Chapter 82
Throwing myself from my pony, I stumbled, regained my feet, and rushed forward. The crowd opened before me. Cut sat splayed on the ground with a limp Butterfly cradled in his arms. A large, headless rattlesnake lay a few feet away. With a moan, I fell before them and took her from her brother. She was dead. The creature that killed her was immense, a grandfather snake missing his rattlers and filled with venom to spare for a small woman like Butterfly.
Cut looked at me with pain-filled eyes. “It struck her in the neck. There was nothing anyone could do, Billy. Not even you. You couldn’t have saved her if you had been here. She went too quickly.”
“We’ll never know, will we?” I cried hoarsely.