Before I could even register what was happening, I felt something hit me in the side, and then I was bent over my knees,gasping for air. I tried to glare at my cousin through my eyelashes, but the pain was too immense, and instead I found myself pushing my eyes closed and struggling to stay upright.
“See? He can’t walk,” Collum insisted.
I wanted to yell at her, to ask what she had done to make me double over. But I still couldn’t get a full breath in. Something was really wrong with my side. Collum had hit me too hard.
“Fine,” Syrus grumbled, reaching out to pull my arm.
I tried to right myself, but nearly fell over. My balance was off and my vision swam, so I shifted to the left, thinking it would result in my standing up straight.
Instead, I found my face pressed into the side of a warm body. Which warm body? I couldn’t be sure.
“What’s going on here?” The introduction of a deep voice that hadn’t been there before sent shivers down my spine, and I prayed Friar hadn’t made a false promise. “I asked what was going on here. I expect an answer.” He spoke again when no one answered his first question.
“He’s fine,” Markus spat.
My vision was still blurry, but I thought I could make out a tall frame with black hair.
“He needs to see Friar.”
I wasn’t sure what Markus and Syrus looked like at the command, but I knew if it had been me, I would have been shaking in my boots. Otho was the general for a reason.
“We were just headed there,” Syrus lied, and I swore I heard Collum snort.
“Good,” the deep voice said, but for some reason his tone didn’t match the word.
Before I could figure out anything more, I was being dragged back the way we had just come. At least this time, heading to the healer, I was marginally more aware than I had been last time I was carried there. And even though my vision was a bit blurry, I was able to count the doors that led up to the one that obscured Friar’s workroom.
They were anything but gentle as they forced me into the room, the four of us a tangle of limbs as we tried to cram ourselves in the small space.
“Oh!” Friar’s voice cut above the commotion. Other words were spoken, but it was difficult to understand them as I was jostled from person to person until I was once again lying on my back on the cot.
“There are too many of you in here. You all can wait outside.” Friar’s voice was commanding in a way that was vaguely familiar.
“I’m his cousin,” Collum insisted through the scuffling.
I was able to crack my eyelid enough to notice the way Friar appraised me, likely wondering if Collum knew my secret. I gave a dip of my chin—well, I tried to anyway.
It worked though, because at last, it was just Collum, Friar, and I in the workshop, the two of them standing side by side and leaning over me. I couldn’t help but notice the way the strings of plants almost formed a halo over their heads.
“What happened?” Friar whispered.
“I nudged her in the ribs so we could have an excuse to come here,” Collum confessed, not seeming ashamed in the slightest that she was the reason I currently couldn’t draw in a full breath. All my words escaped me; I didn’t know how to feel about that.
“Um, don’t do that again,” Friar chastised her, while helping me get into a sitting position so she could unwrap my ribs. “She’s got several broken ribs, and I just hope what you’ve done hasn’t punctured anything.”
“She’ll be fine,” Collum insisted. “She’s tough.”
I bit my lip. I was tough, but Collum’s words didn’t provide relief either. Friar’s eyes met mine, but I couldn’t read the emotion that was there and I didn’t feel like listening to the nudge of my empathy gift.
I looked away.
Friar provided me with the biting leather again, shifting my ribs back into place one more time. It was easier this time, to not focus on the pain, as I allowed my gaze to follow my cousin as she poked around the various jars that rested on shelves around the room. At one point, I was certain she slipped one into the front of the uniform coat she wore, but when I blinked, she was already moving on.
Collum wouldn’t steal . . . right?
My cousin had only been with me for two days and already I was coming to realize I didn’t really know the woman I was raised with. Not in the way that I had thought, anyway.
Friar tucked the end of my wrap into place, helping me pull my shirt back over my head.
