Page 145 of Bloodguard

“Thank you,” Giselle whispers. “For everything.”

Caelen kisses the top of her head. “Always,” he tells her.

Giselle watches him leave, wiping her face before turning around. She pulls out the chair Caelen was in and sits beside me.

“You need to get all the way back in,” she says, motioning to the tub. “I can’t see your bones anymore, but your back still looks like something the butcher would try to sell me, and I’d respond by slapping him hard enough to make his uncle twice removed bleed.” She shrugs. “You’ve seen better days, Leith.”

“How did you do it?” I ask. “Fix me, I mean.”

“I didn’t,” she admits. “Your friend, the giant, motioned me over and passed me an envelope. It’s one of Maeve’s most potent remedies. I think it was meant for at least seven gladiators. Given how you’re seven times worse than I’ve ever seen you, I dumped the whole thing in.”

I nod.

“We thought you might need more. We left you with Uni and returned to the manor, but…there was nothing there.”

Again, I nod. It’s all I seem able to do.

“You won’t heal completely, even with everything you’re swimming in,” Giselle says. “I don’t possess healing knowledge, but it’s already helped a lot, and it should keep you from infection.” She sighs. “Whatever she made will serve you well, no matter what happens next.”

Giselle knows Soro won’t let me get off so easy. I settle back into the water, shuddering. It’s almost as if Giselle laid a slab of ice in the tub and threw me on top to melt it.

I don’t really care. My body—it’s healing. It’s getting better. As Giselle said, it won’t be as good without…without someone else. But it may be enough. “It’s cold,” I say.

“It is,” Giselle agrees. Her voice quiets. “Hot water is a luxury only whole, wealthy families have. We’re neither anymore.”

There’s more wrong than I know. “Where is everyone?” I ask. “Where’s Neela?”

Neela runs the house and takes care of everything and everyone. She should be here grouching over the mess we’re making.

Giselle’s face crumples with grief. This tough petite woman is seconds from falling apart. “Neela’s dead,” she says.

“What?Jakeb would never—”

“Allow anything to hurt her?” she offers.

I have trouble finding my voice. “Yes.”

“No, he wouldn’t. Except Father’s dead, too,” Giselle replies, and now she’s weeping outright. “Pasha, Musy, Sonu…oh, and the estrellas. You know, those precious little fuzzballs of joy who bounced along all day just happy to be alive? They’re all dead, too… Leith,everyoneis gone.”

I stare ahead, to the crooked fissure in the plaster. It’s the only way I can ground myself, seeing as I’m about to explode.

Slowly, I turn my head in Giselle’s direction. She’s sobbing silently, if it’s even possible, but holding nothing back.

“Tell me what happened,” I growl.

“The royal guards invaded the manor and the grounds.” She rubs her eyes with the sleeve of her cherry robe. “Caelen thinks they ambushed the guard station and went after my family as soon as you left. They must have already been in place, possibly on a neighboring farm. Father… I should have known something was wrong when I couldn’t find him at the arena. Had I known, Caelen and I would have rushed to help. I don’t know if it would have made a difference. Caelen is only one man, and I can’t swing a sword worth a damn. But we all should have been there, standing as one like we have all our lives.”

“You weren’t there?” I ask.

“No,” she admits.

“What…” I can’t speak. My voice is becoming more primal. I don’t want to ask it—don’t want to even think her name—but I can’t stop myself. “What happened to Maeve?”

Giselle takes a moment, trying to calm. “Oh, her? She’s stuck with that murdering asshole Soro for eternity.” She rubs more tears away. “But at least you’re a free man.”

My heart is trying to escape my ribcage. Hope rises like smoke in my chest, but I try to push it away.

“Because of Maeve?” I ask.

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