Bart lifted one side of the blanket.
"I've got it," snapped Nikolai, taking over and wrapping her bruised and burned body gently. It covered her like a butterfly in a cocoon.
"Do you want me to saddle the black for you?" asked Bart, waving a hand to the stall.
"No. I'll travel faster on foot."
Nikolai needn't worry about her equilibrium now. She was already unconscious, and her pulse had slowed to the point his anxiety had taken root, burrowing into the dark places within him. His only hope was to get to Hiddleston and acquire a ship to take them across the Cimarron Sea to Cutters Cove. There he'd find Marius, and with his potent Varis blood Marius could make her vampire, instantly healing her. If he could only get her there in time.
"Is there anything else I can do?" asked Bart, wringing his beefy hands.
"Send word to Duke Friedrich of Winter Hill. He will send a man for the horses." He cradled her close, the smell of burnt hair filling his nostrils where a tendril had caught fire and singed all the way up to her scalp. "And one more thing." Nikolai pierced him with a lethal look. "If there is anyone in this godforsaken town who is willing to fight for the Black Lily and not cower behind the aristocracy as slaves, then send them to the Bull's Head in Hiddleston. But not one man or woman who stood in that square and watched her burn is welcome near us. I can promise you I'll kill them on the spot if I should see one of them again."
"Aye," he said with a definite nod, twining his hands in his apron again. "I know quite a few who are as sick of the corruption under Lord Barker's rule of this town."
Nikolai stopped midstep and turned. "You won't have to worry about Lord Barker anymore. Or his lackeys."
"No?"
Nikolai continued walking from the stables and called over his shoulder, "I killed them all."
…
The road back was mostly clear and deserted, as if the world had stopped moving when his beloved was tied to a stake and set on fire. He dodged off the road when he sensed by smell or sound a traveler or carriage in the distance, weaving into and out of the woods with ease, never slowing his frantic pace.
He thanked the stableman in his mind when the wind cut harshly against his cheeks and nose, knowing the pain of his force of speed against the winter wind would be tearing her skin apart. The snow dissipated the farther south he traveled, the landscape covered in yellow and brown foliage before the snows would find their way here.
He stopped for a moment by a gurgling stream, setting Sienna down safely by a fallen log. He quenched his thirst with water when there was nothing else to revive his energy. He wouldn't dare take a drop from her. After splashing his sweaty brow, he jerked his head at a sound from Sienna. In a flash, he had her in his arms again, her head lying upon his lap.
"Sienna? Sweetheart, did you say something?"
Her pulse had slowed further from when they'd left Dale's Peak, every unsteady beat stabbing him again and again because he'd not gotten to her sooner. The burns had not entirely covered her body but they'd done their work. She teetered on the edge of death, and he knew it.
"Sienna?" He gently brushed the hair away from her forehead and pressed a soft kiss to the porcelain, unmarred skin there.
"Nikolai." A faint whisper.
"Yes, my darling. I'm here."
Her glassy green eyes pooled with tears. "You came."
"Of course I did. I am"-he faltered, words choking in his throat-"I am sorry I was not sooner."
"You came. That is"-she dragged in a broken breath-"all that matters."
"Hold on, Sienna. We're almost to Hiddleston. I'll find us a ship there and we'll make it to Cutters Cove. Marius will-"
"No, my love." Her words were a breathy whisper, cutting him to the marrow. "I will not make it across the sea. I'll be gone soon."
"No. You will not be gone. I forbid it." He pulled her entirely in his lap, his face only inches from her. "Do you hear me, Sienna? You will not leave me in this damned world alone. Just hold on."
She smiled faintly and blinked her eyes closed. "I want to touch your face."
He unwound the blanket enough so that her slender arm was free. Still, she was too weak even to lift it. He cupped her hand in his and swept a kiss upon her palm before pressing it to his cheek.
"There," she said. "Now I am happy."
Her mind seemed to be floating away already. "Sienna. Just stay with me. I know we can get there."