I’m running out of clothes...I thought bitterly as I tore off the sleeves of my inner robe to make a bandage for my calf.

Once the bleeding seemed to have lessened, I tried to stand. The pain was far too intense to put any weight on my leg, so I leaned against the wall and limped my way towards the door. I threw my weight into the door once, twice, but it didn’t budge.

“Bloody, stop, you’re hurt. Come untie me and let me try.”

I hesitated, but shuffled away from the door, towards Death-Bringer. I crouched in front of her but before I could begin to untie her hands and feet, there was the sound of wood cracking and splintering behind me.

“Blood-Forged, Death-Bringer, you there?” a familiar voice asked.

Dread and embarrassment settled in my chest, “Piercing Gale? How’d you find us?” I turned my head back to look and watched as Piercing Gale shoved a sword through the wood, hacking away the lock. “And where the fuck did you get a sword?”

“I found it,” he grunted as the sword got stuck in the wood, “and I can sense when I’m near other weapons. Can’t you?”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

I frowned and closed my eyes, trying to “sense” Piercing Gale but didn’t feel a thing, “no...?”

“Weird.” Piercing Gale pulled the sword back and ripped the lock out. The door swung open slowly, “I sent you to find pants, what the fuck happened?”

“Pants?” Death-Bringer asked.

Backlit as he was, it was hard to see Piercing Gale’s face or really any details at all about him but just from his silhouette I could tell he had somehow fashioned my outer robe into pants.

Piercing Gale came into the shed and crouched in front of me. He pulled aside the cloth I tied around my leg a little bit and grimaced, “that looks bad... can you walk?”

“Kind of... not really,” I muttered. This close I could see his furrowed brow and pursed lips. Somehow he had slicked back his hair again and my hands itched to mess it up.

“What about you, Death-Bringer? Are you hurt?”

“Just drugged,” she answered, trying to sit up.

Piercing Gale leaned over to help her up and drew the sword again to cut the ropes tying her, “where’s Night Lover?”

I couldn’t help my face scrunching up a bit. Death-Bringer answered him, “the demon is a body hopper and wants to take over his body.”

“Shit!” Piercing Gale grabbed my arm and yanked me upright. “Death-Bringer please tell me you can walk?” She nodded and uneasily got to her feet. Piercing Gale put an arm around my waist, pulling me closer and half carrying me out of the shed.