Terilyn grimaced as Eimarille gently wiped at the edges of the burn on her arm with gauze soaked in a medicated tincture. She was naked from the waist up, clad only in the trousers she’d worn for her evening meetup.
“That is what I am for. I’m sorry I failed you,” Terilyn said.
“No, my darling. You didn’t fail me. You never could.”
Terilyn’s grimace smoothed out into something less fraught. She carried pain well; had learned to under the brutal hands of her teachers in the Star Order. Eimarille had never cared to see the woman she loved hurting, but she’d become an expert at tending to wounds over the years in the secrecy of the bedroom they’d shared before she married Wesley.
Here, in the palace in Amari, with staff willing to do anything to please her, Eimarille still worked beneath a set of rules the two had set down long ago. Which meant they were alone in the antechamber leading to her bedroom, curtains drawn over all the windows and a medical kit sitting open on the floor beside her.
She touched her fingertips to the unmarked skin just past the cruel redness of the burn. “We need a magician.”
Terilyn shook her head. “They’ll think you did this to me. I won’t risk your reputation.”
“Dearest—”
Eimarille was cut off by a kiss, fierce in its intensity and flavored from the acidic, clearikaliquor favored by Urovans. Terilyn had downed three shots before Eimarille had been allowed to tend to her burns.
When they broke apart, Terilyn sighed. “No. I won’t have the public speak ill of you for something you didn’t do.”
Eimarille’s gaze dropped from her lover’s face to the burns on Terilyn’s left arm. She’d shielded her face from the starfire cast in that pub, coming away with charred skin, singed hair, and ruined clothes. But she was alive, and Eimarille thanked the stars for that.
The kit had a burn tincture that Eimarille soaked a clean set of gauze in before placing it over the scorched skin. Then she carefully wrapped more gauze around Terilyn’s forearm to keep it all in place.
“You should take something for the pain,” Eimarille said quietly.
“You should tell me why you’re so angry.”
Eimarille rose to her feet from where she’d been kneeling in front of Terilyn, who wasn’t inclined to leave the chaise she sat on. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Terilyn tipped her head back and closed her eyes, the long fall of her black hair sliding over her shoulders. It put her bare breasts on display, along with the bruises she’d obtained in her pursuit of the cogs who’d worn veils. “The starfire, yes. That’s clear enough. But you were angry before I arrived home. Why?”
Eimarille rubbed at her forehead before retreating to the wet bar tucked against the far wall. It was stocked with her husband’s favorite whiskey and her own preference for oaky red wine. The bottle she’d opened when she received the coded telegram from Kote was more than half-empty. She poured herself another glass nearly to the brim and set the now empty bottle aside.
She swallowed several large gulps of wine in a way that would never be good manners, but which Terilyn had taught her was good fun on long winter nights. “I was informed by Kote that Bernard has requested a high-level meeting with his military advisors. The king apparently wishes to expand the Istal garrison into the Ashion side of the border.”
Terilyn blinked slowly at her. “That wasn’t in our plans this year.”
“Not this year, no.” Eimarille glared down into her wine before retreating back to Terilyn’s side. She sat on the chaise and leaned down to pick up the bottle ofika, handing it to her lover. “We may need to change them if Innes doesn’t hear my prayers.”
Terilyn took a swig from the bottle, her bandaged arm resting on her lap. “Our lord always hears your prayers. Will we return to New Haven or remain in Amari?”
Eimarille had expected to stay the remainder of the summer in Amari, having tea with politicians, inviting specially picked nobles around for garden parties, and taking excursions to the smaller towns in western provinces. She was meant to be seen, to bepresent, and she couldn’t do that if she returned to Daijal.
Neither could she let Bernard start a war with Ashion early when her personal army wasn’t ready yet, but there was also the matter of the girl who could cast starfire. If Eimarille was to put out those rumors and find the people who had harmed Terilyn, she couldn’t be in another country.
“We’ll stay in Amari for now. This is my city, after all.”
Terilyn listed to the side and rested her head on Eimarille’s shoulder. Eimarille wrapped her arm around the other woman’s waist, holding her close.
“It’s your country,” Terilyn said.
“And I’ll not let someone else lay claim to it.” She turned her head to press a kiss to Terilyn’s hair. “We’ll stay. I want those who harmed you found and executed, and I trust no one but you to lead that hunt. I’ll send Kote a telegram in the morning after our prayers, and you’ll let my magician tend your arm before we leave for the day.”
Terilyn raised her head to nip at Eimarille’s bottom lip with careful teeth. “If you insist, my love.”
They shared another kiss, finished their wine andika, before Eimarille carefully stripped Terilyn of the remainder of her clothes in the privacy of their bedroom. They slid beneath the light summer sheets and gravitated toward each other like they always did. Eimarille held her lover close, careful of the wound on Terilyn’s arm, and listened to her breathe.
“How will we find the girl?” Terilyn asked into the darkness.
