He shifted away. “I’m fine.”
I sighed and tapped theXon my chest. “I have some experience with infection. Just let me look.”
He rolled his eyes but removed his hands from the wrap, revealing the blistered wound. I took a step forward, and when he didn’t bolt, I bent to get a good look at it in the fading light.
The bubble of a blister had shrunk significantly, which was a good sign, but the skin around it was still an angry red. I placed my hands on either side of it, and Keir hissed in a breath. “Sorry,” I murmured. His skin was hot against my touch, but that was normal for him. A quick glance up at his face showed clear eyes. No fever. A stark relief.
“Give me the bandage.” He handed it over without a word. There was no blood on the fabric since the wound wasn’t open, but there was some discoloration from where the blister had emptied out. “Try to keep a clean part against the wound,” I told him as I shifted the bandage to a spot without discharge.
“I know that,” he snapped.
“So do it,” I fired back. I might have pulled the knot tighter than necessary.
“Careful!”
“Sorry,” I said. Unapologetically.
When Keir glared down at me, his yellow eyes were twin flames. He looked like he wanted to put his dagger to my throat again. But I straightened and didn’t flinch away, daring him. He grumbled, “I liked you better when you were scared of me.”
My snort was entirely involuntary. “No, you didn’t.”
“It made you much easier to deal with.”
“Then why did you make sure I knew you weren’t a cannibal? Why reassure me I wasn’t in danger right from the beginning?”
“I wasn’t reassuring you.”
“Then what were you doing?”
“Being honest. A foreign concept to you, I know.” He gave me a false smile.
I returned it. “And saving me from Bain? What about that night, Keir? How was that meant to keep me scared of you?”
His smile dropped instantly. Tension settled over us, strung tight. One sharp breath away from snapping. Suddenly, my heart was beating too fast, skin flushing hot, and I could think of nothing beyond his strong body against mine, his lips at my ear, his hands on my hips. The way his rough voice had raked shivers down my spine. Just the memory was enough to send a wave of heat to my core.
Neither of us had mentioned the Lunar Feast. Alluded to it, shot knowing looks, but never blatantly shone a light on that secret in the dark. But with his fevered words thrumming through my veins, a heady confidence seized me. Bolstered by the glint in his eyes as he stared down at me, which almost seemed like anticipation. His breaths fanned across my face, his side heaving against where my hand still rested on the bandage’s knot. His nostrils flared as his eyes flicked up to my runes for just a millisecond. Then his jaw clenched, and he turned his head away.
My cheeks heated. I ducked my head and worked on double-knotting the bandage. Then, before I could think better of it, I asked, “Is it just cinnamon?”
His head whipped back to me.
I busied myself with the knot, which was obviously as secure as it could be. “Your reactions to my scent are always…”That scent… Gods, that scent…I swallowed. “Strong.”
Keir’s face was made of stone. He just gazed down at me with those intense eyes. But the longer he remained silent, the more the heat inside me cooled as another thought took hold. “Is there something wrong with me?”
At that, he chuckled. “There are quite a few things wrong with you, Majesty,” he answered. “But none of them have to do with your scent.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Some of the tension seeped out of me. “So what is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“Exactly what I said.” He backed away from me, checking the tightness of the knot himself, before dropping down to the sand.
