Garrett's stride hitched for a fraction of a second. One stride. His right leg compensated for it, and his speed didn't drop.
Agnes's scream was involuntary. The sound of a woman watching the man she loved take an arrow at full sprint and keep running because the cargo on his back was more important than the metal in his leg.
Her scream carried across the forest and reached the pursuit team and reached the portal and reached every person within a quarter mile. Whoops.
"SHIT!" She looked down at Andrew. "I mean shoot."
Fifty yards. Twenty. The portal shimmered, widened, the mage on the other side pushing the aperture open to accommodate a wolf carrying two passengers at a speed that turned the portal entrance into a blur.
They hit the portal at full stride.
