Page 24 of Ruling the Green

“Her mouth is dry too. Get the damn water.”

I brought it over.

“Sit her up so she doesn’t choke.”

Glad for an occupation, I pulled her upright then moved behind her, pulling her against me, her head angled back, so Vishen could open her lips and pour small sips of water in.

Little by little, she stopped struggling against my hold, relaxing a bit as Vishen supplied her with pitcher after pitcher of water.

He glanced over at me and shook his head.

Because why was she in so much pain because she was thirsty? Did she have some sort of condition?

There would be no answers, though, until the drugs wore off. And I was getting a little concerned that it wasn’t wearing off yet.

“I’ll go get more,” Vishen said when she finished the last of the water.

Alone, my wife relaxed against me for just a moment, the relief clear in every muscle in her body.

But then something in her had her jerking, some internal pain she couldn’t tell me about.

Her head turned in toward my neck.

It was only a few seconds before I felt her strangely cool tears streaming down my neck and wetting my shirt.

My arms slid around her.

“I’m going to figure it out,” I vowed.

And suddenly, that was more important than anything else—my mad father, the kingdom, my crown, everything.

“I’ll fix this,” I told her, my hand gliding up and down her back. “Then I’ll kill Grimwood for doing this to you in the first place.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Serin

All there was from the moment my eyes opened was pain. It wove into every hair strand, embedded in every pore, twisted in my muscles and sinew, filled my organs, and coursed through my blood.

It burned, stabbed, crushed.

And I couldn’t even scream, could only cry for a moment before what seemed like the last drop of moisture left my body.

I was a dried-out husk. But I didn’t even have the strength to get up and get water.

Thankfully, Jet and Vishen were the types of men to jump into action, to want to fix a problem.

I mean, the water only helped momentarily. As soon as I stopped drinking, the pain started again.

Jet held me through it, though, and there was some comfort in being held, in hearing him swear he was going to figure the situation out.

Even if I was losing faith in that by the moment.

I tried several times to speak before Vishen returned with two large buckets of water, but nothing came out. Not even a squeak.

“Could the Bellhush be making her this thirsty?” Jet asked his guard.

“I mean, maybe? Everyone reacts differently to it. Maybe she’s got some underlying condition that makes her react this way.”