“Demon,” Charlotte said rudely.
Caspian ignored this and turned back to her. As soon as their eyes met, his expression softened. “Please lie back down, Elizabeth. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
She sat on the edge of the bed, and he came to her.
Elizabeth touched his cheek in wonder. “You’re alive.”
He squeezed her hand, as if to be sure that she was real. “When I came back and saw you gone with your blood on the floor, I was so worried.” He closed his eyes. “I thought I would die from the pain of it.”
When he opened his eyes, she saw they were earnest and green.
She smiled, and he smiled back, as if it was infectious.
Charlotte cleared her throat loudly. “Well, this is touching. I assume the two of you want a moment alone? Hopefully for you to yell at him for putting youin mortal peril and hiring servants that tried to kill you?” Charlotte looked at Elizabeth hopefully. “With name-calling and cursing?”
Elizabeth smiled slowly.
“Och. Lizzy, you always were too nice. I suppose, I’ll be going then.”
Charlotte moved towards the door, pausing at the threshold. She looked back at her, and their eyes locked. Charlotte raised her brows and said emphatically, “You know what you need to do.”
Elizabeth sobered and nodded firmly. “I do.”
“Then good luck,” Charlotte said with a wry smile. She glanced at Caspian and gave him a final, withering look. “This doesn’t mean I like you, demon.”
After Charlotte departed, Elizabeth chuckled. “Sorry. I don’t think she likes you very much.”
“She can loathe me as much as she wants.” Caspian gave her a half-hearted shrug. His eyes grew earnest. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
“How did you get captured?”
Caspian was quiet for a moment, a shadow crossing his features. “When I arrived on the burning plains, they were already waiting for me. Someone must have told them I was coming.” He paused, his lip curling. “After Raziel captured me, he drugged me, and his minions tortured me, hunting for information on the portals.”
Elizabeth stopped cold.
Oblivious to this, he continued, “As you might have seen, I have one, but the other … It’s been lost forcenturies. No one even knows where it is.” He grimaced. “Being tortured for something that you don’t have any idea about is … an experience.”
She squirmed, suddenly uncomfortable. He surveyed her for a moment, and she wondered if he could read the guilt on her face.
“I have some murky memories of the days that followed. I just remember them asking me over and over about the lost amulet and the portal. What we knew of their plans. They kept me in that dungeon, carved me up, and left me to rot. They forced me to drink something that made me feel disoriented and unable to access my magic.”
He paused. “And then you appeared in front of me. I remember seeing your face and thinking I was dreaming.” He looked down, then back up at her. “The next thing I knew, I woke up in my circle of Hell, and you were gone. Asmodeus told me what happened, and I came back here as fast as I could to make sure you were alright.”
Elizabeth hesitated. “Well. I’m alive.”
He studied her intently, as if checking for injuries. “Are you hurt at all?”
She winced and said truthfully, “I was, but not anymore.”
His gaze darkened, and his head fell forward. “Asmodeus told me what I did, how I hurt you when I was … incapacitated. Elizabeth, I am so sorry. Forgive me?”
She swallowed. How could she forgive him for nearly killing her, and apologizing like it was nothing worse than being late to dinner?
His eyes were unspeakably sad. So she said stiffly, “There’s nothing to forgive.”
Caspian smiled broadly at that and placed a hand on her cheek. “I’m sorry living with me has brought you such pain.” His eyes searched hers. “You must know I care for you deeply, and I never meant for any of it to happen.”
She hesitated. “I know.”
