I got up, intending to go check on my family, but he grabbed my skirt and stopped me.
“Raewyn?”
“Hmm?”
“Can you sense my greatest fear?”
For a long moment, I studied his guarded expression, though I didn’t really need to. I’d read Pharis’ greatest fear as soon as he’d dropped his glib facade during our ride to Waterdale.
I remembered thinking how odd it was, sinceeveryonewanted Pharis and even wondered if I’d somehow gotten it wrong. But being with him on this long ride had only reinforced my certainty.
For whatever reason, Pharis feared that no one would ever truly love him, that he’d always feel alone.
Deliberately raising my shoulders and letting them fall, I told him a little white lie. There was no need to hurt his dignity, not when he’d already suffered so much.
“It doesn’t always work,” I said. “It might be all in my own head anyway. Rest easy, Your Highness. Your secret is safe.”
Chapter18
Safe Refuge
Pharis
So Raewyn had a glamour gift.
At least, I suspected she did. The way she’d described her “sense” of people and their fears certainly sounded like one.
One more reason to keep her far from the King. My father would be all too happy to add her skill to his arsenal and use it for the worst possible reasons.
Part of me felt like I should warn her, tell her about her heritage and what that could mean. But then another part of me felt like she’d be better off not knowing.
There was a reason her parents had chosen not to tell her. I decided to ask Wyll about it when we got a moment alone—and before it was too late.
Unfortunately, he took a turn for the worse almost immediately after I got better, and there was no antidote growing in this meadow for what he had.
We’d be staying here until the end came. There was no way he could sit a horse and ride any farther—the poor man was in agony.
Each day I hunted and worked with Raewyn a bit on her knife and bow skills, but she spent most of her time at her father’s side, trying futilely to ease his pain.
There wasn’t much she could do. Eventually it became so great, he wasn’t able to keep quiet.
The piteous groans were heart-wrenching and sometimes quite loud. It killed me to hear it and see the faces of the two little girls hearing it. It upset them so much they actually avoided going into the tent, which was sad.
These were their father’s last moments on Earth. I wished they could be peaceful instead of… this.
Whenever Raewyn had no choice but to leave him for a few minutes, I sat with Wyll in the tent. Following one particularly wretched cry, he reached out and grabbed my leg.
“You have to kill me,” he pleaded.
My breath caught in my throat, my chest feeling like it was caving in.
“Wyll, I… I can’t do that,” I said.
Merciful or not, Raewyn would never be able to look at me the same if I ended her father’s life.
“It’s not the pain,” he said in a rush and then let out another groan. “I can… take it. It’s the noise.”
He took a few struggling breaths. “I’m going to give away our location. I’m… putting my daughters in danger. You have to end it.”
