeling generous. Now’s your chance to apply for full and blanket absolution.”

Fletcher noted the tremble in her voice and met her eyes again. “I don’t need last rites.”

“I know.”

“I’m going to be okay.”

“I know.”

Tires crunched snow, then dirt nearby as Ava eased the truck into the arena as quickly as she dared, then hopped out. “We can lay her down across the back of the cab, but we have to get her up.”

Bob came running back in, and the three of them did what they could to brace her with hands and arms behind her back, but it still took everything Fletcher had not to pass out as they tilted her upright. A little shout of pain slipped out, and she bit her lip hard enough to rival the pain in her side as they loaded her into the back of the truck cab as gingerly as one could with a projectile implanted in her stabilizer muscles.

Kylie climbed in beside her and grabbed her hands as Ava jumped into the driver’s seat, and slammed the door. Each pothole in the driveway felt like a crater, and every bump caused another grenade to go off around the hot point of the arrow.

She groaned as they pulled onto the road. “I might vomit.”

“Oh God.” Kylie squeezed her hand. “I recommend against it. Once, I puked while wearing a corset for a movie, and that was bad enough. I can’t imagine doing it while in the process of being stabbed.”

“Fuck.” She hadn’t thought of that.

“Come on,” Kylie urged. “Stay with me.”

“How bad does it look?”

“Real bad, Fletch. Let’s talk about something else. Think of something happy.”

“Are you kidding me?”

Kylie’s laugh sounded a little manic. “I know. It’s stupid. This whole thing is so stupid. I don’t know what to do, but I’m right here with you.”

“Bex will know.” Ava passed her phone back to Kylie. “She’s my most recent call.”

Kylie glanced away from Fletcher only long enough to push the buttons, then met her eyes again, holding her gaze in a way that anchored them together, as if neither one of them would fully slip away so long as they could see each other.

“It’s not Ava, it’s Kylie,” she said into the phone. “Yeah, no time for small talk, Bex. We’re on the way to the hospital. Fletcher fell off a horse onto an arrow.”

“Got bucked off,” Fletcher corrected weakly, but Kylie didn’t pass the message along.

“Yes, it’s stuck in her side … I don’t know, at least an inch, probably two, maybe more.” Kylie paused for a second then exploded. “I’m not going to pull it out! Why do people keep saying that? Do I seriously strike you as someone who would perform field surgery?”

Fletcher snorted, which caused another searing pain down her side.

“Ava, she wants to know how far out we are.”

“Maybe fifteen minutes,” Ava said, and Kylie relayed the message while Fletcher tried not to think of what an utter eternity fifteen minutes could be.

“Yes,” Kylie snapped again. “There’s a lot of blood. I don’t know … no, not gushing. It’s deep red, not blue or purple. Is that a good thing?”

She grimaced. “Okay. Go. We’ll be there soon.”