“Is that—”
“Cinnamon,” Alan answered flatly. “Imported from the Vukubua Islands.”
She took a long swig, her hands continuing their shaking. She drew her legs tighter.
“Why do you think he stepped in?” Amaris asked.
“Do you mean for your lashing?” Alan asked.
Amaris nodded. “And in the tower. He’d protected me when Bennet came for me.”
Esaias reclined back. “He’s selfless.”
“I was cruel.” She took another sip. Esaias extended his hand, and she tossed him the flask. “I didn’t listen to him and look what happened.”
“You can’t control what Theo does,” Esaias said.
“But I can control what I do. I was trying to get away the other night, but Theodoric stopped me. He warned me what would happen.”
Alan’s hand gripped his outer thigh, his fingers inches from his dagger. “That was you in the stables?”
“Yes,” she breathed. “He stopped me, and we argued. This is all my fault.”
She never wanted this, any of it. She’d only wanted to get away from Derek, to escape that room, that fight. As Alan and Esaias’s grumbles drowned out, she lifted her shaky hands before her eyes. She didn’t know what terrified her more—what Derek had done or that she’d lost her composure on a call for the first time.
Chapter 26
Amaris
A sharp painin her neck jolted Amaris awake. She’d fallen asleep on the floor beside Theodoric’s cot. Alan and Esaias were nowhere to be seen, and she didn’t bother to check if they’d fallen down the stairs in a drunken stupor.
She massaged the angry muscle of her neck while she ventured toward the open window. The crackling hiss of a dying fire and the smell of herbs hung in the air. It wasn’t the smell of diesel fumes or the smoldering scent the fire engines had after a fire, but it was familiar. The scent of blood tainted the air from the bowl she had yet to discard, but that was recognizable too.
Her stomach growled. The bay was still shrouded in a haze of clouds, but she was willing to bet she’d missed dinner. Scavenging the tower, she hoped to find a slice of bread or a magical cheeseburger, but she found a jar of peanuts in a small cabinet of the worktable.
“I wouldn’t eat those if I were you.” Theodoric’s muffled voice carried across the room.
“And why not?” she questioned with her hand digging in the jar.
He smirked. “They’re poisonous, causing hallucinations followed by paralysis and then death.”
Amaris’s throat made an audible gulp as she threw the peanuts back into the jar and wiped her hands against her pants. She grabbed a few logs from the corner and threw them onto the embers within the fireplace. Reaching for the flint and steel, she set to work making a new fire.
“How long have I been out?” he asked, trying to sit with a grimace. He stopped mid-rise, his eyes sweeping to his exposed chest.
“You shouldn’t move. I only bandaged you this morning,” Amaris said, busying her hands as she lit the fire.
“That’s all it’s been?” he whispered. “The amount of cudweed you gave me should’ve allowed me to rest for days.”
She glanced over her shoulder and caught his eyes straying to a blanket folded beside the fireplace. She bent forward and picked up the wool fabric, smoothing it down as she then kneeled before him.
“Can I check your wounds first?” she asked, offering him the blanket. He wavered but nodded, and she set to work, prying at his bandages.
“I’ve received punishments before. I’ll be fine by next morning.” The gritting of his teeth as she checked beneath the cloth said otherwise.
“I highly doubt that. Gerard practically opened your entire back. He could’ve killed you.” She eyed him, but he turned away to face the newly kindled fire.
“What happened?” he whispered.
