“To look at something.” I wasn’t sure if what I saw was worth mentioning or not. I’d barely had time to think about it before I fell.
“Don’t do that again.” His words weren’t harsh, like he was watching his tone with me. He almost appeared concerned, for once.
“I won’t,” I promised, and it was the truth. I had no interest at all climbing to my potential death again.
“How did I get here?” I asked, while attempting to look around for anything familiar.
“I carried you,” he stated, which caught me off guard.
“I figured you would have let me bleed out than carry me anywhere.” I tried to laugh, but my mouth was dry.
“I can’t let you die.” His jaw twitched from clenching.
Of course he couldn’t let me die. I was the chosen one to save his love, and I hoped he cared enough about Tor to want me alive to rescue him, too.
“Right.” He didn’t need to go into any more detail about his reasons for making sure I was still breathing. It hung in the air between us like a heavy fog. My eyes closed as the fatigue set in.
“I don’t hate you.”
My eyelids flew open immediately and settled on his unreadable expression.
“What?” I needed him to say it again. His response was comical. His eyes rolled and he smirked. It was almost like he was being playful . . . so uncharacteristic for him.
“I must be dead . . . still impaled on an onyx tomb. You just rolled your eyes. The Rune I know would do no such thing,” I teased, and he just shook his head at my ridiculousness.
“I don’t hate you, Sapphira.”
My name. He said my name.
His harsh face softened, and for a moment I didn’t feel like his enemy number one.
“You just remind me of her. It makes me on edge.” The weight of his honesty crushed my chest like he’d sat a mighty boulder on me. His remorse was visible, his breaths full of heavy burdens.
I reminded him of her. The princess.
I cleared my throat. A ball of nerves settled in my belly as I dared to ask my thoughts. “Will you tell me about her?” I wanted to know so many things about her, but he might not be comfortable talking about her to me.
“Another time.”
This interaction was unsettling, even after he was called away but promised to return to help me to my room. We hadn’t fought. Maybe becoming friends was in the realm of reality and not a fantasy after all. The longer I sat on the healer’s bed, I thought about what I had discovered, and the more I concluded I couldn’t do this on my own. I needed to know everything, and I needed help.
Rista, the wonderful and attentive healer, gave me the OK to head back to my room with instructions on how to use the salve in the tin she gave me. Rune appeared as soon as I stood from the bed. The weight on my leg ached in my thigh and shot a tinge of lightning-hot pain up my spine. The normally prickly Rune caught me as I lost my balance. His strong Fae arms scooped me up with no hesitation.
“Don’t jostle her too much, General,” Rista warned, then held the door open for us to go through. Rune carried me like a babe against his chest into the moonlit gardens. The healer’s quarters were just outside the palace. I didn’t blame her for wanting to be away from the commotion that happened within the royal stone walls. The quiet ambiance made for better healing.
“You don’t have to carry me. She said I could walk.” I peered up at his face, expecting him to dump me in the grass. But he didn’t, and I felt just as awkward as I had when he was being kind to me earlier. Unsure of where I was supposed to put my hands, I rested them against my chest. Clinging to him would have brought things between us to a different level . . . a level I wasn’t sure I wanted to cross.
He held me like I was nothing but a feather in his arms, one hand beneath my knees and the other holding my back against him. Instinctively, I breathed in his scent with every breath and found him oddly soothing. He smelled like the waterfall where we had spent time training—crisp, clean, and with a pinch of sandalwood, like he bathed in the cool waters every night.
“You smell nice,” I mumbled as the fatigue from the day overcame me. At least that was my excuse, but I felt safe, resting in his arms, the same feeling I had with Tor lying next to me every night.
I didn’t hear if he stayed silent or grunted. Exhaustion won as we passed through the palace doors.
Chapter Twenty
I managed to clean and dress myself without much trouble in the morning. Rune had brought my sleeping body to my quarters and covered me in the blanket thrown over my small bed.
My mind was too distracted by the racing thoughts of yesterday’s interaction with him to jump when the pounding on my door began. My limp was noticeable but with the salve Rista gave me, there wasn’t much pain in the movement.
