Page 27 of Dawn of Hope
“On second thought,” he says as he reaches out to take a swig of his drink. “I’m not sure I can trust you. Something tells me you’re not being completely honest with me.”
I hold his gaze and fix my face into a look of indifference. “And what makes you say that?”
His lips shift into a pout, and I glance down at them beforelooking back up again. He is trying to hold back a laugh. He seems…competitive. No one besides Brynne has ever been competitive with me, and I kind of like it. It feels normal.
Real.
“Call it intuition.” His eyes twinkle as the corners of his mouth turn up.
“Or maybe it’s because you don’t even know me.”
“Maybe.” Now he fully smirks, and I’m back to feeling that he is flirting with me.
“Well, I guess you aren’t getting my help then.” I pick up my drink, leaning back in my seat and taking another swig. I swallow hard and the burn forces me to let out a hot breath.
Dane chuckles, now the one to play with his mug, twirling it around in a circle, balancing the edge on the table. I keep watching, waiting for it to spill.
He keeps his eyes focused on his drink as he speaks. “I ran into you in the healing section of the library because I’m doing research, too. Not to become a healer, but for my sister. She’s sick, and no one can figure out why. She’s already made it much longer than anyone thought, but nothing is helping. I don’t know how much longer she is going to live.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, my tone suddenly serious. I’m not trying to make light of his situation, however easy it is to play games with him. It’s clear that his sister’s illness is taking a toll on him, which is why he is working to find an answer.
We have that in common.
I wish I could tell him.
“It’s alright,” he says, finally raising his eyes to meet mine. “There’s no way you could have known.”
I lean forward and set the mug back down on the table. “Tell me what she is suffering from. Maybe I’ve run across something in my studies that might help.” He doesn’t need to know the extent of my knowledge from Edmond. Maybe there’s something simple he is missing. “How long ago did it start?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” He blows a breath through his lips as he leans back in his chair. “I think it’s been a few years now? Maybe longer since we started noticing things. She has good days and bad days, but she is younger than me, and looks so old and frail. She is weak and has trouble walking. No appetite most days, but she eats enough to stay alive. She is still as smart as ever, it’s just as if her body is failing her.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say again, feeling the need to comfort him. Even with my knowledge, I can’t pinpoint something specific based on his description, and can see why the healers are having difficulty treating her. It must be awful watching his sister deteriorate like that. “What have you tried?”
“It feels like everything. She never had a cough or any illness like that. We thought it may have been something she caught from a tradesperson coming to Blackwood from another kingdom, but it never went away and no one else ever got sick. I don’t know what more to do. I don’t want to lose my sister.”
His lips tighten into a line and a muscle in his jaw flickers. I can tell he loves her very much, and it is hard for him to think about losing her. I know the feeling.
“When was the last time she saw a healer?”
“Last month. They stop in to check on her at least once a month, but she has been unchanged. They’ve tried everything and said nothing more can be done.”
A knot forms in my throat, and I try to swallow it away. He really has no idea how similar our situations are, and it is taking everything I have not to tell him.
“There’s got to be some herbs or tonics at the castle we can try.” My voice cracks and I clear it quickly. While I know some of what he is feeling, I also wish I had someone who cares about me the way Dane cares about his sister. I never had siblings, and maybe I never would, even if my mother had lived. I can’t help but feel after reading her diary that she would have wanted more children. My life would have been completely different.
“Please, don’t worry.” He reaches forward and places his hand over mine on the table. “I don’t want you to jeopardize your chance to become a healer by trying to take something for me.”
“It will be fine,” I say, my fingers twitching under the pressure of his. No one would even question it.
“Sometimes I wish there was something that could just make her illness disappear.”
I sit up a little straighter, my mind immediately racing to Edmond’s story. Is he implying what I think he is? I nod quietly, waiting to see if I’m just imagining the reference.
Dane sits silently for a moment, his eyes glinting in the dim light. “Have you ever heard?—”
He stops suddenly and sits up straight as a server walks up to the side of our table and sets plates of steaming food in front of us.
“Here you go Dane,” she says, batting her eyelashes, her eyes never straying from his face.