Page 63 of The Red Woman and the White Bear

Despite her racing pulse and trembling limbs, Aisling put a hand on Rodney’s arm. “Take Briar into the kitchen and get him some food, will you?” Her voice shook, but she did her best to convey enough reassurance to convince him to back down. Rodney studied her face for a moment before nodding stiffly and retreating with a reluctant Briar in tow. He’d be listening, she knew, poised to return the moment he thought the conversation might be taking a turn towards threatening. That knowledge calmed her somewhat.

“You too,” Raif said to Lyre. “Wait in the hall.”

Once the pair was alone, Aisling crossed her arms tightly over her chest and glared up at the soldier. “Well? Why are you here?”

He glared right back, resolve unwavering. “You need to come back with us.”

“So you can brag to your king that you caught the Red Woman? No thanks.” Without any visible reaction or discernible emotion other than the anger he’d worn since he arrived, it was clear that Kael had at the very least shared her revelation with Raif. The number of others who held this information remained uncertain, leavingAisling to hope desperately that it didn’t extend to the entirety of his court.

“This isn’t about the prophecy.” The hardness in his countenance seemed to melt away then, and he raked a hand through his curls. His look of malice was replaced with one of concern.

“Then what is it about?” Aisling demanded.

Raif clenched his jaw. Unclenched it. Then he sighed heavily and said, “Kael. He’s not well.”

Her heart seized, but she kept her face carefully neutral. “He wants me dead.”

“And yet here you stand.” Raif looked her over, gesturing with a wave of his hand. “If Kael wanted you dead, rest assured that would not be the case.”

“He sent me away.” She wanted to sound angry, but the words instead came out underlined by a barely concealed edge of hurt that twisted in her gut like a knife. In her mind, Aisling saw Kael before her, the final image she had of him before she fled the Undercastle. The pure rage etched into every line of his face, strands of his hair blowing with the short, angry breaths that sliced through his bared teeth. The crush of his fingers curled around her throat.

Raif heard it too, that hurt. “He was afraid.”

“He’ll do it again.” Aisling looked away to hide the way her eyes now shined with tears.

“He won’t,” Raif countered.

Once she regained control over that tidal wave of sadness, she looked up at him once more. “How doyou know that?”

“I’ve known Kael for a very, very long time. Long enough to know that he regretted his decision the moment he made it.” Raif lowered his voice to make the confession, and Aisling realized then that Kael hadn’t sent him there at all. He’d come on his own to seek her out: not to serve his king, but to help his friend.

“Is he sick?” she asked.

Raif sighed again, weary. “May we sit? I’d rather not carry on the rest of this conversation in your doorway.”

Aisling regarded him for a beat before leading him to the small kitchen table. She nodded to Rodney and he skirted around them, giving the pair a wide berth and disappearing into the living room. Briar was unwilling to be pulled away again and lingered behind. Aisling ushered him to sit at her feet and rubbed one of his ears between her fingers absently.

Raif took a seat in the chair across from her uncomfortably and glanced around the room. Suddenly self-conscious of the bare walls and outdated fixtures, Aisling cleared her throat. Refocused by the sound, he rose again and began to pace.

“What do you know of Kael’s injury?” he asked.

Aisling frowned. Though she wasn’t surprised he hadn’t mentioned it, she’d never noticed him favoring any parts of his body. “He’s never talked about one.”

“The full story is not mine to tell. He hides it well, and most of the time it remains forgotten, like a fleeting thought of a memory of a feeling.” Raif paused as if testing the weight of each word before he spoke. All those he left unsaid hung in the air between them, taunting.

“But?” she prompted.

“But there are times when he hasn’t the power to conceal it. The injury, the pain…it comes back around tenfold. When it happens, he locks himself away. He doesn’t sleep, barely eats, for days at a time. It’s all we can do to keep him from starving himself.” A spark of fear glinted in his dark eyes, but his voice didn’t falter. His steps continued, steady: three strides to one side of the room, three back to the other.

“How often does it happen? What brings it on?” The image Raif painted of Kael’s suffering made her heart ache.

“It’s infrequent, and for that I am grateful. We’ve not been able to determine its cause, but it seems only to come on when he is at his lowest. When he’s lost control.” Another twist of that sharp dagger in her gut—she’dbrought it on. She was why Kael had lost control.

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked cautiously. “I can’t imagine this is something he’d like shared.”Least of all with the Red Woman.

Raif stopped mid-stride to face her, shoulders tense and expression tight. “It is not, and you would do well to ensure that it stays between us.”

“Of course,” Aisling promised.

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