“What did you see?” Her soft voice suddenly pulled him out of his thoughts as she screwed the lid back on the tin and set it in a bag of medical supplies.
As he tilted his head forward and sat up straight, Adara looped her arms around his torso, wrapping a bandage around his abdomen.
He’d been dreading that question. “Nothing important,” he muttered, intent on keeping those secrets to himself. It took everything in him to ignore how close she was, the proximity of her arms around his waist.
She looked up at him through furrowed brows, a pointed glare that told him she didn’t believe his lie. Shaking her head, she sighed. “Fine, I’ll find out why you fell to your knees screaming in agony some other way. Perhaps Ace knows a thing or two. I mean, he is your second.”
“Ace doesn’t know shit about what I’ve been through,” he grumbled. Though Dominic trusted him entirely, not even Ace had the privilege of seeing him weak. His second knew that Dominic had lost everyone he cared for and set out on ajourney to make a name for himself. Ace never pried more into Dominic’s life, which he was incredibly grateful for.
A jolt of pain shot through his abdomen as Adara wrapped the bandage over it with more pressure than needed.
“Sorry,” she murmured innocently, anything but apologetic.
“Trying to torture the answers out of me now, Rhyes?” he drawled. She drew a dagger from the sheath on her arm, sliced through the roll of dressing, and tied it off, securing it around him.
She flicked the knife between her fingertips, dragging it up the center of his bare chest. The cool metal bit into his skin—not enough to draw blood—leaving a tingling sensation in its wake. “No, but that could be arranged if you’d prefer,” she purred, raking the knife up over his scarred chest, his neck, all the way to the underside of his chin where she stopped and held his gaze on her with that dagger. “What did you see?” Adara repeated, her voice sweet and silky, but her eyes held something much more lethal.
He rolled his eyes. In the blink of an eye, her wrist was in his hand, dagger angled toward her. His iron grip threatened to snap her bones in an instant. “Such dramatics,” he drawled. “Such violence.” Dominic shoved her hand away, sending the dagger clattering to the deck, and Adara reeled back.
She caught herself with her injured arm, clamping her lips shut against a cry of pain as she reached for her fallen weapon, prepared to fight.
“Relax,” he demanded as she fisted the dagger in one hand.
She cradled her injured arm against her abdomen, muscles tense.
“I’ll tell you what I saw,” he paused, baiting her, knowing how desperately she wanted answers.
She leaned toward him, as if his secrets would be swept away with the wind if she allowed too much space between them.
“If you tell me whatexactlyyou need the Realm Fracturer for.”
Adara chewed her lip. After a moment of contemplation, she said, “I’m from Blemythia.”
“I know,” he responded, a bit irritated.
“You said you’ve never heard of it,” she continued.
He nodded. “It’s not on any maps, so it was a lie—”
“Not a lie,” she interrupted. “Iamfrom a kingdom called Ignatius on the Continent of Blemythia, but it has magically disappeared from existence. I’ve tried everything—maps, tomes. It doesn’t even exist in people’s memories, except for mine.”
A frown creased Dominic’s features. He opened his mouth to object.
She cut him off. “I’m not crazy,” she said. “It’s got to be some powerful spell to hide my home within the folds of the universe. I’ve tried portal orbs, and they won’t take me home.” Hope glinted in her eyes. “But maybe the Realm Fracturer will.”
Hope was a powerful, almost indestructible thing when it grew. But once it was broken down to nothing, it was elusive, fading away into nothingness. He needed to direct her hope towardhim.Not the Realm Fracturer, not the power his key held, not some home that suddenly disappeared.Him.That way, he could break it down into pieces, mold it into something he could use.
Dusk settled around them, the last slivers of light barely lingering along the horizon. The first glimmer of stars poked through the dark sky. A spark flickered between Dominic’s fingers as he cast out a flame to light the oil lantern set beside them. The fire danced inside the glass cage, shadows falling away as it illuminated the area around them. Adara’s gaze caught on the lantern, then came back to his face. Waiting.
Dominic took a breath, willing the images of Valen and Saige to stay in the dark depths of his mind. “I watched the ones Iloved die. Something I’m sure you’re familiar with.” A shot in the dark.
When Adara bristled, he knew he’d hit home, but he decided not to twist the blade any deeper.
“Then I saw—” he stopped short, remembering the image of her in the past, wreathed in shadows, screaming at him to run. If she had any idea that they knew one another in the past, she never let it show. So, as of now, Dominic planned to keep that little secret to himself, at least until he could figure out how their pasts fit together. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. Not if it had hurt him enough to erase his own memories.
“Saw what?” Adara urged, spinning the silver and sapphire ring around her finger. She peered at him through her lashes, listening intently.
“I saw you,” he tried again.
