Page 199 of Veil of Blood and Bone

Wren disappears, Forest in tow, trekking to town. I glance up from my feet to find Helene standing a pace behind the others. Alone with me.

She turns away and at last the can of hairspray drops from her palm, leaving its mark in the redness of her skin.

We stand in silence, neither one of us sure of the right words to penetrate the heaviness of the moment. The longer we wait, the easier it is to remember the sweetness of her blood, and pick it out among the cold.

She’s soaked through her makeshift bandage, the fabric stained crimson with it.

Only a few hours ago, the world had been small. Now it’s collapsed around us and all the power of the intimacy we shared is alchemized into something else. Something larger than anyone has the capacity to label.

“Is this how it’s always going to be?” Helene’s voice breaks the night.

My gaze lingers on her frozen lips when they part, and her exhale shakes both of us. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“This,” she hisses. “This fight. The hits keep coming, boom. One right after another. We can’t run. And if we stay, there’s only a new obstacle blocking the path. That thing was here for me.”

It’s the story of her life summarized in a few neat sentences.

“Would you like a lie? Or the truth.”

I’m afraid to touch her. My hands reach for her anyway across distance, sensation curdling my blood.

Now her eyes refuse to leave mine. “Lies won’t accomplish anything.”

She stares at me, at my inhuman face, and the relief whirling through her like this storm is too much. I glance away from the flicker of pain in her eyes.

“Then yes. It will keep happening. It always does,” I growl. “It’s moving faster now. Usually we have more time⁠—”

“To what?” she interrupts. “To suffer?”

“To struggle,” I agree.

Helene glances over her shoulder at the car, pounded into oblivion.

“Does no one care how exhausting it is? Isn’t love supposed to be the easiest thing in the world?”

Love has nothing and everything to do with this. my hand spasms and the song of her blood grows louder the longer we stand. Fear sweeps through me like wildfire.

“Love isn’t the question here, ruin.” I curse, straining to pull away from her when pure animal instinct demands I speed my healing with her. “Love is easy. What I feel for you, what we all agreed to, is easy. It’s just that nothing else is.”

“Nothing else,” she repeats, her wooden steps falling in behind me.

Helene staggers, and I whip around, hands snatching at her elbows to keep her upright. A strangled whimper pries free, and I lift them in a shield in front of me. Horrified that I’ve hurt her.

“It’s not you. When the giant pulled me from the car, I strained myself trying to stop it.”

“Him.”

Her eyes squeeze shut, and she falters, slows.

I shake my head in frustration. “Love is bittersweet.”

“You don’t love me.”

The statement is a stake to the heart, and I swallow down an automatic, guttural refusal.

“We came for you. Didn’t we?” Don’t we always?

Silence reigns again, and I stomp behind her, pushing her forward. The grooves of the tire tracks are covered with a layer of hail over snow.