My eyes burned from the tears that could no longer form as my body protested the healer’s ministrations.
“I don’t care what you have to do, just make it stop,” the king ordered.
“Thaddeus, maybe it’s time we?—”
“Don’t you fucken dare, Tarrin.”
My eyes vehemently resisted the sunlight filtering into the room. They remained sealed while I gathered my bearingswithout their assistance.
Positioned on my side, every inch of my body throbbed with an aching pain that surpassed what I’d felt after the most rigorous day of training. I tried to move, and a whimper escaped me.
“Nyleeria?” The king’s voice was nervous, tentative, even. The seat made a noise as he shifted his weight, most likely coming closer to me.
Another whimper left me.
“Nyleeria? Can you hear me?” A sense of urgency entered his questioning words.
I tried to nod my head, open my eyes, move at all, but my body wouldn’t oblige. While my mind was engaged in the world again, my body was perfectly content in staying wherever it had drifted off to.
I tried to let him know I could hear him. “Ow,” I mustered, the croaked word barely audible. I winced from the extra pain that tiny movement had inflicted.
“Thank the gods,” he said under his breath. “Can you open your eyes?”
I tried again, but it was simply too bright. “No.”
“What did you say?”
I must have said it too quietly. I tried again. “Too bright.” I wasn’t much louder, but he must have heard as his footsteps walked away from me, and I could hear the curtains close.
I tried again, opening my eyes a slit. The room was dark, save for the light coming from the doorway. It took a few minutes, but I slowly blinked them open.
“There you are,” the king said as he stroked my hair. “There you are,” he said again with heartbreaking gentility. Deep worry and relief played in his eyes as he took me in.
Chapter 14
Something Pink
After a few days, I could sit up unassisted and tolerate the curtains being fully open. My head pounded and it hurt to blink, but I managed moments of consciousness. Most importantly, I was no longer overwhelmed by nausea or crippling pain—it wasn’t much, but it was a start.
The king was by my side nearly every waking hour. Depleted of strength and teetering on the brink of unconsciousness, our time together was mainly a silent affair.
Sitting up in bed, I was more alert than I had been since the incident. I offered the king a small smile of gratitude as I accepted a glass of water. I sipped it slowly until it was empty, then handed it back to him. Setting it aside, he let out a long, weary sigh. A heaviness hung between us, and I searched his features for its meaning. Undiluted lassitude stared back at me before he slumped forward, elbows on his thighs, and buried his face in his palms. The glittering golden strands of his hair that caught the light had seemingly lost their luster. It felt as if the world were holding her breath in that moment.
Recomposing himself, he took a deep breath and unfurled, focusing on me once more. His tousled locks did little to hide themoment he’d just taken, and his eyes lacked their fervent nature, like a snuffed flame. He looked so…vulnerable.
“Gods, you scared me, Nyleeria.” The words came out in a cracked whisper.
“It wasn’tthatbad,” I hedged.
The king’s eyes darted between mine as if searching for something, then halted, going deep beneath the surface. “Not that bad?” His soft, pointed words were filled with incredulity. “Nyleeria, we lost you twice and had to put you into an induced coma while we sorted out what to do.” I blinked at him as the gravitas of the situation hit me, and a hollow fear slithered through my body.
“Oh,” I said flatly.
“Yes.”
“Oh,” I said again.
Leaning over and placing his hand on mine, he said, “I know.”
