Nameless (Nameless #1)(78)

“How is he?” Gryphon asked.

Eva’s brows knit together and she pinched her lips. Gabe held up one of the sweeping boughs of the fir tree for Gryphon to climb under.

Gryphon shed his weapons and pack as fast as he could, then dove under the prickly branches.





What began as gentle warmth around Joshua’s wound turned into electric heat. Zo lost all sense of gravity and space. Her body swayed into something solid. The tree? It didn’t matter.

“Are you all right?” said a clouded, masculine voice that sounded like a dream.

Zo continued the blessing. The words consumed her every thought. She hardly heard the men arguing about something in the background. Her skin was numb to the large hands on her shoulders, even though she was pretty sure they supported a good portion of her weight.

Heat rose up from Joshua’s wound into Zo’s forearms and gathered in her elbows.

Someone shouted something Zo couldn’t comprehend. Tess cried out and her hands fells away.

The heat reached Zo’s shoulders.

Someone tried to pull her away. But Zo would not be moved. Joshua needed her. And she would not fail him like she’d failed her parents.

Just as the heat filled her chest a large force knocked her to the ground. She raked her arms and chest as a searing pain boiled throughout her body.





Chapter 41





A single drop of rain rolled down Zo’s forehead and into her eye. She blinked awake from a deep sleep she wasn’t quite ready to part from and yawned. Rolling onto her other side, she nuzzled into the warmth beside her. A heavy arm draped around her shoulder in welcome.

Zo froze as memory caught up with consciousness. “Joshua!” She pushed off from the ground beside Gryphon, wondering vaguely how she’d gotten there.

Gryphon pulled her back to him and clamped his hand over her mouth. Outside, the sky was overcast and the sun seemed prepared to relinquish its hold on the day.

She looked around, surprised to find everyone but Gabe sleeping near the trunk of the enormous spruce. The lowest branches brushed the ground, making it impossible to see outside of their little haven. Thunder rolled in the late afternoon sky. Crunching feet and calls of men’s voices carried in the distance.

The Ram. Searching for them.

Zo nodded her understanding and peeled Gryphon’s warm fingers away from her mouth. Joshua rested peacefully along Gryphon’s other side. Zo ran her fingers over the cut along his exposed stomach. By some miracle, the wound had sealed into a pink, branded line of flesh.

Impossible.

She went to take Joshua’s pulse but froze at the sight of her hands.

Heavy black mounds callused her fingertips and knuckles. Angry red boils dotted the pads of her palms and the backs of her hands. The slightest movement tugged uncomfortably at the traumatized skin.

Gryphon frowned and with two careful fingers, took her by the wrist and kissed her open hands one by one. “I don’t know how you saved him, but I can never thank you enough.”

A warm blush crept into Zo’s cheeks, which was completely ridiculous considering the imminent danger surrounding them. “I love him, too.” She looked up into Gryphon’s eyes, but was too self-conscious to hold his gaze. There was absolutely nothing casual about the way he studied her. She couldn’t decide if it was terrifying or wonderful. Perhaps it was both.

“Where is Gabe?”

Gryphon cleared his throat and carefully set her hand back into her lap. “He’s scouting the area for the group of Nameless who escaped the wall. We need to know where they are and whether or not the Ram will pursue them or keep to their plans to attack the Raven.”

Zo squirmed under the idea of Gabe running through a Ram-infested forest, but if anyone could do it … “What is our plan?”

“We need to warn the Raven.”

Zo nodded. “What about the Nameless? Do you think the Ram will go after them?” Stone had given her responsibility for them, somehow.

Gryphon shrugged then picked up a pinecone. “Even if they don’t, the Nameless won’t survive outside the Gate without the protection of a clan. We can’t take them to the Raven, and many of the Kodiak have migrated south.”

Zo nodded. “What about the Allies? They would take the Nameless under their protection without question.”

Gryphon crumpled the pinecone in his hand and let the wood litter the earth. Lines of worry etched his brow, his lips turned down in firm concentration.

“You don’t want to travel to the Allies, do you?” Zo leaned forward. She reached out to touch him, persuade him, but even the slightest brush of her hand sent a shock of pain up her wrist and into her arm.

Gryphon rubbed his hands together to remove the debris from the pinecone. “I would not be welcome.” He raised a hand to silence Zo’s rebuttal. “And I don’t think I could live with myself if I joined the Allies—my people’s greatest enemy.”

“How can you still think of the Ram that way? After everything they’ve done.” Zo gestured to Joshua, like Gryphon needed the reminder. “We’re your family now, Gryphon. You can’t just wander the wilderness alone.”

Gryphon opened his mouth to speak, his eyes round. But no words came.

As if out of nowhere, Gabe slipped under the bough. He looked between Gryphon and Zo and frowned.