“And Rain?” he called out behind me.
“What?” I asked, whipping back around and smacking myself in the face with my unruly hair, losing any sense of the upperhand in the situation.
Sin eyed me for a moment, his stone cold eyes a contrast to my fiery ones. “Don’t ever do that again.”
I ground my teeth together at his statement. I had gotten my wish to feel Sin’s intensity, but it clearly came at a price.
Fine. If he wanted to pretend that he didn’t feel anything I could do the same.
“Not a problem,” I tossed out as I stormed off to find a healer for my shoulder.
The wound to my pride, however, would not be so easy to fix.
Chapter twenty-three
Once I emerged from the tunnel back inside the castle, I realized that I couldn’t go looking for Dey to heal me. He was with my father, and I didn’t want to explain to either of them how I ended up with a knife wound. I doubted anyone would believe me if I said I bumped into a shelf of daggers.
So I went in search of the only two people that I could trust. Thankfully, I ran into Cam right outside the castle.
“Princess!” he shouted, rushing over. He threw his arms around me for a quick hug that I suprisingly didn’t protest. “Wait, what is this?” He pulled his hand back to look at the blood coating it, and his eyes widened.
“Yeah, I was coming to find you or Ram. I was hoping you could help.”
“Of course. Come, sit,” he said, leading me over to a bench. “Unfortunately, I am not the best healer. Ram is somewhat better, but he is on the king’s guard duty today. Let me see what I can do.” He paused as he moved to look at my back. “Apologies,Princess. I am sorry, but I need access to the wound, and your… Well, your tunic is in the way.”
I looked over my shoulder, and I could have sworn I saw a blush on Cam’s dark skin. “Can’t you work around it?” I pleaded. “Dey was able to heal me with my clothes on when I almost died.”
“Dey is a much stronger healer, Princess. I would be happy to fetch him for you.” Cam took a step back toward the castle, but I grabbed his hand.
“Wait. It’s fine. I don’t want to see Dey right now.” I chewed on my options. “Can you just cut the tunic a little?”
“I can try.” He unsheathed a dagger from his belt, and I felt a gentle tug as he sliced through the fabric.
I clenched my teeth when several stuck fibers pulled free of the wound, but a soothing warmth seeped into my shoulder blade, and the pain receded almost instantaneously. I slumped forward, exhausted from holding my body tight for so long. “Thanks, Cam. You're a lifesaver.”
He held out a hand for me. “The blood still needs to be cleaned off, and I have a short break before I need to report back. If you want to come down to the cottage I can assist you.”
I took his hand and stood slowly, shifting my back around a bit to test how everything felt. No pain. No stiffness. It was like it never happened. Perfect. Now if I could just get cleaned up before anyone saw me, I might get out of this whole nightmare with a shred of dignity intact. “Sounds great. Thanks.”
We made our way into the orchard, and Cam managed to stay quiet for all of thirty seconds. “So are you going to tell me what happened?”
I sighed. “Sin happened.”
Cam stopped abruptly. “Sin hurt you?”
I briefly contemplated the safest explanation. “Not exactly. It was mostly my fault.”
“I see. Because you stabbed yourself in the back?” he asked suspiciously.
“Yeah, something like that. Can we just drop it? I need to get cleaned up, grab Sin’s sword, and get back to the arena within an hour. So I sort of need to hurry.”
Cam held the door open for me as I stepped into his cottage. Rather than the two bedroom home I had expected, the interior was all one spacious open area with four sturdy pillars in the center, and two single beds flanked by small wardrobes off to the right. There was a brick hearth on the back wall with a bulky cooking pot in front of it and smaller pots stacked messily off to the side. A table sat off to the left of the room with a few cabinets behind it along with two metal chests.
It would have been one of the cutest cabins I’d ever seen if it weren’t for the assortment of dirty clothes, boots, weapons, and books that covered every surface in the room. Definitely a bachelor pad.
Cam walked over to the cabinet by the table and pulled out a pitcher of water, a small basin, and a handful of towels.
“Over here,” he said, gesturing for me to take a seat at the table. “We do not have hot running water so this might be a little cold.” He paused. “You will need to remove your tunic.”
