Lore spun to face me, gripping my shoulders, only releasing the injured one when I winced. “Wildfire, did it hit you?” His sweet breath blazed hot in my face. “Answer me,” he snarled. “Did it hit you?”
“Only scratches. I’m alright.”
“Wait here,” he hissed, releasing me and moving down the hall as fast as the storm he’d used to eliminate the threat. He took the corner but returned to my side in an instant. “Acting alone. No one else.”
My body sagged, and I would’ve fallen if he hadn’t grabbed me. He gently pried my blades from my hands and slipped each into the sheath at my side. Then he swept me into his arms and dropped to the floor, holding me while I shook with spent reaction.
“Who was it?” I croaked.
He shrugged and cupped my face, tilting it to examine the cut, his lips thinning at the shard still sticking out of my cheek. With more care than I’d expect from this snarly man, he delicately plucked it out and tossed it aside. He laid his thumb over the wound. Before I could protest, light flared, and a subtle burning seared across my skin.
When he lifted his thumb, he nodded. “You’ll bear a small scar. I can’t do anything about that.”
I grunted. “I don’t care about scars.” My gaze sought his. Who had hurt him badly enough to leave such horrifying mars onhisskin? “Did you heal each one on your body yourself?”
He jerked out a nod. “Where else are you hurt?” His gaze scanned my frame, locking on the wound on my forearm. It also received his attention, and the burning pain faded.
“You can heal.”
“Superficial wounds. I wish I could do more, but that’s not my skill.” He carefully peeled the fabric away from my shoulder and scowled at the wound.
“I don’t think it’s deep,” I said. “It only grazed me.”
He ran his thumb across the slice and sealed it as well, making the sting drop down at least three notches right away. His scowled deepened, twisting the long-healed slice on his face. Some might find it gruesome, but all I could see was the physical manifestation of his past pain. A sharp pang twisted in my chest, shooting cold tendrils through my limbs as if his pain was now mine to bear.
“They hurt you,” he said.
“And you hurt them back. Your shadow helped me.”
“I saw that.” His lips curled up on one side while his eyes remained sharper than the dagger his shadow had defeated. “Well done.”
“Why didn’t it respond in the tower?”
“I didn’t let it.”
“Why not?”
He cocked his head as if he was listening before his gaze met mine again. “Very little is truly mine.”
“It was for practice. I wasn’t going to keep it.”
“You didn't wait for me to escort you to your suite.” He climbed to his feet with me still in his arms and lowered me to my boots beside him, his arm sweeping around my lower back to hold me upright. His glare would’ve cut holes in the stone wall. “I promised Surren I'd protect you. And youfled. Me. You fled from me.”
I couldn’t have stayed with him one moment longer. Whatever I'd found with the snarly version of Lore blazed across my soul before backing off to a low simmer. A gentle, thoughtful Lore? My heart would not be able to resist the devastation.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
He took my hand and hurried me through the halls and down the stairs to my level, not speaking to me. Not looking at me. I peppered him with questions that only made his glare sharpen.
When we reached the guards standing at attention outside my suite, he thrust open the door to my sitting area.
Surren sputtered but wisely said nothing. The others looked away as if Lore storming around was an everyday occurrence.
After nudging me inside, Lore closed the door in my face.
42
REYLA
