She had to.
She couldn’t add hours to the day, but she needed more time.
The next morning, she slipped back into her room right before dawn and put on the act of waking up for her maids when they arrived.
When Taiyo stood in the doorway connecting their rooms, waiting for Phoebe to finish braiding Hellebore’s hair, he said, “Are you alright? Do you want to go back to bed? You look exhausted.”
She forced down the yawn rising in her throat. “I’m fine. Just a little restless. Nothing a day in the lab can’t cure.”
That night, she hovered in the doorway, waiting for Taiyo to take the sedative so she could slip out again. But as he held the vial, he held out his other hand. “Why don’t you stay, Hels? See if you sleep better here.”
“I hardly think a few feet on either side of this wall will make a difference.”
“No, but sleeping beside your husband might.” He gave her a grin. “Who is asking so very nicely because he appreciates all the work she’s doing for him.”
Arguing with him was wasting precious time. If she refused, she’d have to come up with an explanation, and it would be so much easier if he would just take it and pass out.
“Well, when I hog the blankets, I expect no whining from you about it in the morning. You’ve brought this upon yourself,” Hellebore said, stepping into the room and moving to climb into bed beside him. His mouth fell open at her acquiescence.
If he hadn’t thought she’d do it, why give her the option?
He looked over his shoulder at her as he sat on the edge, ready to drink the vial. His eyes skimmed over her as she fussed with the covers, and there was something sad in them and something longing in his voice as he said, “Yes, I have.”
Then he took the sedative and lay down, turning to face her as quickly as he could. He stared at her even as his eyes began to flutter. She was the last thing he saw before the sedative took him under.
His breathing evened out, and then Hellebore was carefully climbing out of bed and hurrying back to her room to change again and get back to her lab.
That night she watched her seventh attempt at the formula she needed to cleanse the irises of the rot fall onto the leaves, and nothing happened.
Hellebore’s eyes watered beneath her goggles and she quickly stepped away from the table so she could remove them and scrub the emotion away. She took a few deep breaths. She might be cracking, but she would not break.
She could do this. She had to do this.
She pulled her goggles back on, opened her notebook, and recorded the results. She spent the rest of the night trying to break down what it had done and where to go from there.
She barely made it back in time to change and slide back into bed beside Taiyo before he woke up.
He stirred as she laid her head on the pillow, and she steadied her breathing, blinking her eyes right as Taiyo opened his, still facing her. He stared at her for a moment and his voice was thick and raspy from sleep. “You look exhausted. Did you sleep at all?”
“Good morning to you too. Hasn’t anyone ever told you how rude it is to tell a woman she looks tired?”
“You’re not just any woman. You’re my wife. Your wellbeing is my concern.”
Hellebore made a note that she was going to have to find some way to hide her exhaustion to throw off his suspicion.
“I’m also human. You’re an elf. Sorry to break it to you, but this is what humans look like in the morning.” She quickly flung the covers off and hit him in the face with them as she shot out of bed. “And I’m not even the one dying.”
When he insisted on her sleeping in his room again that night, Hellebore went through the same routine, this time prepared, and the next morning he woke up and she received no comment from him thanks to the mineral she’d used her alchemy to turn into a cosmetic to hide the dark bags under her eyes.
But she knew this was unsustainable. She had to sleep at some point.
So that night, she came back early, her eyes drooping, and wrangled herself out of her clothes and into her nightgown and crawled back in next to Taiyo and let herself get a couple hours of sleep to tide her over for the next few days.
When she woke up, Taiyo was already awake, staring at her. “That’s not the nightgown you were wearing last night.”
Infuriating elf. Of course he would notice; he refused to take the sedative unless he was able to look at her while it took effect, and she was always the first thing he woke up to see.
“I got up in the middle of the night for some water and spilled it, so I had to change. Is that a satisfactory explanation or are you going to question why my hair isn’t in the exact same place after sleeping on it all night too?”
