Page 68 of Shade of Ruin

He pauses for a moment, and the shivering gets worse. “I didn’t want to bother you,” he says, and I can hear his teeth chattering.

Holding my tongue is a challenge in willpower because I want to rip into him, telling him just how stupid that comment was, but I remind myself that tonight has been terrible for him. If there was ever a time that Cole Cyrus might actually break, it’d be tonight.

“It’s not a bother, Cole. You’re injured, and I’m here to help you feel as good as you can. Now, let me get this blanket on you.” I pull it and really have to throw my body weight into it to get it out from under him.

I nearly fall over when it finally comes loose. At first, I feel like a fool and expect Cole to be grinning at me as I right myself, but when I look at him, his entire body is shivering uncontrollably.

Damn that man and his stubbornness. At least I was paying attention. I pull the blanket over him and lie directly behind him, my warmth flowing to him, and I wish I had the power of flames. Just a little heat would help keep him from being so miserable.

Cole needs warmth, and if there’s anything I can do to help him, I need to do it.

Which is why I pull off the undertunic and put it next to me on the bed before crawling in behind him. My breasts press against the bandages along his back, and I can feel his body absorbing my heat. My entire body presses against him as tightly as I can, willing myself to warm up and give him every bit of heat I can muster. His chattering teeth slow and eventually stop, but his body doesn’t stop shivering.

My fingers go back to his arm, slowly running along his muscles, and he visibly relaxes as soon as my fingers touch hisskin. “You need to tell me if you need anything at all, Cole. Do you understand me?”

His body’s still shaking, but when I press myself against him, he doesn’t cringe from the pain. Even as my chest presses against his bandages. Underneath that linen, he’s healing already, and I just have to do my best to help him make it through the night. He needs to stay calm and relaxed, and more than anything, he needs to sleep.

My hand moves over his skin, dancing as lightly as a breeze. As lightly as my shadows. Cole’s eyes close, and I wrap my arm over his shoulder, feeling every muscle of his body pressed against mine, and my nails touch his cheek again. This time, I don’t pull away, though. His stubble is rough under my caress, and it rasps almost silently, but Cole lets out a soft moan, and I’m sure that I’m doing the right thing.

With how close we are, the betrothal bond is making everything feel strange, though. Every second we’re this close, with our bodies touching this much, it’s impossible to ignore the way he feels under it.

My lips are inches away from his neck, and my breath comes out hot against it. When I close my eyes, it’s hard to separate myself from the male I’m laying next to. He’s so peaceful, even with the pain that still radiates through his body. Somehow, he found peace in my touch. He let me take care of him when he never lets anyone take care of him.

That’s what he was looking for today in the bath. That’s what he’d wanted. Not what I’d been imagining. No, he’d known that tonight his father would do this, and for once in his life, he wanted someone to show him tenderness. He needed someone to show him physical kindness so he didn’t break from his father’s cruelness.

My hand stops moving over his skin, and I wrap my arm over his body, glad to feel him not shivering anymore. When I closemy eyes, I stop trying to separate myself from Cole, enjoying the peace he’s found. I made a vow to him to take some of the weight off his shoulders, and I feel like this is the first step.

Interlude 3

14 years ago

The sylph walks through the woods, the glamor over her making her look like an unusually tall, wispy woman with long auburn hair. An appearance she believes a human family would find regal and authoritative.

In reality, she is air given life. Her body is less a solid thing and more a tempest of silent wind. Her steps are unnecessary as she weighs nothing and can float as easily as a feather, but they, along with everything else, are a part of the mask she wears. No one can know what she is, especially her ward.

No one can know that an Immortal sylph is helping a young Wyrdling in a very forgettable village. A servant of the House of Shadow, she went into hiding along with her mistress, the Queen of Shadows, during the Shattering. Then her Queen gave birth to a daughter.

Now that daughter roams these woods, her pupil, and is nowhere to be found. There’s a reason that the sylph had been trusted with the care of the Queen’s daughter, though. She believes in her mistress with every bit of her soul. She doesn’tneed to know the Queen’s plan to know that she is trying to right the wrongs that were done to the world.

The sylph’s role is not to fix the world. She is no hero or queen. No, her only part is to train a young Wyrdling to claim a Throne and eventually wear the Painted Crown when the time comes. Without allowing that Wyrdling to know of the power she wields.

The Forgotten Ring is the key to it all. The reason Queen Brenna had to leave her only child alone with a human and the sylph. There is only one ring, and the child would undoubtedly leak the scent of shadows as she aged. The Queen could not help but leave a scent behind. There was only one option. The Queen had to leave the child in the sylph and her human father’s care.

The sylph has done her best to teach the young girl everything she needs to know about the world. She needed to give the child hidden knowledge without explaining why she would need it. How to keep her emotions leashed. How to access the pieces of her that are stronger than humans. Why she shouldn’t be near humans unless necessary.

More than anything, how she won’t win a fight if she has to confront an Immortal in battle. It’s the best chance to connect her to the Shade when that time comes. When her powers grow too strong for her to ignore them any longer.

Even at the young age of eight years old, the girl is already successfully hunting in the forests alone. The sylph watches her constantly, never needing sleep or food, for the wind does not need nourishment or rest.

That’s why it is so strange that the sylph is not secretly at the girl’s side today, an invisible wind at her back, always ready to protect and guide her. There has been a commotion in town. Someone saw a harpy in the woods north of Blackgrove, and the sylph went to listen to the story, to decide if it was true or not.

There is only one reason for a harpy to be in this village. The girl’s powers have been leaking through the ring, and they’re drawing the attention of the House of Steel’s hunters.

The story had been inconclusive, but it worries the sylph. She can keep the wild animals from hurting the girl, but a harpy would be too much for her. A harpy would know her as soon as she was close, and harpies are natural predators of sylphs.

The sylph would have to find the harpy and lead her away. There is no other answer. As she considers her possibilities, she follows the scent of her ward. She notices, a passing thought, that the girl’s father is with her. It’s a strange thing. He rarely leaves the house these days, not seeming to have any interest in doing anything more than staring into the forest.

As unusual as it seems to the sylph, the Queenmarriedthe human. A true wedding. The Queen bound their souls forever, even though she knows the human will die long before she will. It’s not the sylph’s place to judge the actions of her queen, but she does not agree with the pairing.

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