Her brow notched, and she swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Of course. What about you? Are you okay?”
My lips rolled inward as I fought the overwhelming urge to sink to the ground and cry. “I’m fine,” I squeezed out. “I just need to sleep, I think.”
She nodded and pulled back the covers for me. I slipped beside her, then stared at the ceiling until the sun came up, too afraid of what I’d see if I closed my eyes.
35
Star-Crossed
A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterward.
—THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Days passed, and the only updates I received about Lucas were from Zara. Theo had permitted her clearance to treat his wounds, and she was the only one besides himself and his guards allowed entrance to the stockade. She spent half an hour with Lucas every day, but she never had much to report.
“He doesn’t say a lot,” Zara said after the third day. “But his gunshot wound is healing well.”
A sigh of relief escaped me, and I relaxed into our shared bed. “Did you tell him what I said?”
Zara’s mouth tensed, almost as if she was trying not to smile. “He said,Tell her love isn’t an excuse to act like an idiot.”
I rolled my eyes.Thatwas his response to me saying I wouldn’t give up?
Zara perched on the bed beside me. “He’s…”
“A dick?”
“A little irreverent.”
“He wears cynicism like cologne.”
With a smile, she moved toward a pile of medical books I’d been sorting through earlier, straightening them back into a line on the bookshelf.
I watched her for a time, wallowing in the jealousy that she’d just seen and spoken to the man I loved while I wasn’t sure if I’d ever receive that privilege again.
“I’m so scared I’ll lose him,” I whispered.
She paused to look at me. “Don’t give up hope, Sophia. If he truly is anything like the man you’ve described, then the two of you together are a formidable force. You may find a way through this yet.”
I shoved the covers off my legs and stood, pacing the small space. I was so tired of hiding in this room, but every time I stepped out, I received death glares and catcalls. Theo had ordered a twenty-four-hour guard at my door, which meant even if Lucas was willing to see me, I’d be unable to sneak out.
I was no longer assigned shifts in the hospital wing. Dr. Grayson explained it was for my own safety, but really, soldiers didn’t want to be treated by hands that had willingly touched a Blood Colonel. My only respite was my friends, who continued to visit Zara’s quarters nightly. Even Isaac eased his discomfort after a few shifts guarding Lucas’s cell.
“What changed your mind?” I asked him quietly while the others chatted about something else.
“I was thinking about what he said to you the other night,” he said, attention focused on Dev. “He’s sacrificing himself for you. When you told us the story, I thought he must have duped you, but…he’s really planning to die to protect you.”
My head fell back to rest against the wall. “He loves me.”
He nodded in agreement. “It’s something I understand. Something I respect.”
I watched his profile, his gaze never straying from Dev, a desperate kind of fear in his eyes.
“It makes him human,” he murmured.
I took his hand, and we spoke nothing more of it.
A few days later,Adam escorted Zara and me to the hospital wing so Dr. Grayson could peel the glue from my back.
