As if I was worth all the smiles.
He didn’t know it yet, but I wasn’t worth a single damn one.
“I quite enjoy living, actually, and you should, too. Which is why I implore you to slide away from the roof.”
“Don’t worry,” I replied, legs swinging. “If I fall, a big, strong angel with massive white wings will come to my rescue.”
“Oh, he will?” Jessiah teased. He stepped closer, though he kept his distance from the edge.
“Mmhm,” I teased, dropping my head back to look at him. “I don’t think he’d let anything bad ever happen to me.”
We were just messing around, but the truth in that statement was impossible to ignore.
I froze, hoping Jessiah hadn’t noticed it, too.
“No,” Jessiah said softly. He took the final few steps to the edge of the roof and kneeled beside me. “I don’t think he would.”
It was still dark when I blinked my eyes open.
The fire dwindled to low, glowing embers.
Matthias was fast asleep on the far side of it, Xavier next to him.
Jessiah? He sat close, his legs pulled up to his chest and his arms resting on top of them, his focus fixed on the dying fire. With any luck, he hadn’t noticed that I was awake.
“You were dreaming,” he said.
Well, there went my hope for peace.
“What?” My throat burned. I was now covered in two thick blankets, and a pack had been placed under my head.
Jessiah passed me a canteen of water without looking me in the eye. “You were dreaming. You talk in your sleep, you know.”
“I do not.” I propped myself up on one elbow and drank from the canteen. As the liquid passed over my dry throat, I suppressed the moan of relief. “And spying on people isn’t nice.”
He didn’t laugh. “Xavier said you’ll be fine to travel in the morning, but we need to take it easy.
Head flopped back, I groaned. “I cannot believe this happened to me. Actually, I can believe it, because the entire world is against me.”
It must’ve been the pain and the restless, delusional sleep. That was the only way to explain how easily the honest truth slipped out.
Though I didn’t dare look at him, I could feel his attention fixed on me. “The world isn’t against you, Rummy, you just have shit luck sometimes.”
“You saw that animal. It came out of nowhere and barreled directly at me. That’s not normal, is it?”
A silent moment passed, then, “These woods are dangerous. We knew that going into this trip.”
“Yeah, because of vampyres and criminals and other travelers we may stumble upon. Not harmless animals.” I let my head fall back onto the pack beneath me as I listened to the embers crackle.
He let out a long breath. “Try to get some more sleep,” he eventually said. “It’ll be morning soon enough.”
“You’re not sleeping?”
It was then that I noticed his massive, silver sword lying next to him on the ground, unsheathed. “Not if animals like that are still out there.”
Before I could argue, tell him that staying up all night with no sleep was a stupid idea, exhaustion crept over me again.
And when sleep came, I didn’t fight it.
