Book Five: Chapter 191

“Huh?” He held up his injured arm and winced. The owl’s orb had shattered in his hand, the shards of glass slicing up his flesh. His arm was numb from the bicep down, which probably wasn’t a good sign.

“Gods.” Yuki reached into her coat and pulled out a piece of fabric. “Your hand is a mess.”

“We can deal with that later.” He nodded toward Leeds, who was being pulled up a stream. “I need to see this through.”

“Mike, what happened back there, I...” Yuki grabbed his good hand and squeezed it. “I thought we were going to lose you. Your eyes, they were--”

“Don’t.” He leaned onto her and was surprised at how warm she felt. “I don’t want to talk about it. I know how close I came. And you would have been right to stop me. You need to hear me say that.”

She nodded, and he suddenly felt so tired. Dana got on his other side and they helped him through the woods as they neared the boundary. They had come down in elevation, enough that the snow was actually gone fr