Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(47)

“A cave?” she asked hesitantly. “Is that… safe?”

“As safe as we can manage right now,” I said. “Anyhow, I don’t really want to talk about that. I need to talk to you about Nathan and what you’ve found out, but not right at this moment. We have something we need to go over first. Can I call you in…” I glanced at Nelson and sent her a silent question, and she shrugged. “An hour?”

It seemed like enough time to get my leg doctored, get the timeline taped together, and figure out our next moves. The timeline wasn’t that big.

Gabby confirmed that she’d be awake and waiting, and I hung up, feeling a bit better for having talked to her. I hadn’t met her until I’d joined OH+, but she was also the closest thing I had to a little sister, and I was beyond relieved that she was still out of harm’s way. I didn’t know what I’d do if she was with us. Didn’t know what I’d do if I ever had to see her hurt.

At that moment, Jace strolled back into the cave, another of those bowls in his hand, and dropped down to his haunches next to me.

“Alrighty,” he said firmly.

I glanced down at the offending limb, hating that I had to go through whatever it was he was about to do to me, but knowing that I couldn’t afford to ignore it any longer.

It had been slowing me down toward the end of our trek up into the valley. I hadn’t been running as quickly as I should have, and I’d been fading fast. If it came to running again tomorrow, I might be in trouble. I might get my team in trouble.

I wasn’t willing to do that. I wasn’t that stubborn or selfish.

So I nodded at him reluctantly. Whatever he had, I was willing to consider it.

Then he reached into the other leaf packet and pulled out what looked like… an enormous slug.

If I could have backed up more than a few feet, I would have. I hated bugs. Hated them. And snails and slugs were worse. They were slimy.

“What the hell do you think you’re going to do with that?” I asked, cringing. “How is a slug going to help anything?”

“To start with, it’s not a slug. It’s a leech. And I have seven more of them. I was lucky to find so many, honestly. I thought I’d find one in the marsh around the edges of the pond, maybe two if I was lucky. But eight? Unheard of.”

“And remind us all why finding eight leeches is so lucky?” Nelson asked, sounding as if she was on the verge of throwing up.

I nodded, feeling similarly myself. I’d been willing to consider his fix, but that willingness was draining away rapidly. I definitely hadn’t thought it would include slugs.

Jace moved toward me and gestured to my leg, and I shrank away from him and the blob he was holding.

“Leeches are bloodsuckers,” he said, as if that explained everything.

“You’re not making me like them any better,” I said bluntly. “What does that have to do with anything?”

He smiled suddenly. “The problem with your leg is the swelling. It’s coming from the blood pooling up against your muscles outside your veins. As I said, we’ve got to get that swelling down so your body can heal itself, and we need to do it tonight, while we’re safe. Tomorrow we’re going to be running again, and I need you to be able to keep up. The best way to fix it is to drain the free blood that’s floating around.”

“Oh, boy,” I said, starting to get an idea of exactly what he was going to do. “And to drain the blood…”

He held up the little creature in his hand and wiggled it slightly. “Exactly. The leeches.”

I turned and heaved up the Nurmeal I’d drunk at my cabin. I couldn’t help it. The thought of having those things attached to me, sucking my blood…

Then I felt something cold and slimy on my leg, and I whirled back around. Jace had already put one of them on me—right on my knee. It had… attached, or whatever they did, and was now sort of pulsating. I decided immediately that I couldn’t look at it or I would be sick again.

“And this will help?” I asked, staring at the opposite wall. “This will get rid of the swelling and make it feel better? Make me able to run as fast as I normally run?”

“It should do all of the above,” Jace said, moving back toward the leaf with the leeches in it.

I looked down to meet his eyes. “Promise?”

He gave me a nod. “Promise. And you know I don’t say that lightly.”

I nodded back, his answer good enough for me, and looked up at the ceiling. “Then let’s get this done. How long does it have to last?”

“Until they’re full and the swelling in your leg is down. After that, I promise you can call me every bad name you can think of for putting you through this.”

I bit down on my lower lip, tried not to think about tiny fangs sinking into my skin, and started making a list of the names I’d call him as soon as I was free of the slimy bloodsuckers.





19





I limped to the mouth of the cave to stand near the fire, enjoying the thought that I no longer had slimy little beasties sucking my blood, and comforted myself with the idea that no one would be able to accuse me of slowing them down from here on out.

Jace, as promised, had let the leeches stay on my leg until they fell off, one by one—it ended up taking about twenty minutes—and I’d looked down at the end to find that the swelling had indeed reduced. A gentle fingertip on the bruise proved that it still hurt, but the pain was manageable. The swelling had been the bigger problem, and it was gone now.