Page 57 of In Darkness Forged
Aislin left her puddle of sunlight and moved closer, her teeth audibly chattering as she huddled nearer the heat.
“You’ll never dry that way,” Tal said tersely. “Human clothing has too many layers.”
Her eyes went wide.
“I swear I will not look, but you must remove enough to dry them properly.”
Aislin choked back something that almost sounded like a laugh. “All right then.”
True to his word, Tal turned his back to the fire, removing his own wet shirt as he turned, but he could still hear as she tore at the laces of her jerkin, swearing softly when they resisted her efforts. He heard when the wet fabric of her skirt hit the ground, and when she hissed in pain as she removed her bodice.
She had to be injured. It was a miracle she’d survived that initial fall, only to endure whatever the river had done to her afterwards. When she’d first rescued him, there had been blood on her face and in her hair, yet she’d not complained once.
“You can turn around,” she said after a time, her voice oddly tight. “I’m as decent as I’m going to get.”
Tal turned, slowly, and pain punched him in the chest. Aislin’s boots and leggings lay on the ground beside two different skirts and the leather jerkin. All that remained was a sleeveless white garment that reached barely below her knees and a pouch on a leather thong around her neck, so there was no longer any hiding that she was hurt.
Bruises mottled her arms, alongside the still healing wound left by the render. The water probably hadn’t done it any favors. There were scratches and dark patches on her legs, while the bruise on her face seemed to be steadily growing darker. One arm was clamped to her side as if to hold her ribs, which suggested they were at the least bruised and possibly broken.
“When were you going to tell me how bad it was?” he asked brusquely.
Aislin met his gaze, unflinching. “Probably never.”
At that,hewas the one who flinched. “Why? Did you think I would take advantage of you in some way?”
She actually laughed, only to break off with a hiss of pain. “Talyn, most of the time, you can barely stand to look at me. You think I’m weak and helpless, and you spent most of the last few days threatening to leave me behind. There is no way in all of Abreia that I would admit to you how much it hurts, because then you might really walk away.”
She stopped and drew in a shuddering breath. “And I couldn’t bear it if you left me in here.”
That awful feeling punched him again—akin to anger, and yet not quite the same. Something inside felt tight and raw as he answered.
“I will not leave you.” It was little more than a growl. And then, as if the words were being torn out by the roots, “And I was wrong.”
Aislin blinked and stared at him, lips slightly parted in surprise.
“You are far from weak or helpless. You’ve survived everything the Darkspring has done to you and saved us both from an ugly death.”
“I…” Her mouth hung open, and Tal could have sworn she was about to start crying again. Her shoulders slumped in what appeared to be intense relief, and yet her eyes were still wary.
“Thank you,” she said finally. “I was so afraid… I wasn’t sure you would come, and then once you did, I was terrified that you might leave me alone again in the dark.”
He might have, once. After losing Lani, while his heart remained coated in ice. But this stubborn human kept chiseling away at that frozen armor, and there was no going back now. No returning to that wintery solitude where nothing could hurt him again.
And itdidhurt. It hurt to see her in pain. Hurt to know that he could do nothing to ease it. Even worse was the pain of realizing that she had not believed he would come for her, because he’d given her no reason to assume otherwise.
All that pain kept battering at the fortress he’d built around his heart, at walls he dared not lower completely, and yet… He could no longer deny that he wanted to.
Tal spun around, setting his back to the fire as a sound of frustration escaped him, low and deep and wild.
“Talyn?” The uncertainty in Aislin’s voice tugged at his heart, made him want to reach out. “If you’re not upset that you had to rescue me, then… why are you so angry?”
He had no answer for that. Could say nothing as he heard her footsteps moving nearer. He was strung so tight, it felt as if a single move could unravel him.
“Are you… afraid?” Aislin whispered, and the truth echoed in his mind, reverberating through his very soul as the words tore from his lips.
“I am terrified.” He hadn’t meant to say it. Hadn’t meant for her to know. But it was as if the words poured out from that breach in the wall around his heart, and he could not seem to stop them. “When I thought I had lost you, I envisioned you lying broken and afraid in the dark, and it nearly broke me in turn.”
“Your sister,” Aislin murmured softly. “You must have been remembering how you found her. Talyn, I’m so sorry.”