A groan sounded from a few feet away, and I hurried toward it. Eve lay underneath the couch and rubble, blood dripping from her temple.
Panic lodged in my heart, and I knelt at her side, careful not to shake her. “Eve. You’re okay. Wake up.”
Her eyelids fluttered open, her lips tightening in pain. Her breath rattled as she spoke. “This sucks.”
“I’ve got a healing potion.” Meria pulled a little vial from her pocket.
“Not sure that’s going to do it.” Eve coughed, blood appearing on her lips.
No, no, no.
Didn’t that mean internal bleeding?
“It’ll be enough.” Meria sounded confident as she lifted the vial to Eve’s lips, helping her drink.
Almost immediately, her breathing improved. The wound at her head began to close.
“It might not fix you up all the way,” Meria said. “But you’ll live.”
“Thank you.” She heaved a shuddery sigh. “Now get me the hell out of here.”
We dug at the rubble, clearing off the larger rocks that kept her trapped. The sight of them made my stomach turn. They’d been falling so fast…
We were lucky we’d gotten to her in time.
Worry for Lore pierced me. Had he been injured in the rockslide?
I couldn’t think about that right now. I needed to focus on helping Eve. It was all I could control from right here, and it was important.
By the time we reached the last of the rocks, Eve was able to help us push them off of her. The pink had returned to her cheeks, and though her lips were still tight with pain, it looked like she wouldn’t be dying on us anytime soon.
Relief rushed through me.
It didn’t last long, though. This was all on me. Eve had almost died because I’d been tricked by the note.
A trap.
I shivered, shoving the thought away. “Let’s get out of here.”
Eve looked up, and I followed her gaze. The train was on its side, so we could either go through the broken windows above or the doors on either end.
“Let’s try the doors.” Meria scrambled over rocks and fallen furniture, reaching the back door, and grunting as she pulled at it. “Stuck.”
“I’ll try the other.” I hurried to it, leaving Eve to catch her breath. The rocks shifted beneath my feet as I climbed over the pile of rubble toward the door. As soon as I saw it, I knew we were screwed. The entire thing was buried in rocks. “It looks like we’re going up.”
“On it.” Meria grabbed a chair and propped it on top of some the debris, wedging the legs in with some rocks.
I helped, gathering smaller pieces of furniture to stack them into a climbable tower. Once it was big enough, I started up. The pile of rock, wood, and velvet shifted precariously as I ascended, and I slowed. The ground beneath me was littered with glass and pieces of metal, and I couldn’t afford to fall on them.
At the top, I found that the windows had shattered, leaving jagged edges on all sides. I grimaced as I tried to find a safe way to climb out. At least the air was fresh up here. The wind had carried the dust away, and I searched for any sight of the rest of the train.
Two cars in front of us had been crushed, and the rest of the train was nowhere to be seen.
Meria popped her head up next to mine. “What’s the deal?”
“I think the rest of the train wasn’t hit and it kept moving. It was probably too hard to stop it.”
“It’ll be back.” She searched the area around us. “We should get out and wait for it.”
Something thudded next to us. I jerked, turning to see an arrow protruding out of the wall of the train, just six inches from Meria’s head.
“Shit!” I ducked down. “Ambush.”
10
Sia
* * *
My heart thundered as I scrambled down the pile of furniture, following Meria to the safety of the train car. I could hear the arrows thudding into the side of the train car above us. One flew right by my head and lodged itself in a velvet settee.
When we reached the bottom, I turned to Eve. She gripped the arm of one of the chairs, supporting herself. With a grimace, she said, “So, that’s bad news.”
“They wrecked the train, and now they’re here to clean up.” Meria glowered at the windows above. “Do we have any weapons besides my bow and arrows?”
“I’ve got my sword,” I said.
“I’ve got daggers.” Eve looked around. “But we’re sitting ducks down here.”
“We need to get out and take cover in the woods,” Meria said. “But they’ve got eyes on the top of the train car, and we can’t get through the doors on the ends.”