He pulled his hand away. “No, that’s not what I meant.”
None of this was right. When had she come back to Aelstow with him?Whydid she come back with him? What had happened with the plans they stole? Why was there such a large gap in his memory?
Cason sat up. “How did we get out of the mountains?” He scratched his head. “Weren’t there…”
Noglida. He had been fighting them. Brela, too. Then…
Brela sighed as she threw an arm over her eyes to block the sun. “You didn’t get out of the mountains, Case.”
“What?”
“You were spiked by a poison barb and spent the whole time watching me be brilliant, as always. I got us out.” She snorted, her grin turning wicked. “You’ve already thanked meprofuselyfor saving your ass.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Would you like me to give you a lick by lick recap of that sex, too?”
“Brela, I’m serious,” Cason grumbled. “I know you’re capable of fighting, but there were too many noglida. The shield was fading. How were you able to kill all of them with just your blades?”
Fighting in such close quarters, she would have been drowning in their hallucinogenic blood. There was no way she could have kept fighting on her own. Not against the hordes of six-legged lizards.
Brela lifted her arm and squinted against the light. “I didn’t use my blades.”
Purple eyes met his.
Cason’s heart clenched as he launched out of bed. Pain ripped through his abdomen and left leg with the movement, and he slammed to the ground. She yelled his name in surprise, but it barely registered over the ringing in his ears. He scrambled backwards, crashing into the wall.
“No, no, no,” he breathed.
“Cason?” Brela threw his shirt over her head and hurried after him. “Cason, what’s wrong?”
“You… you’re shadow-cursed.”
She blinked in confusion. She blinked thosegods-damned purple eyesat him. They should have been pale blue. That wasn’t right.
Cason pressed his hands to his eyes. “This has to be a hallucination. I’m still in the mountains. I’m losing my mind. I’m dying.”
Hands wrapped around his but he yanked out of their grip. Brela stumbled back, horrified by his gesture, but she set her jaw quickly. “Ov qigri, you’ve always known what I was.”
No, that couldn’t be right. She was incredibly capable—a highly trained assassin being one of many talents that could explain her skills—but she couldn’t be shadow-cursed. Not Brela.
He shoved his face in his hands.
“Do you think he’ll wake up soon?”
Cason started. That was Serill’s voice, but he wasn’t in Cason’s bedroom. In fact, neither was he. He blinked and stared up at… at a roof?
Slowly, his senses stretched. Three bodies were in the space with him, a faint smell of meat and fruit hidden under the overpowering odor of at least a dozen herbs. Body stiff, pulsing and aching with each beat of his heart, he shifted slightly. He was in loose pants but no shirt, a light blanket resting over his chest. There was something soft underneath him, extra support under his head and resting under his knees, too. Was he laying on a couch?
“Give him some time, Prince.”
Farrah was here too?
“I’m betting another day,” Elias said.
The prince snarled. “I’m not betting on when my best friend is going to wake up.”
Elias snorted. “He’ll wake up when he wakes up. We had to pump him full of finola just to keep him from tearing open those wounds.”
