Mari somehow manages to drag you inside the hut, her arms locked tight around your waist as your legs nearly give out beneath you. It’s a blur of mud, blood and pain until she gets you down onto the cot, the one you both used to share back when nights were cold.

Mari’s breathing is uneven, chest heaving like she hasn’t taken a full breath since you went over the edge. Her hands won’t stop shaking where they hover uselessly above you as if she doesn’t know where to start.

“Don’t move,” she snaps, voice cracking halfway through. “Just- don’t be stupid and move, okay?”

Your vision blurs at the edges, pain blooming where your shoulder slammed into the jagged pit wall, essentially saving you from getting impaled and killed. The fall should’ve killed you. Everyone thought it did. After Mari had pulled the queen of hearts, everything had happened too fast to keep track: One second, she was standing in the middle of the circle, the next, you were lunging forward. You didn’t have a plan. You just knew you weren’t going to let them take her.

They only stopped their chase when you fell. You remember the sound of gasps, the momentary chaos followed by the scrambling at the pit’s edge. The hunt was called off. The wilderness had spoken, they said. The sacrifice had been rejected and it had spared its chosen.

Idiots.

Mari doesn’t believe in signs anymore. She certainly never believed in saviors. Not until you.

Fumbling at your jacket, she curses under her breath the moment she sees the gash along your side. She tears a strip from one of the blankets and presses it against your ribs with too much force. “Why did you do that?” she mutters. “You knew it was me. Why the hell would you- why wouldn’t you just let me go?”

You try to speak, but she doesn’t let you.

“You’re so fucking stupid!” Her hands still, bandage half-wrapped. “I got the card,” Her lashes are wet when she blinks. “You were supposed to be safe. You were the only thing I was still trying to protect!”