Page 76 of The Lost Guard's Healer

She smiles. “Of course I do.”

My chest tightens at her expression, at the earnest honesty in her voice. So I say, “Her name is May. She… she doesn’t know I’m still alive yet. Arthur wants to be the one to break the news. The thought of her, my beautiful, caring, kind girl, devastated because of me is… unbearable.” I swallow thickly and continue, “Not a day would go by that she wouldn’t smile. She has a very big heart. Cares far more for others than she does herself, which worries me, but… she gets it from her mother. Same as the stubbornness.” I can’t help the smile that forms.

“She sounds lovely.”

“She is.” I throw an arm around Galene’s body, fighting back a wince. She sees it anyway.

“Are you okay? How’s your arm?”

I sigh, tempted to lie but knowing that there’s no use in it. She’d just poke and prod until I gave her the truth. “Still hurts. But it’s bearable. I’m fine, really.”

“Are our healing salves helping?”

I nod. “Very much.” I pause, then add, “But a little whiskey from the Oathlands would help even more.” I give her a teasing smile.

She smiles back, but there’s something else in her expression that I can’t quite decipher. “Are you looking forward to being back home?” Galene asks as we sit by the dinner table, the sounds of the village fading within the tent. I sit myself on the same side of the table as her, so that our knees are close together. It’s so easy to be close and comfortable with her now, like all of our barriers are down.

“I am,” I say. “And I’m not.”

Her eyes are filled with unspoken words. I can feel how hard this is for us.

“I will miss the ways of your people,” I continue. “And the simpler life. But I was always going to go home. I can’t stay here.”

She perks up, her face hardening. “Who asked you to stay?”

I grin at her. “No one. I’m not assuming anything. I didn’t mean to-”

She chuckles. “You are cute when you’re unsure of your words.”

“And you are just cute,” I reply, grinning down at her.

We hold each other’s gaze for a long moment. I realize how much I’m going to miss her. And I realize there’s no way I can let her go.

But before we go on, I have to reveal the truth to her. Even if I know it’s going to make her hate me. She has to know the truth.

“I have something I need to tell you,” I say, my heavy voice telling her this is going to be serious. “About your mother.”

She grows tense.

“I told you before I had heard the name of the Oathlander, but did not know the man. Which is true, in a sense. There is a lot that I don’t know about my father.”

Galene freezes. “Your… father?”

I nod, squeezing my hands into fists to keep them from shaking. “Delton Alacante.” The last name feels foreign on my tongue. Arthur and I hardly ever speak it. “Alacante was my last name, before my brother and I disbanded from the royal line and took our mother’s maiden name instead.”

She inhales deeply, but says nothing.

“I know I should have told you sooner. Immediately, even. But you had just started looking at me as if I was more than an enemy, and I… I didn’t want to go back. I couldn’t risk ruining what was between us.”

She holds a hand in the air. “Hold on a moment, Rourk,” she murmurs. “I need to think.”

I nod and fall silent, though words pile up on my tongue. Apologies. Explanations. Excuses. I force them all back down my throat before I can blurt them out.

Galene is silent and reserved for a long moment, not showing any anger. Which unnerves me even more. A dark, withdrawn aura surrounds her.

Eventually, she says, “The sins of our parents should not govern us. I know there is a lot about my family I did not know about. Same for you and yours. I… I’m tired of hating your people, Rourk. I’m tired of feeling so much hate and anger. It eats away at me. It consumed me for so long. I’d forgotten what it was like to be happy until I grew closer to you. Until you reminded me what being safe and comfortable and happy felt like. I want…”

She clears her throat when her voice falters. “I want to be happy. But I don’t know if I can. I don’t know how to be happy anymore. To be honest, I don’t even know who I am anymore. I’ve been living in lies my entire life.”

---