A large hand pushed Bowen back followed by a domineering growl. The flash of a dagger made me gasp. The blade sliced down a seam in my leathers, relieving me of the acidic compression against my skin. Someone covered me with a cloak, and I was lifted off the ground. The burning against my skin immediately receded.
Strong arms enclosed me. I sagged against a broad chest. It smelled of safety. It smelled like the general. My mind churned as if through marshland. The king had sent acid-spewing flying monsters to hunt me. I shivered in the aftermath.
“I will repay the King for all the harm he has caused us. What he has done to you.” His words penetrated my haze, echoing a similar threat made long ago to a frightened girl in the woods.But could it be? The pieces clicked into place. I blinked to clear my vision and regarded the grim-faced warrior who protectively held me with fresh eyes.
Human blood and monster ichor mingled with the stubble of his cheeks. He had the same dark hair. The same honeyed eyes that glowed with a piercing luminosity. All the signs were there.Was it really Dom?Anger at all the years of his silence crouched on the fringes, but the truth was I had missed him. I sank into his protection. For just this moment.
He held me tight against his chest the whole way back to the healing quarter before reluctantly laying me on a bed. Concern marred his tired brow as he backed away. He used his broad shoulders to push the healers back, ripping their salves from their hands and tending to my burns himself.
I dared a glance at my wounds. Char crusted the borders of my seared skin. The soothing pressure of his hands relaxed me and I dropped my head back on my pillow. Despite his obvious distrust for me, his calloused fingers applied a gentle balm. His touch was careful, unhurried. I didn’t understand why the leader of the rebellion would stoop to a healer’s station. I didn’t contemplate the effect it had on me.
Finn interrupted my care, gripping the general’s shoulder in agitation.
“Dom, you’re fading. You’ve waited too long.” His second didn’t back down from the general’s violent glare.
My vision focused long enough to notice the darkened veins beneath his skin. What had those monsters done to him?
Sieren ushered the general out of my space. Her brow furrowed in concern as she urged him into the other room. He glanced back at me, lips pursed, as if reluctant to leave my side. The door shut firmly behind them, sealing me away from the general’s fate.
I watched through murky consciousness as a flurry of healers entered and departed Judd’s—no, Dom’s room. An elixist hurried by, and I flagged him over. He stopped short, inclining his head with impatience.
“Is the general okay?” I asked.
He shifted on his feet, agitated. His hands were full of multiple vials whose contents sloshed with his jerky movements. “He’ll be fine by tomorrow.” The man hustled away, the glass vials rattling in his wake.
I fell in and out of sleep, and I eventually felt strong enough to sit up. My wounds became numb, and my tissues had already started to mend back together. I was even able to eat and drink. I observed as the Prime Healer departed from the general’s room.
I had to speak with him. I had to hear his name from his own lips. I shuffled over to his door. A guard I had somehow missed inserted himself between me and the door.
He held himself straight, slightly threatening. “The General cannot see you.”
I bristled. “I just want to check on him.”
“No one except the Prime can enter until tomorrow.” He puffed his chest and subtly gripped the hilt of his sword.
Alarm coursed through me. Why this show of force? What was happening?
“Let her in,” the general yelled from the other side.
I arched a brow at the guard who immediately obeyed.
The general’s eyes remained closed as I entered. Candles flickered in the darkened room lending a peaceful atmosphere. A thin sheet covered his exposed chest, while a heavier white quilt lay across his hips and legs. The carved muscles of his shoulders and chest glistened with a sheen of healing oils. It did little to diminish the oddity of his veins—darkened tracks beneath his pallid skin. Glass vials littered his bedside table.
“I can feel you, Ruin of the Scourge. Come to end me in my weakened state?” He didn’t even bother to open his eyes.
I trained my magic on him, his aura glowed stable, not a flicker of pain. A small sigh escaped me.
He slowly opened his eyes, though they remained at half-mast. His lip twitched to one side. “It’ll take more than this to bring me down.” His hand lazily gestured toward his torso. “Don’t think this gets you out of training with me tomorrow.”
“Are your healers so gifted that you would be recovered by dawn?” I scanned his body, not giving my eyes a chance to linger on the way the sheet clung to his rippled muscles.
“They only have me staying here to monitor me. And then they gave me a restorative elixir to force me to sleep and allow their mending to complete.” As if on cue, he yawned.
The elixist Bowen burst through the door. “Dom, here are two more vials. I’ll work on creating a more concentrated tonic.” He stopped short, eyes darting wildly between the two of us. He deposited the vials, removing the empty ones, then ducked out.
I surveyed the general. Judd.Dom. “What did he call you?” Deep down, I already knew. But the truth needed to be stated. Ice chips hardened along my arms, flaking from my fingers onto the floor.
The general inclined his head, confusion forging a line on his brow. “Dom. My name.”
