I looked up to him. His expression was a puzzle. Caring, annoyed, concerned, upset. All flashing simultaneously across his features.
“Is it evening?” I strained to sit upright.
“Nearly,” he said, placing the chair at my bedside and straddling it. Underneath his body, it looked like a child’s chair.
I slowly sat upright and his eyes swept over my body. No, not my body. His shirt. It wasn’t the first time I’d worn something of his. Or the first time he’d seen me in his clothes. But something had changed between us since he’d knelt for me.
“Do you…need this back?” I asked awkwardly, ready to pull the shirt over my head.
He put his hand up and cleared his throat. “Eventually, but not right this moment.”
I dropped my hands, embarrassed. Of course. Why would I think it was a good idea to strip in front of him?
My hangover sucked all common sense out of my head.
Into my hands, I grumbled, “So, what do we do now? Back to the Hive?”
“Your attackers. They were wearing Day Guard uniforms. We need to confirm who they were before I can let you return to the Hive.” Dommik was rearranging items in his pack.
Details from the prior night came like flimsy visions. One man’s crooked teeth, the other’s body odor. Then, what they’d talked about. “They weren’t Day Guard.”
Dommik froze and flicked his gaze toward me. “How do you know that?”
“I heard them talking,” I stammered as my memory fast-forwarded to their final moments. The echo of fear of their approaching footsteps and everything the attackers alluded to panged against the walls of my mind.
I hugged my knees to my chest and Dommik flew to my bedside. Warmth spread from his hand on my back. In slow, soothing strokes, his palm rubbed up and down my spine.
“It’s okay. You’re safe and they’re not coming back.” His eyes descended into the color of midnight seas. “Ever.”
I nodded to him and wiped a shallow tear away before I said, “They were sent by Eryx.”
Dommk’s hand stilled.
“You’re sure?”
“Mhmm.” I rolled my lips together, let out a shaky exhale and continued, “They said I was worth a lot and that Eryx wanted me delivered alive.”
His hand resumed. “Anything else?”
“They used you as a lure to—” I sniffled “—to get me to follow them.”
I dropped my forehead to my knees. I’d been so naïve, so idiotic for believing them. Rather than blindly follow, I should have stayed inside. Found Dommik in the crowd. Or Alba. Or anyone else I knew. Signaled someone, somehow. But no, like a lamb to slaughter, I just went along. For the sake of not making a scene and being polite.
“Shh.” Dommik wrapped his arms around me. My body tipped as he took a seat on the bed next to me. His chin rested on my hair and I let my head fall to his chest.
“I shouldn’t have listened.”
“Stop. You couldn’t have known.”
He was being kind. I absolutely could have and should have known. But I was drunk, and distracted by my feelings.
The critical thinking I hadn’t been able to lean on the night before suddenly crashed into me like an avalanche. “Does this mean Eryx knows?”
I sat upright, looking into Dommik’s concerned, stormy eyes.
“He knows about me. My gift. That we took the book. Why else would he send men to abduct me?”
“Probably.” He swallowed and my eyes were drawn to the way his jaw flexed beneath his dark stubble.
