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Chapter 78

My ears are flattened to my hair, listening intently; listening to the hurried footsteps thudding along behind me. To the raised and scared voices which carry through the rain and wind. To my heartbeat, throbbing so hard it hurts, almost choking me.
Not fear of my entourage. Fear of what I have to do.
Despite what I have to do now, a sigh of relief escapes me when I skid to a stop, kneeling before I've stop moving, and hitting the ground on my knees a few feet before I finally stop, resulting in more of my blood on the ground, but I ignore it. Half of me almost expected Coal to have vanished while I was gone.
I glance over my shoulder as the footsteps grow closer. Figures in the dark, in the rain, in the storm. Glass isn't alone, either. Though I can make out the hulking figures of the guards I beat up, behind his tall, lanky figure I see a see of black shapes, of waving arms and raised heads, of horns and tails and claws and glowering eyes. All of them coming at me. All of them with a single intention; Coal must not awaken.
Now or never, I guess. Oh..... I can't do it.
I grimace when I turn to look back at Coal, open wounds glistening with the rain and the blood and the refracting sunlight that streams down through the clouds around us, throwing random beams like spotlights onto the mountainside. It's going to hurt so much.
I can't do this, I can't cause a helpless, innocent (Yeah, right), unarmed person this much harm, even if it is to save their life. I raise the skin of alcohol, recalling all to clearly the stinging of a few drops in a small wound, and cringing at the thought of the pain I'm about to cause. I don't want to do this! But I have to! After all, Coal would do the same... Would he?
I frown, beginning to withdraw, wondering if maybe he would spare me the unbearable pain and let me lie for the rest of my mortal life in a coma... Nah, that would be stupid. What's five minutes of crippling pain compared to a life's worth of... Well, life. Granted, the average lifespan of a Wold-dweller isn't much to brag about it, and for all I know in five minutes something will happen that ends both our lives, and then all this will have been for nothing and... And...
"ASH! NO!" I hear Glass's voice over the rain, through the wind and stormy morning. Footsteps approaching, running with renewed vigor, pounding dully against the stoney path, bare feet slapping, metal-toes boots pinging and clinking, claws screeching and squawking... Voices floating through the downpour, low and angry, feminine and terrified, hassled and curious, voices asking for a sword, voices asking for Coal's death, voices asking for MY death...
Teeth gritted, my hands deftly flip the wine-skin over without my okay, and I watch helplessly as a river of burning alcohol pours over Coal's raw open wounds.
Oops.