I broke both of them.

At first, I was only going to break one, but on the off chance the pampered noble knew how to cobble together a splint and a walking stick, then he would still be able to chase us down. I decided the best way to keep both himself and us safe would be to make sure that he stayed put. We’d been there for two nights, so he should be fairly safe and he’d also be easy to find when we told Trent about what happened.

I could tell that only Ether had been expecting me to break both of them when Justia gasped and Aelin screamed. I knew Ether had said legs and even I had been considering only one, so I didn’t blame them for being shocked.

“Can you walk?” I offered Justia my hand. I wanted to get as far aware from this place as I could right now. I had something I could focus on to get my mind off of things and I was going to hone in on it.

“Yes.” The brunette healer patted Aelin on the back. "Aelin, you’ve got to let go so I can get up.”

I wasn’t prepared for the tears on Aelin’s face. I felt like I had to apologize. "Aelin I’m sorry…If there had been any other way…I’m… Are you going to be okay?”

The usually cheerful blonde sniffled. "Are you sure he’s going to be okay?”

I took her hand and led her away, so she wouldn’t have to look at him. "He’s going to be fine. He’ll be in a lot of pain, but Trent is picking us up tomorrow and I’ll make sure that the first thing he does is come and get Edward.” I knew it wasn’t justification, but maybe it would ease her mind, even though it hadn’t worked on me. "Once he gets to a Healer, it’ll be like it never happened.” I put my hand on her cheeks. She flinched, but didn’t back away. I looked into her brown eyes. "What happened here was horrible. What’s happened here for the last few days has been horrible, but we’re going to get through it. Okay?”

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She nodded and I heard Justia and Ether approaching. Ether was carrying the ax and the dagger and she had Rix’s knife on her hip. I realized I’d dropped the ax at some point after I’d done the deed.

“Everyone good?” I swallowed and hoped they said yes, because I sure wasn’t.

No one was enthusiastic, so I assumed that meant they felt bad too.

“Let’s focus on leveling up so we can save Rix.” I heard rustling in the bushes. I snatched the ax out of Ether’s hands and lept at the Bramble Skeleton. I destroyed it with one swipe. My heart was racing as Ether came over and picked up the crystal. She handed it to Aelin, who put it in the bag.

“That’s one.” I looked at Ether. "How many more?”

“Twenty for me and Justia." Our white haired tank looked at me. "Thirty two for you and Aelin.”

“Let’s keep count.” I held out the ax to Justia. As good as it felt to smash something, there was only going to be one more Skelie before we started farming and I had a feeling that she needed to hit something a lot more than I did.

She took the ax, but had shame on her face. Like it was a cursed item.

“Why don’t you let Aelin and I handle things for a while?” Ether held out the dagger for Aelin.

Our blonde Buffer looked relieved as she took the weapon. Ether took the ax from Justia and walked out in front of the group. I had a feeling that none of us were going to be able to use a hammer type weapon for a while.

“We can do this.” I hoped that I didn’t seem too unfazed. But he was alive and we needed to focus on keeping Rix that way.

The pair nodded and started walking after Ether. I noticed that it wasn’t long before they were hand in hand.