Thirty
"Help! Please, someone help!" June's voice bounced off the ancient stones, returning to her ears smaller and more pathetic than when it left her lips. The ruined chamber had grown darker with each passing hour. Every breath sent a sharp pain through her left side where her ribs had struck something hard during her fall.
"I refuse to die in a pile of medieval rubble," she whispered fiercely, though the tremor in her voice betrayed her fear. "Not when I've only just—" Found him. Found us. Whatever this fragile, beautiful thing between them was becoming.
The true darkness of night had settled fully when she heard a distant voice calling her name.
"June! June!"
The sound was so unexpected that for a moment she wondered if she'd imagined it—a hallucination born of pain and fear.
"June, answer me!"
Dominic's voice, raw with desperation, echoed across the ruins above.
"Here!" she shouted, ignoring the pain that sliced through her ribs. "I'm down here! Dominic!"
Her cry dissolved into a fit of coughing as dust filled her lungs. She covered her mouth, tears springing to her eyes from the strain and the overwhelming relief that someone—that he—had found her.
"June!" His voice sounded closer now. "Keep talking! Where are you?"
"In some sort of chamber," she called back between coughs. "The floor collapsed—I fell through the battlement!"
A scraping sound came from the narrow opening she'd earlier identified as a possible doorway. Light flickered through it—torchlight, moving erratically as if its bearer was rushing.
"My darling!"
Dominic burst through the opening, torch held high, his tall frame having to duck beneath the crumbling lintel. The light illuminated his face, transformed by an emotion so raw and powerful it stole her breath—terror giving way to profound relief.
"Dominic," she whispered, tears filling her eyes.
He was across the chamber in three long strides, kneeling beside her, the torch casting wild shadows across the stone walls. His free hand reached for her face, cupping her cheek as if to reassure himself she was real.
"Are you hurt? Where are you hurt?" His eyes searched her face, her body, looking for injuries.
"My ribs," she said, gesturing to her left side. "When I fell. I'm so sorry, Dominic. I should have been more careful. I should have told someone where?—"
"Hush," he interrupted, his thumb brushing a tear from her cheek. "You're safe now. That's all that matters."
In one fluid motion, he removed his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. The garment was still warm from his body, carrying his scent—sandalwood and something uniquely him. June clutched it around herself, suddenly aware of how violently she was trembling.
"Can you stand?" he asked, his voice gentler than she'd ever heard it.
She nodded, then bit her lip as she tried to rise and pain lanced through her side. "Perhaps not."
Without another word, Dominic secured the torch in a crevice in the wall, then slipped one arm beneath her knees and the other around her shoulders. He lifted her with careful strength, cradling her against his chest as if she weighed nothing at all.
"Hold tight to me," he murmured, retrieving the torch with the same hand that supported her back.
June wound her arms around his neck, pressing her face against his shoulder as he navigated through the treacherous debris. His heart pounded beneath her ear—fast and hard, betraying the fear he'd mastered in his expression.
"I've got you," he kept saying, whether to reassure her or himself, she wasn't certain. "I've got you."
The night air struck her face as they emerged from the ruins, cold and sweet after the dust-choked chamber. Lanterns bobbed in the distance—servants searching the grounds. Dominic called out to them, his voice carrying across the darkness with commanding power.
"Here! We need help!"
The journey back to Icemere passed in a blur of pain and relief. June tried to focus on anything other than the throbbing in her side—the solid warmth of Dominic's chest, the way his arms tightened protectively whenever she winced, the determined set of his jaw as he carried her all the way back to the castle without once relinquishing her to another's care.
