Chapter 20Arik
Arik choked on the stream of words that tried to tumble out of him. He gripped Blaze’s body hard enough to snap a weaker man’s spine, and hugged Blaze to his chest. The floor beneath them was slick with blood, and every time Arik shifted, his ass slipped over the mess in an odd, disconnected slide—like neither of them were really quite bonded to the ground. “You’re alive,” Arik whispered, and then, in a sudden moment of panic, “You are alive, right? Tell me you’re alive.”
“I’m…” Blaze paused, tried to move his legs beneath him, and groaned a note of pain. “I hurt. Everywhere.” He grimaced another smile. “What…happened?”
Arik lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t remember?”
“Some,” Blaze admitted. “I ran. To you. There was screaming…”
The water felt good on Arik’s face; refreshi
