Page 137 of House of Ashes
“No.”
“Pus?”
“No.”
“Good. Don’t let him get up yet. I haven’t had time to brew the blood restoration panacea number five, and he’ll be hurting until then.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I escaped the kitchens and wound my way back through the inn, where makeshift pallets had been laid down for too many patients to count.
Rhylan had listened for once, and remained precisely where I’d left him. I sank onto the stool and pressed the bandage to his lip, soaking up the blood, and delicately tapped ointment over the split.
“Now you can eat.” I dipped a spoon in the bowl, bringing it to his mouth.
“It’s quite the reversal of roles, isn’t it?” he said hoarsely. “You feeding me.”
But he didn’t take it, just stared at me with those glittering blue eyes.
I held the spoon expectantly over his mouth. “You can eat this nicely, or you can suffer me shoving it in your mouth. Your choice.”
He opened his mouth, turning his head just enough that I couldn’t easily shove the spoon in. “I let you fall.”
I sighed, returning the spoon to the bowl. “Your soup is going to get cold. You didn’t let me fall, Rhylan, Kalros ripped the whole damn saddle off your back.”
“I didn’t realize you were gone until…” He blinked, gaze going fuzzy. “I don’t remember. I thought…you were dead.”
“Luckily for me, there’s a wyvern-rider under the ward of Lunar Tides. She caught me midair.” I gazed back at him, my stomach knotting again. The prickling feeling of an approaching thunderstorm was climbing all over my skin, raising the tiny hairs on the back of my neck. “I’m not dead, but Kalros will die from those injuries. You did what you had to do. Yura made a grave mistake in coming here; she’s lost her band of exiles. We’re closer to the right of might now.”
It was a victory without any gains; Zerhaln was more rubble than not, the future Drakkon severely injured…but knowing that Yura wouldn’t have the Mistward exiles at her beck and call had made our presence here worth it.
“I thought you were dead,” he repeated insistently, grabbing my arm. I almost spilled the soup all over as he struggled to sit up, staring into my eyes. “Sera, we can’t—”
“Be quiet,” I snarled under my breath, pushing him back onto the bed. “Don’t talk about it here.”
He didn’t have the strength to resist me, falling back.
I leaned in close, putting the soup aside and speaking in a whisper. “It’s bad enough what happened, but…Gaelin gave me a warning, too. We can’t afford to let any cracks show in our façade, do you understand? Someone might already know. I didn’t do it right, when…when you were bleeding outside. I think someone suspects.” My throat tightened, already feeling the sword, the noose… “Just wait until we’re home.”
“I don’t give a damn,” Rhylan said, as quietly as I’d whispered. “I almost killed you. That’s all I care about, don’t you understand?”
I gazed at him, wishing the bond was there. That I could share a fraction of the terror I’d felt for him, because I knew now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that somewhere along the way I had come to truly care for him beyond friendship.
But if the bond hadn’t formed yet, with all that buried desire pushing against it, it never would.
It was a lost cause.
I curled my fingers through his, wary of his cut palm, and tried to smile. “And I thought I was going to watch you get torn out of the sky, and I could’ve done nothing to stop it. But we’re both still here. We’re still together.”
“Yes, but…” His gaze drifted down over my shredded clothes, the blood still crusted in the leather. “Look at you. That’s all because of me. I should’ve…”
“Should’ve what? Left me at home?” I asked acerbically. “Not a chance in all the Nine Hells, Rhylan. Where you go, I go.”
His lips twitched, but he didn’t try to smile again. Just as well, because I would’ve held that damn split lip together myself before I let him start bleeding again.
“Promise?” he asked, gripping me as tightly as he could—which was worryingly weak. I could’ve pulled my hand out of his grasp easily.
“Of course I promise, you ridiculous dragon.” I kept my voice low, all too aware of that prickling sensation, the feeling that a storm lurked over the horizon, ready to rip the skies open with lightning when I least expected it. Gods forbid that someone should hear this… “Now you promise me—to never leave without me.”
“I’ll always go where you go. I promise with everything in me—and I will never let you fall again. Never.” His head rose up from the bed, voice ferocious despite the low whisper. Flames flashed in his eyes, consuming the blue for a split-second.