Releasing a breath, I sought constraint, calm. “No, it does not hurt.” My words came out thicker than I intended, and I swallowed.
A grin curled up Evera’s lips, and she hooked one of her hands at the band of my pants. Rising to her toes, she spoke against my lips. “I can feel your emotions too, Neirin.”
“That is valuable insight.” I swallowed the knot in my throat.
Evera stifled a laugh.
I raised a brow and huffed at her reaction, though in truth I was grateful for the lightness it brought.
“Temptress,” I teased.
She shrugged, not denying it, and turned her attention back to my bandages.
Once they were removed, she addressed the wound with a look of puzzlement, trailing her index finger just above the slash. Though the skin remained swollen, the bruising had dissipated overnight, and the familiar discomfort that came with healing told me that if the thread was not removed soon, it would become embedded.
“When I was a boy, I cut open my leg climbing in the apple trees,” I explained. “The castle surgeon stitched the gash, and when I returned five days later to have it evaluated, he had to recut the wound to remove the threads.”
Shaking her head, Evera nodded to the bed. “Lie down,” she instructed and went to the nightstand to retrieve her dagger.
I lay back with my legs hanging over the side of the bed.
“Do not fidget.” Evera crawled atop the bed and sat next to me on her knees.
Placing my hands beneath my head, I grinned up at her. “I’ll be good,” I promised, voice husky.
Scoffing, Evera took the tip of the blade and caught the end of the thread. Though the pressure was uncomfortable and the swollen skin still tender, I held still as she discarded the blade on the quilts and turned her attention back to the threads.
“Evera,” I spoke her name to draw her eyes to mine, then pointedly tilted my head, gesturing.
When her glance turned to the unsheathed blade, she huffed through her nose. “You are insufferable.”
“Might I remind you that you cut me with that very—” A flash of hot concentrated pain made me snarl as Evera tugged at the thread. I narrowed my eyes but held my tongue, and the corners of her lips turned up in amused satisfaction.
Humming, she looked up at me once through her lashes before setting back to her task, gentler this time as she worked the remaining threads, cutting sections as needed to make the removal easier.
As her fingers moved with nimble confidence, I found myself enthralled by her. Not just by her beauty—though that, in my eyes, was unmatched—but by her resilience and bravery. Not only had she saved my life, she’d known how to handle Calix with only the barest of information about his condition. She’d aided me without knowledge of the components that had led to Cyan’s death, and did not question me until we lay in bed, until all was cared for. The words held in my throat, certain as I was that they would not be enough, would not express my feelings to their fullness.
Whatever lay ahead, I could not resent fate for the time it allowed me with her. These would be the moments I thought back to when death came for me. Whether that be in a fortnight or less, or, should life be kind to me, in old age.
I would cherish her for as long as I was given.
34
EVERA
“Stay here,”Neirin instructed, his sturdy hand at my waist as we stood in the inn’s kitchen at the base of the stairs. He wore the simple breeches he’d slept in and a loose cotton shirt Maerel had left outside the door, and I wore one of her dresses. It was plain and hung a bit too short.
Nodding, I stole a quick kiss. The silver of his eyes shone, and when he spoke, his words were full of depth.
“You’re the most incredible thing that’s ever happened to me. You know that?”
What response could I give to that?The fire crackled in the hearth, and I smiled wistfully. Instead of replying, I wet the pad of my thumb and wiped a streak of ash from above his brows. The coals of the fire were all we had to disguise his hair, and though it did darken it to a dusky ebony-gray, a better solution would be needed. Walnut shells could be used to produce a dye, though the thought of permanently altering the stunning natural silver seemed a crime. It would grow out, though.
A man’s voice in the other room, at the bar, drew Neirin’s attention, and his hand left my side. A feeling of slick unease trickled through the bond as Neirin left me, hesitating onlybriefly before pushing through the split kitchen door and leaving me alone.
“What is this about?” Neirin’s tone, firm but not disrespectful, floated to me from the other room. I stepped closer to the door, careful to stay quiet and out of sight.
“A man of the guard traveling through here has been killed behind your inn,” the man said to Maerel.
