“Are you real?” she whispered into his hair.
Her feet hit the ground, and he pulled back, his hands resting on her cheeks. Urgency swam in his gaze as it darted over her face. He opened his mouth to speak, but words didn’t emit, and he pulled her into his chest again, hugging her flush against him.
“And I’ll come not pity you later,” Lex said from the door. She heard the click of it closing, but she didn’t turn to see Lex leave.
Aydra pulled back to see Draven’s face again. A small smile rose on his lips as he pushed her hair back.
“Hi,” he whispered.
Her breath skipped. She melted her head into his palm and inhaled deeply.
But suddenly the reality of their situation filled her head, and her heart tightened in her chest. “You shouldn’t be here,” she told him.
“Why does everyone keep telling me this when no one told me not to come?” Draven argued.
She almost laughed, the first true smile she’d felt in a month. “Would that have stopped you?”
He smiled and shook his head. “Not at all, but it would have been nice to have known what I was walking in to.”
She leaned up then and felt her body melt into his grasp. “I missed you,” she whispered.
His nose nudged hers, and his fingers wrapped into her hair. “I missed you,” he managed.
Her heart bled at having him in her arms again. She pressed her smiling lips to his, savoring the taste of him on her skin after so long.
—Her stomach turned. She let go of him at an instant and ran all the way across her room to the window, where she vomited out into the open air. A cold sweat broke on her forehead as she grabbed the stone.
“So… youaresick,” Draven said as he crossed the room towards her.
Aydra steadied herself against the wall and looked back over her shoulder to see him slowly walking her way, hands in his pockets. She swallowed hard. “Something stupid like that, yes,” she muttered, sinking her back against the cold wall. “I have vomited over nearly every inch of these halls. I feel dizzy. Sweating all over. My sister won’t stop looking at me like I’m dying.” She sighed and looked up at him, her head leaning back on her neck. “It’s all very annoying.”
He looked as though he would laugh. “Only you would define being this sick as an annoyance,” he mocked.
She huffed amusedly under her breath, and he kissed her forehead.
“What can I do?” he asked.
She shrugged, hugging her arms over her chest. “The surgeons say it is something I ate. But I’ve been like this a week. Getting worse every day. I’m not sure there’s anything you can do besides wait for it to pass.”
His weight shifted and he looked out the window. “Where is your phoenix?”
“Ah… not sure. I see her shadow once a day at least. Where she stays the rest of the time, I’m not sure.”
“Call her,” he said. “I have an idea.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
DRAVEN SENT A letter off with the phoenix without telling her who it was for. She didn’t question him. She was happy he was there, happy to have someone around her that would not treat her as though she were fragile.
For the remainder of the day, and well into the night, he held her on the floor. Nyssa brought food to her room before night fell, but Aydra could hardly keep it down. The smell of it repulsed her, and Nyssa promised to bring up actual food instead of the medicined mush the surgeons had prescribed for the morning. When she left, Draven packed the pipe, insisting it would help with the nausea, and they sat together on the floor once more.
He told her what was going on in his forest, about their inner gossips, the squabble two men had tried to settle over a woman that ended up choosing another woman instead of one of the men. He told her Nadir was waiting on her before going to the ships again, that they were scouting out things and watching their every move. They would know what they were walking into when they finally did decide to speak with them. Two more ships had arrived west of the reef, but they looked to be supply ships this time, only carrying foods and materials, not weapons.
“What about you? You didn’t tell me what happened when you got here,” he said after a while.
She stared down at their entwined hands. “I fought my brother. Took one of his eyes. Then found myself on lockdown by my own guard.”
His arms tightened around her. “But you didn’t kill him.”
