Rummy
My wound was absolutelytoasted. I wasn’t a healer, but I could tell when my body was resisting itself. My normal healing abilities stopped entirely. For some reason, things were only getting worse.
And this motherfucker was starting to get infected. Fast.
It didn’t help that every time I slid on or off the saddle, my scabs would be ripped open again.
Every time Xavier gave me clean bandages, I bled through them in a matter of seconds. But none of it mattered. Our options out here were limited. I couldn’t exactly stop at the nearest inn and ask for a hot bath and a few days of rest.
We had to keep moving forward. I had been burdensome enough. The last thing I wanted was to derail the entire campaign.
Matthias was clearly annoyed that we hadn’t covered more ground. I didn’t know much about him, but his frustration and anxiety today made it obvious that he wasn’t a patient guy.
I groaned as I fell back onto my bedroll. The tent was cozy—cozier than the hard ground I slept on last night, at least—blocking the absurd wind that tattered against my skin every few seconds for the last several hours.
For that, I was grateful.
Xavier and Matthias were deep in discussion near the fire. So when footsteps pounded just outside the tent’s opening, I knew exactly who they belonged to.
Jessiah ripped the flap back and ducked inside. “What did you say?”
I groaned and focused on getting comfortable once again. The pain in my abdomen morphed from a sharp, stabbing sensation to a low throb, causing my torso to go somewhat numb.
“I didn’t say anything.”
He peered back outside, his face fixed in a frown, like he was ensuring the males at the fire couldn’t hear us, then let the tent close behind him.
Suspicious, suspicious Jessiah. Some things never changed.
“Darkness becomes the chain that binds,” he murmured. “Love discovers the thread that unwinds.”
Fear lit up my senses. I’d already blocked out the memory of those damn Whispering Caves. Like I had with all the other fucked-up shit in my life, I pushed it away, shoved it into that large, overflowing box in the back of my mind, and locked it up tight.
That’s how I survived. By pretending those horrible things never happened.
But when Jessiah said those words, memories flashed, piercing my mind. “Stop.”
“That’s what you said, right?” He sat across from me, but in the confines of the small tent, his knees were nearly touching me.
“I don’t know,” I lied. “I’m tired, Jessiah. It’s been a really long fucking day.”
“You heard it, too,” he said. “Fates entwined in a web so thick, a story of magic, folly, and trick.”
I smacked my hands over my ears. “Just stop.”
The intensity in his eyes as he studied me had my hackles rising. In the low light from the fire outside, I could see how freaked out he was.
“What do you think it means? Why would they tell us both that?”
I fought back a shiver. “I have no idea, okay? And who says it was just us? Xavier and Matthias could have heard the same thing. Why don’t you ask them?”
“No.” His answer was firm. “Nobody else is going to hear about this.”
“Why not?” Grimacing, I sat up. “Matthias was clearly freaked out by whatever he heard in those damn caves the first time he went through. Maybe it was the same thing they whispered to us.”
“You have to know that’s not true,” he gritted out. “You heard what they said, Rummy. That message was for you and me, for whatever damn reason.”
My head spun. Dehydration and exhaustion and this damn wound had taken their toll. I hissed as I moved my shirt. “Pass me those bandages.”
