Page 82 of A Promise of Peridot
“They were going to set sail a day later than planned to bring me back to you. But then Halden and his men found us and murdered them.” I hadn’t let that pain soak in yet, and my heart sank. “I begged them to help me, and got them all killed.”
“No, Halden and his men did that.”
A single tear leaked down my cheek. I tried to wipe it awkwardly with my shoulder, my hands still covering my breasts.
Kane wiped the tear from my cheek with his thumb before tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “You don’t have to hold your hands like that. I wouldn’t look. Especially not when you’re wounded. I’m notthatdespicable.”
“Right.” I frowned. “I know that.” I didn’t know why I was being so modest. I doubted my nakedness in this state did much for him.
“I should check on the others anyway.” Kane stood and walked back over to the entrance of the tent.
I uncovered myself and lay back until I was comfortable. I couldn’t help the way my lips curved up as relief flooded me. I could have laughed. Kane looked back once more before leaving. “Now, that smile...that’sdistracting.”
With that I really did laugh. When he came back, I’d—
“Wait!” I called, and he poked his head back in, splattering rain. Kane was not a do-gooder. Not acheck on peoplekind of person. “Check on them? Check on themwhy?”
Kane’s eyes cooled, and a sliver of fear clanged through my body.
“Who is it?” I breathed, sitting up with a wince.
“The prince had a small accident. Nothing worth concerning yourself over—”
But I was throwing on my blouse, cringing at the pain, before he could finish the sentence.
25
arwen
I stumbled past Kane, out into the merciless rain. My burns singed against the wet cotton of my shirt.
Please be all right, please be all right.
“Arwen!” Kane called after me, but I could hardly hear him over the sloshing of my shoes.
I flung the canvas of Fedrik’s tent open.
Mari and Griffin were sitting on either side of him. I went still.
Fedrik looked like a corpse.
His usual radiance had been replaced with a ghoulish, gray pallor and he was sweating, despite the wind and chill of the tropical storm.
And his leg.
His poor, ruined leg. Someone—my guess was Griffin—had done as much as they could, wrapping the pulverized thing in bandages and a tourniquet, but it was not enough. Based on the blotchy plum and dull blue under his skin, he was bleeding internally, and even if we could get him to an infirmary, he would likely lose theleg below the knee. I needed my lighte to heal him tonight if he had any shot of keeping the limb.
“It’s fine,” Fedrik croaked before I could speak. “Not as bad as it looks.”
“No, it is,” I cautioned. “It’s actually far worse than it looks. You’re just very handsome.”
A tiny bit of that exceptional Fedrik glow inched its way back into his eyes. But not enough. Not nearly enough.
“You’re here,” he said. “That’s what’s important.”
My stomach sank. “No, no,no,” I muttered. My lighte was coming back too slowly. “I can’t—” How could I explain? “I can’t heal very well right now.”
“No.” Fedrik laughed—a dry, rattling sound. “I meant only... you’re alive.”
