He’s here.
“I’ve swam in frozen lakes before,” he said, as if I hadn’t felt the terror in him when the crater had tried to drag him and Dax into its depths. “You just returned from battle a day ago. You probably didn’t sleep, fretting over the wounded soldiers, didn’t you?”
He knew me well.
My mind hissed that he knew metoowell. That he could see all those shadows and the cracks–and he would run. Or worse, choose someone easier. Find a blonde, like Waden had. Plenty of them in Solkar’s Reach, after all.
I shook my head, fighting against those whispers. They were taking advantage of my weakened state and bristled too close to the surface.
“Obviously.” I tsked and flexed my frozen toes. I bit my lower lip, struggling to find the right words.
Ryker hummed.
“What?” I asked.
He leaned his head against the wall, gaze glued to my lips. “You do that when you’re worried. You pace and you bite your lips. Like you don’t want to let all your thoughts out.”
Much too well.
I sucked my lip straight out, cheeks flushing. “And I laugh in the strangest moments.”
A lazy smile bloomed on his face. “You do.”
“I–” I licked my lips, almost biting them again, but refraining. “I know we said we’d talk later, but can we do it tomorrow? I’m tired.”
Half-truth; too tired to emotionally flail myself in front of him, but reluctant to leave his side.
“Tomorrow, then,” he said after a few careful moments of silence.
I relaxed further into the wall. The next day would torture me in so many ways, I was exhausted just thinking about it.
“Do you want to go to bed?” he asked, and I thought I heard resigned disappointment in those raspy words.
“Actually–” I gulped. “I was thinking more of a warm bath. Wash the cold from our bones, my feet are frozen.”
He kicked himself away from the wall in a languid movement that made my toes curl, and offered me his hand. “That sounds like a great idea.”
My body moved before I even became aware of it. One moment I was leaning against the wall, trying not to crumble in a tired heap. In the next I was walking hand in hand with Ryker, up the stairs, the tension from before now gone.
It felt right and natural and just what I needed. I nestled closer to him, so that I could feel the barest thrill of his heartbeat.
He was alive.
But his movements were duller than his usual thundering steps, and his frown grew as we reached the corridor to our rooms.
“Didyousleep?” I asked.
He arched a brow, but the frown remained. “Are you just going to repeat my concern back at me?”
“Answer the question,Commander.”
“I’ve been busy.” His own sigh melted with mine. “You know how it is when you have guests. Especially the unexpected kind.”
Not this again.
“Dax is no danger,” I said with absolute conviction.
“I doubt that. But I was talking about those masked fighters.”
