“I’m not going to—” She stopped, holding her stomach. “Oh. Oh I feel really nauseous. I think I might—I think I’m going to—” And then she vomited all over my boots.
“What’s the emergency?”Nevan burst into my cabin, and I gestured to my bedroom, where Niamh lay, unconscious.
After she’d vomited, she’d passed out into my arms. I’d carried her inside in a panic and sent word to the castle that I needed a healer immediately.
“We were training, and she passed out,” I said.
Nevan unslung the leather satchel from his shoulder and entered the bedroom. I paced for what felt like an eternity before he finally reemerged and sat down on the lone couch in the open space, shifting to avoid a tear in the cushion where stuffing spilled out.
“Well?” I asked.
“She’s fine,” Nevan said. “She woke up a few times, but I gave her a tincture to help her sleep and help her body rejuvenate. She’ll be okay. She just overdid it a little.”
My shoulders slumped. No she hadn’t. I’d forced her to overdo it. I’d been too harsh on her. She’d asked for a break multiple times, and I’d acted like a drill sergeant, like I’d acted when I was in the royal guard. It had been foolish to agree to train her. She needed someone with a gentle hand, someone who wouldn’t push her to the brink of death. Guilt consumed me at the events I’d allowed to unfold this morning.
“I’m surprised you’re training her,” Nevan said with a raised brow. “I didn’t think you did that anymore.”
Not after Lor. I hadn’t.
Cillian was all jokes, but Nevan had no problem getting to the heart of any issues, no problem speaking his mind, yet he somehow always did it in such a calm, kind way that it was impossible to get defensive or upset.
I scratched the back of my neck. “Well, I won’t be training her moving forward.” I scuffed the toe of my boot against the floor. “It was dumb. She asked and I agreed, but clearly it was a mistake.”
Nevan looked around, pushing his spectacles up his nose. “Love what you’ve done with the place.”
I snorted.
“I think this is the first time I’ve ever been inside your cabin. You know Mother will have a heart attack once she learns you don’t even have a proper dining table.”
“Mother won’t be surprised,” I said, shooting glances at Niamh, who lay in my bed, chest rising and falling with easy breaths.
“Mother would love to see you sometime soon,” Nevan said.
Guilt swallowed me once more. I knew it hurt her that I didn’t see her as often as my brothers, but I was better off alone out here, better off keeping Cillian safe in the way I hadn’t kept Lor safe. She’d tried to visit me a few times out here, but she’d cried so much, I couldn’t take it. I told her I’d see her at the castle, see her around town, and I did. She came to the castle for lunch a few times a week, and I joined her as much as I could. “I’ll visit soon,” I said.
Nevan shot me a look, his greyish blue eyes flashing. He had this way of looking straight into your soul, like he could see through all the bullshit. “How are you, Wolfe? Really?”
I shoved a hand through my hair. “Well, I’m trying to keep our brother, the High Prince of Fairwitch Isle, safe, but he insists on doing stupid things like leaving our home to find some woman in a tower who he thinks is going to be his wife.”
Shit. I hadn’t meant to say all of that, and I hoped Niamh was truly asleep and hadn’t heard me. An image of her furrowing her brows, that crinkle she got between them when she was worried, flashed in my head. I knew how much she wanted this place to be her home, andI didn’t want to completely pop her bubbly delusions, didn’t want to see her sunny disposition turn gloomy.
Nevan raised a brow. “You don’t think Niamh will be the queen?”
I threw up my hands and shot another glance her way to make sure she was truly asleep. “If she were, why wouldn’t the crown have already appeared over her head? Cillian is convinced the castle just needs to get to know her, but that’s not how it’s ever worked in the past.”
Nevan shrugged. “Things are changing. The castle is changing. Ever since the alchemy lab disappeared...”
He trailed off, and I sighed, knowing this was a sore subject for him. It wasn’t just the alchemy lab that had disappeared but all his notebooks, his experiments, his supplies. I’d never seen a man so broken as when Nevan lost his lab, but he’d spent the last few years rebuilding what he could with the little time he had.
This was one of those moments where I should’ve reached out to my brother, given him some comforting words, but when I opened my mouth to speak, nothing came out. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t be a comfort to my brother when I was already so broken.
Nevan’s shoulders fell.
Niamh stirred, moaning, and Nevan shot to his feet. “Well, the patient might already be waking. She’ll need to be on bed rest for the day. Can you take care of her?”
Fuck. I hadn’t expected that. This woman was going to be in my cabin the entire day?
“I can send for others to come here and oversee her?—”
