“Oh, I wouldn’t call it sleeping.”
I pressed fingers to the center of my head, pushing there against smooth skin, confused and still suffering from a dull, persistent ache at the front of my skull. “What would you call it?”
“It’s called the svefn,” she explained without explaining anything, really.
“The svefn?”
“Yes, it’s like”—she angled her head thoughtfully—“a deep healing slumber. Dragons have been doing it for centuries. When the body, or even the mind, is so broken, we fall into a deep healing rest. Almost like a state of hibernation. Little food or drink is even needed, but if consumed, it can certainly help aid in recovery. It’s a way to mend, but it takes time.”
Time.I felt a trickle of unease. “How long was I lost to this … svefn?”
“Hmm. A little over six weeks.”
I gasped. Six weeks? “And Vetr … stayed with me that wholetime?” Unbelievable. Why would he do that? Why would he devote so much of his time to my recovery?
She motioned to another bed of furs. “He spent every night since he brought you home right there.”
I propped myself up on an elbow to better observe the bed and a small side table, which seemed to hold an assortment of personal effects. A comb. Hair ties. A mug. A book. A folded-up map. Parchment and quill. All items that presumably belonged to Vetr. The effort to prop myself up brought a wave of dizziness, and I made a small sound of distress.
“Careful now.” Brenna pushed me back down. “It’s going to be a while before you’re up and running about as before. The effects of svefn can’t just be shaken off in an instant. And that rib will certainly slow you down.”
I fell back on the pillow. “I don’t understand any of this.”
“What confuses you?” She studied me with a growing smile, twin dimples denting her dark cheeks. “How svefn works? Or Vetr … staying so devotedly by your side?”
My face burned, and I dropped an arm over my eyes. “N-no. He’s the alpha. Of course he would feel responsible for me. He would do anything for anyone he took on a rekon who was so injured.”
My words rang hollow. Such a degree of concern from him felt strange. Yes, he brought me back to the pride, to Brenna, as he promised. Duty done. It could have ended there, though. It should have.
My gaze slid to where he had been sleeping all these weeks, bewildered at the thought of him being inches from me as I was lost and senseless, fighting for my life in the throes of svefn.
I changed the subject. “What did I miss?”
“Oh, well, let’s catch you up.”
At that moment, Vetr entered the infirmary. He stopped hard when he saw I was awake. My breath caught at the sight of him. My gaze shot to his claimed bed and back to him again, an involuntary move.
He resumed walking, his strides quickening, carrying him toward me. His frost eyes swept over me in the bed, alert as a hawkzooming in on the field mouse, missing nothing. He glanced at Brenna accusingly. “Why did you not send for me when she woke?”
“I’ve only been awake a few minutes,” I said before Brenna could explain.
He sank down beside me on the bed as though it was a familiar and natural spot for him to be, and I was filled with the image of him sitting beside me as I slept, dripping drink and broth past my parted lips.
He lifted the cup and brought it to my mouth without even asking if I would like a sip. “Drink,” he commanded.
Having little choice, I obliged.
He pressed the back of his hand to my forehead. “Your color is much improved.”
“I wouldn’t know. Apparently, I have not seen myself for six weeks.” He nodded. “When I first brought you here, you were …”
“We thought you would not survive,” Brenna inserted.
He frowned at her, and I recalled him insisting that I would live.
Another memory flickered through me like a torch in the night.Tamsyn. Come to me. I need you.
My face burned to think such oddly intimate words had come from him. It was as difficult to comprehend as the image of him nursing me through these many weeks.
