Her eyebrows arched. “Azlu scared it off?”
“Mother scared it off,” Azlu corrected.
“Mother? How?”
“The beast doesn’t like her. It’s the reason why it will not come for me, even when I sleep. She protects her children, and it cannot get past her.”
“And I hurt it, Alexa,” I said, “I had my claws in the dream, and I dug them into its side, and this happened.” I showed her my hands. “Why is this blood here if it was just a dream?”
“Are you sure it’s not yours?”
I sniffed the blood, but the scent was so strong and sharp I had to pull my nose away. “Definitely not mine. And I’m not bleeding anywhere. I was able to hurt it somehow, and now it knows.”
Alexa shook her head. “Doesn’t that mean it’ll single you out, now? It’s an animal, and you hurt it, so now it won’t be about food as much as revenge.”
“I don’t know, but if it comes for me again, we can be ready. Me and Azlu. Maybe we can even set a trap.”
Azlu paused, considering. “It’s possible,” she said, “It is also possible that Alexa could be brought into our dream space… assuming she survives the bond.”
“Assuming she wants the bond,” Alexa said.
I arched my eyebrows. “Are you telling me you don’t want a shot at killing this thing?”
She stared at me, chewing the inside of her mouth with a hard expression on her face. “You really think we can?”
“If it bleeds, we can kill it.” I looked at my hands again. “And it bleeds.”
“I don’t know if I like any of this, but if you’re sure we have a shot, then I’ll do whatever I can to help. Fuck sitting on my hands. I’m tired of doing that.”
I grinned. “Good. All we need to do now is figure out how we’re gonna do this. Azlu, do you think mother can do more than scare it off?”
Azlu shook her head. “Mother is… not strong enough to fight it, but it does not know that. It sees her, and it knows she is powerful. Maybe too powerful for it, so it flees.”
I nodded. “I noticed that, too. It really had a hard time figuring out if it wanted to attack after I’d hurt it.”
“Of course. Animals tread the path of least resistance when pursuing their goals, and like an animal, with the right kind of trap, we can catch it and put it down.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever woken up from a nap with as much energy as I have right now,” I said. “I’m still shaking.”
“Speak for yourself,” Alexa said, “I’m still tired. But let’s go, get this bond thing started. The sooner we kill this thing, the sooner I can get some real sleep.”
I threw a smirk in her direction. “I like where your head is at.” Turning to look at Azlu again. “Do you think you can bind her like you did me?”
“I think so. She is strong. She should survive.”
One of Alexa’s hands flew to her hip. “Do you even know who I am? Damn fucking straight, I’ll survive.” She extended her arm. “Now, hit me.”
Azlu was about to let herself fall onto my bunk when the door to our cell buzzed loudly. Alexa jerked back, Azlu hugged the ceiling again, and I scrambled to get upright. It wasn’t dinner time, or lunch time. It couldn’t be, although there was no way to tell considering the lights were on around the clock.
When the door opened, it was Sanchez standing on the other side. She looked tired, run down, but the look on her face was pure worry. She pointed at me. “You need to come with me,” she said.
“I… me?”
“Now. Hurry.”
Hurry?
I glanced at Alexa. She nodded towards the door. Slowly, at first, I climbed off my bunk and headed over to the waiting guard who didn’t seem like she was at all bothered by the amount of blood on my hands, on my face, my clothes. I looked like I had just murdered someone, and she didn’t bat an eye.
She didn’t even cuff me as she led me out of the cell block and into the adjoining corridor.
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” I asked.
“I don’t have time to explain,” she said, breaking into a light jog. “You need to see him right now.”
I matched her pace. “What? What’s happened to him?”
“No time. Just run!”
She started sprinting, and I sprinted with her. The checkpoints between the cellblock and the Horseman’s quarters were all clear, the gates open, no guards present at any of them. This was weird. Really weird. The prison was as dead now as it had been in my dream, only there weren’t any corpses littering the halls.
I wasn’t sure whether that was better or worse.
Sanchez raced to the Horseman’s quarters, her boots thudding, all the metal bits on her belt jingling together. It wasn’t difficult keeping up, but I was still a little dizzy from the blood loss I’d suffered in the dream. I didn’t know how that was possible, but I also didn’t have time to analyze the situation.
All I could do was run. Keep running, keep moving, get to the Horseman.
Sanchez didn’t wait for me to arrive at the door to the Horseman’s quarters. She charged into it, pushing it open and spilling inside. When I reached it, I went through after her to find his room in exactly the same state it had been in the last time I’d been there—only he wasn’t sitting at his desk; he was laying on the floor, on his back.
I raced to his side, throwing myself to my knees as I reached him. His eyes were shut, it looked like he had collapsed and passed out. “What’s wrong with him?” I called out, my heart racing.
“He started having some kind of seizure,” she said, “I heard him from outside and I rushed into see him.”
I tapped his face, trying to wake him, but it didn’t work. His skin was warm, and his chest was rising and falling, but he was pale, and he wasn’t waking up.
“He needs a doctor, not me!”
“I wanted to get a doctor, but he told me to go and get you instead, what was I supposed to do?”
“Ignore him and get a doctor, what good am I going to be?”
“I don’t know! But unless you haven’t noticed, trust is a little strained around this place lately, so I’m going to do what he says before I do anything else.”
I ran my hand down his cheek and tried to get a response from him, but he wasn’t responding. He was completely unconscious, and I couldn’t find a single reason for it… until I saw the mark. It was there, just beneath his ribs, on the right side of his abdomen. A handprint; large, black, purple, and yellow. One of the gnarliest bruises I had ever seen on a person.
An image from a half-forgotten dream flashed into my mind. Claws tearing into thick hide and muscle, and coming out red. Trembling, my blood-caked fingertips moved across his chest, down to his ribs, and then past them to the mark on his side. It was roughly the size of my hand, hot as all hell, and darkest towards the center.
“Oh, my God…” I gasped, yanking my hand away, but the Horseman grabbed it and held me in place.
“Don’t… go,” he grunted.
I stared at him, stared into him, into those green eyes of his—green flecked with gold. “It’s… you.” The words fell out of my mouth. I couldn’t stop them.