“No…” I squirmed, not wanting anymore pain. “Ariadne, no…!”
My eyes flicked open and through my panting breaths, I saw someone else bent over me.
Fern looked too pale. Flames flickered behind me, but I couldn’t feel their warmth. Just her fingers. As gentle as they were, the pain had my teeth grinding together. Right as a scream built in my chest, a blessed numbness spread.
“I made a salve.” Her words came out in a messy tumble, as if she was scared I’d interrupt. “A herbalist showed me how. After spending so much time in the fields, sketching plants, she decided I should know what they could be used for. Thought I was some local village girl. I’ve never had to actually make it, but I think it will help.”
Her fingers dabbed carefully at my wound, but there was no need. The arm had gone completely numb, which meant I could now look down at it. The skin was pocked by red weeping holes left by dragon breath.
I’m sorry, brother. Argent shuffled closer.You moved too fast, and I was trying to get us out of the cave.
You aren’t to blame, I assured him, frowning as I stared at Fern
“I’m fine,” I said, then tried to push the blankets away, but just like in my dream, I was as weak as a kitten. That had my teeth locking tight. “I don’t need your help.”
“But I need to do something.” When she sat back on her heels, I couldn’t help but follow the movement. “This is all my fault.”
Yes, that, I wanted to grab this show of vulnerability and grind it back into her face until Fern was forced to pull away.
So why didn’t I?
I saw visions all the time, but I don’t think that’s what this was. A wounded look, the way she would draw back as if stung. I saw shadows of my child self in that, and it turns out I really wasn’t a true born son of the house of Corven. There was nothing in me that would take pleasure in another’s pain.
“My arm is fine,” I said in a curt tone. “I don’t feel anything other than being too hot.”
“But you must stay warm.” She pulled my bedding higher, which drew a hiss of frustration from me. “I know it seems counterintuitive, but with the amount you are sweating, you could catch a chill.”
“Gods, woman…”
My growl was usually enough to have every bastard backing away, but Fern didn’t have the sense the gods gave a cat. She was wringing out a cloth over a bowl of water, then moving behind me. My protests died in my throat as she grasped my head firmly, then placed it in her lap. Before I could pull away, the cool cloth wiped all the sweat and grime away. For a moment, all I could do was stare up at the night sky in incomprehension. Pity, I realised, that’s what this had to be, because no one touched me willingly, and that had my head jerking upwards.
“I don’t need?—!”
“I need to make you feel better.” Her small voice silenced me. “Please.”
I’d spent far too long trying to understand my brothers. Watching people interact, searching for the patterns that would explain that persistent need for cruelty. It didn’t make sense then,and it didn’t now. That soft look in her eyes, the way she pleaded. Gods help me, but my head dropped back into her lap.
How the hell did men bear to be touched by a woman? I thought as my eyes fell closed. Fellows at the tavern talked long and hard about their sexual exploits, but they never described anything like this. It felt like every nerve ending came alive, except for my arm. I needed her salve slathered all over me, to dull them all, lest I get lost in the gentle rills of pleasure that washed through me.
Rest, brother.
Argent’s command had my eyes falling closed. I didn’t want them to. The lids fluttered, trying to stare up at Fern, but my dragon saved me from the shame of begging the girl to keep stroking my hair.
Just.
Like.
That…
You know when the sun is just the right temperature? Warm enough to have you feeling perfectly comfortable, but not so hot as to burn. It felt like I bathed in a cloud of lazy golden light. My breath escaped me in a languorous hiss.
But I wasn’t alone.
Her hands smoothed down my cheeks, her thumbs brushing the tops of my cheekbones before pulling back to rake through my hair. That was enough to have my heart racing.Open your eyes, I thought furiously.Open them and see who…
This had to be a dream, I realised, just not a true one. Why else would Fern be dressed in a pretty blue dress rather than her uniform? She smiled down at me, reaching up to stroke another hand through my hair as hers hung loose around her shoulders. I couldn’t stop staring as it swayed with her every movement, until finally they fell still.
“Don’t stop.” My tone was too harsh, my words too desperate. “Please…”
