Page 140 of The Heir's Bargain

Fynn was in front of me in seconds, his knees smacking into the ground. His hands hovered over me, not quite touching me, as if he were unsure if he could.

I didn't know what was worse: that he no longer felt like he could touch me or that I still wanted him to.

"You were saying, Miss Ferrios?" Helena retorted.

I rolled my eyes.

"I’ll go fetch Theenah," Fynn said, standing. "She can?—"

"No," I said before he could finish. "I have already seen Theenah and several other healers. I am fine. I am only sore." I tried to move back, but another bout of pain soared through my bones.

Fynn's attention flicked to my ribcage.

The blanket had slipped when I moved, revealing the wrapping. The healers had said the soreness would only last a couple of days. Even Theenah couldn't get rid of all the pain; apparently, there were still limits to the healer’s gifts.

Helena leaned forward, hesitant. "Miss Ferrios has only woken up a few hours ago, Your Highness. She needs rest."

"Helena, please." I squeezed my eyes shut.

When I woke up, my mother was knitting at the side of my bed. The moment my eyelashes fluttered across my cheek, she shouted for Helena and the healers. Since then, Helena had barely left my side, and her constant worrying quickly became an annoyance. While the housekeeper might have meant well, her buzzing nerves were doing nothing to help me rest.

"Very well," Helena said before curtsying to Fynn. "Your Highness, please send word if anything?—"

"Helena," I grumbled, pressing my head further into my pillow.

Helena hummed dismissively. But as her footsteps exited, I heard Fynn whisper to her, "I will."

When the door shut, Fynn said, quiet and low, "I'm sorry I wasn't here when you awoke."

"I didn't expect you to be. You have your own duties to attend to," I said, but the words were dust on my tongue. While it wasn't a lie, it was hard to say it aloud.

"That's not—" Fynn shook his head, his hair flying in different directions. He dropped his gaze to his hands. "When you returned, I came as soon as I found out. You were unconscious when I arrived. The healers and seer said you would recover, but I couldn't leave. At some point, Terin coaxed me to sleep and dragged me out. He may or may not have received an earful from me when I awoke the next day."

A feeling I did not wish to acknowledge rolled in my stomach. Shoving it down, I asked, "Why didn't you leave? After all, if they said I would be fine, there was no point in staying."

Fynn brushed back his hair, flattening out some of the mess. A flurry of emotions flashed across his countenance, but they were too fleeting to identify."You are my best friend, Dani. I wanted to be here when you woke."

Not knowing what to make of his words, I said nothing.

According to my father, I had been in and out of unconsciousness for the past two weeks. When I had leaped to save Quint, the assailant who held a blade to Quint's throat had turned and struck me. However, before the enemy's blade could hit a major organ, Moris had dropped his paralysis on another guard and froze the man mid-strike. Quint had then driven his short sword through the attacker's chest. Sylvia had only been knocked out briefly, awakening before the last two enemies had been killed. Once my squad had taken care of the remaining assailants, they ran with Quint carrying me.

Without access to healers, they had made sure to wrap my wound and keep it clean as they traveled through the mountains and the forests. But when I had awoken, I had fought them in a fever-driven haze. My body and mind were still in the fight despite having been miles away from it by then.

After that, Moris had kept me in a semi-frozen state as they traveled back to the ship and then to Pontia.

Eventually, the paralysis mixed with the blood loss had been too much for my body and mind, and I had fallen into a coma soon after.

While the grogginess had since subsided, the pain in my muscles had not due to the mixture of soreness from being immobile and the wounds covering my body.

In the silence, Fynn's gaze remained on me. Part of me wished he would look away. Being under his scrutiny for so long made me want to squirm, but I was also helpless.

And I hated feeling helpless.

I tightened my grip around the blanket.

I had yet to see the gash slicing across my ribcage that the healers had mentioned. However, I had seen a flash of my reflection in the vanity earlier. Old bruises covered my face and skin, my flesh painted with shades of violent purple and green.

I was Danisinia Ember Ferrios.

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