WILLIAM faltered. Cerise gasped, her heart caught in her throat. Spider lunged, but William recovered within the same breath, hammered a vicious kick into Spider’s midsection, and leapt away. They ripped and clawed at each other, kicked, elbowed, sliced. She’d never seen anything like it.
William lunged. He was slowing down. He had to be tired. Spider parried with quick short strokes and hammered his knee into William’s leg. William jumped and the kick missed.
They were both bleeding. William’s eyes shone. Spider bared his teeth. He seemed barely human.
William thrust, trying to sink his blade into Spider’s stomach. The Hand’s agent parried, knocking William’s blade to the right, in the direction of William’s swing. Without a pause, William slashed back in a vicious riposte, the tip of his sword drawing a bloody line across Spider’s chest.
Too wide! Cerise almost screamed. Too wide, William.
Spider swayed and lunged into the gap in William’s defense. His blade dived for William’s left armpit and William stepped into it.
The curved knife sliced like a metal claw.
Cerise choked on her scream.
William’s arm clamped down Spider’s blade. Spider jerked at it in disbelief, but the curve of the blade held it in place. The knife was wedged in William’s armpit.
William clasped Spider’s elbow with his left hand and stepped close. His right arm embraced Spider, as if they were two long-lost friends, whispering a secret into each other’s ear. William clasped Spider to him. His knife flashed and William sliced deep across Spider’s spine.
Cerise knew they were too far for the sound to carry over, but she could’ve sworn she heard the sickening crunch of metal severing the bone.
Spider’s mouth gaped in shock. Blood poured from his back in a red stream.
He won. William won.
“Damn, that was a fine move!” Richard screamed by her side.
The Hand’s agent jerked back, pushing at William with both hands. William’s bloody fingers slid off Spider’s shoulder. He raised his knife to cut the man’s throat, but Spider toppled backward, blond hair spilling, his face a pale mask, and plunged into the black water of the pond. His body vanished in the peat.
William watched it sink. His eyes found Cerise. He smiled, staggered back, and fell.
No!
She scrambled up the slope. The slick mud gave under her fingers in handfuls, and then Richard grabbed her and hoisted her up. She caught a root and pulled herself on the slick grass.
William slumped against a tree. Spider’s knife lay on his lap. Blood slicked the edge. William looked at her, his hazel eyes soft. His whole side had turned bright red.
Cerise dashed to him. He opened his mouth, trying to say something. Blood gurgled from his lips and spilled on his chin. She sobbed and clutched him to her. More blood poured, wetting her fingers. His pulse fluttered weaker and weaker beneath the fingers she pressed to his neck.
“No,” she begged. “No, no, no ...”
“It’s okay,” he told her. “Love you.”
“Don’t die!”
“Sorry. Live. You . . . live.”
She kissed his face, his bloody lips, his dirt-smeared cheek. William brushed at her hair with fatigued fingers. His body shuddered. His eyes rolled back in his head.
“You can’t leave me like this!”
His heartbeat shivered one last time and vanished like a snuffed-out candle.
The world screeched to a halt, and Cerise skidded through it, lost and alone. A terrible pain tore through her and squeezed her heart in a steel fist. There wasn’t enough air to fill her lungs.
I love you. Don’t leave me. Please, please don’t leave me.
Richard’s soft voice came from behind her. “He’s gone, Cerise.”
No. Not yet. She struggled to pick him up. Hands took her by her shoulders. “He’s dead, Cerise,” Ignata whispered. “Let him be.”
“No!”
Cerise pushed to her feet, dragging the body up. Richard grasped her shoulders. “Cerise, let go ...”
“No! Let me!”
“Where are you taking him?”
Frantic, she wrenched herself free. She wasn’t thinking at all, her head full of fragmented thoughts and pain, and it took a lot of effort to spit out two words. “The Box.”
“That’s insane.” Ignata blocked her way.
“The Box will heal him. Get out of my way!”
“Even if it does revive him, he will come out mad. He has no protection like you do. He didn’t have the remedy!”
“I’ll go in there with him.”
“Why?”
“The burial shroud in the Box, it will take my fluids and mix them with his. Whatever the remedy did, it’s still in me.”
Ignata jerked her hands up. “What if you both die? Or he comes out crazy? Richard, help me.”
For a long moment Richard froze, caught between them. Then he bent down and picked up William’s legs. “She deserves it. Because she deserves to have this one thing go right.”
Cerise gripped William’s shoulder and together they wrestled the body down the hill. “Help me! Please help me.”
Ignata bit her lip and spun to the family gathered below. “Pull the Box ashore!”
WHEN William awoke, the world was red and it hurt. It hurt so much; he panicked and thrashed, trying to break free of the red mist. And then a woman’s arms closed around him. He couldn’t hear and he couldn’t see, but when he brushed her face, he knew it was Cerise and she was crying. He pulled her closer, trying to tell her that it would be okay and they would get out of here, but pain drowned him and he went under.