After a moment, I look over, because I am still curious.
“What did Grey say?” I ask. “When Noah made all these demands?”
Jax grins. “He gave me a bag of silver and said, ‘Lord Jax, I commit him to your care.’ ”
CHAPTER 43
CALLYN
In what should come as a surprise to no one, Alek is a miserable patient.
Especially since he keeps refusing to allowmagicto heal him.
“No magic,” he said in Briarlock, when the field surgeon was cleaning the gouges and puncture wounds he must have been ignoring forhours. “No magic,” he murmured to the queen, when they were stitching him closed, and the surgeon finally shoved a rag of sleeping ether over his face. “No magic,” he said to me when he woke.
“No magic,” he grunted when we rode in a carriage back to the Crystal Palace. I’m sure every bump made his wounds ache.
“I know,” I said soothingly, using the same voice I used on Nora when she had a fever last winter. “No more magic. Never again.”
But of course I used magic. I saw how filthy his wounds were when they cut away his tunic. I saw how pale his skin was. His dark trousers were soaked with blood. I couldn’t believe how long he was standing upright. The damn fool is lucky to be alive.
I keep waiting for him to tell me he needs to return to his House, because I’m certain he has things todo, but he hasn’t left the palace.
And I . . . haven’t really left his side.
He’s different now. He still has an edge, but it’s not the same as it was before. It’s little flares of vulnerability that I don’t expect, like when Nora comes to see me, and he tells her a rather charming story about his childhood. It’s the tenor of his voice when he speaks to the servants. It’s the way he apologized to Verin for any suspicion, and it carried a genuine note that seemed to lighten the tension between them.
It’s the way he speaks tome. No challenges. No jabs. No belligerence.
It’s not quite softness, but I don’t think I’d want softness. It’s . . . it’s ease. Comfort.
Then again, maybe he’s just in a lot of pain.
After a week in the palace, he’s well enough to walk in the gardens, though he complains about it the whole time.
“It’s entirely too hot,” he whines. “Surely we could have done this at daybreak, Callyn.”
“There, there,” I say, patting his hand. “I’ll get you back for your nap soon.”
He almost scowls— but then he laughs.
And then, without warning, he pulls me close and kisses me.
The sudden motion steals my breath, because I didn’t see it coming. For all the time we’ve spent together since our moments together in Briarlock, he hasn’t kissed me here in the palace, and my knees go a bit wobbly. I clutch at him.
Alek makes a small sound. At first I think it’s passion— but then I realize it might be pain.
“Oh!” I say, letting him go at once. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“You’re worth it,” he says— very soft, very simple.
My knees almost go weakagain. “I might actually miss you when you have to go home,” I say.
His eyes widen a bit, and his tone turns serious. “I think you’ll haveme around for a while,” he says. “That was quite a large army the Truthbringers amassed— and they know I turned against them in the end. Verin may have captured most of them, but likely notall.”
That’s sobering. “You think someone would come after you?” I say.
He nods. “I expect it, Callyn. We survived, but while the king is on the throne, this isn’tover.”
