Page 48 of The Last One
“I’m astounded by all your wood,” I say, lowering my gaze…lower…lower… There.
“Okay, I get it,” he says, then sticks nails in his mouth.
I fight the urge to giggle. “Do you need me to hold your wood?”
“That’s enough, Kai.” He chuckles as he drives the first nail into the plank.
“Harder, Jadon,” I say, breathless. “Hit it like you mean it.”
“You know what?” He shakes his head, trying not to smile. “Are you gonna just stand there and watch, or are you gonna—?”
“Guide your hand?” Legs trembling and body buzzing, I pick my way over the broken plates and splintered beams.
“If you want,” he says, biting his lower lip. “And then we can do it together.” He peers at me with his smoky blue eyes. “We’ll hit it like we mean it.”
My tongue pokes my cheek. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about woodwork.”
“Kai,” Jadon says, his deep voice rumbling all through my body, “you have no idea how excited I am.”
My eyes flit from his face, down his torso, and lower still, where they linger on the best wood in Maford. “Oh, I think I do.”
He drops the hammer and looks at me with a glint in his eye. “So you’ve noticed.”
I stare at him, my breaths shallow. “Umhmm.” The heat of my anticipation smolders against his.
He holds my gaze, drinking me in, and takes a step toward me.
An achy shiver ticks the base of my spine. If he touched me right now, I’d fucking—
“Good morning?” A man’s voice comes from outside.
“Damn, and we were almost there,” I say, dizzy, carefully prying my eyes from Jadon’s to land on the intruder. “Good morning.” I still burn from Jadon’s attention.
Farmer Gery takes off his field hat and wipes his sweaty forehead with the sleeve of his shirt. He peeks up at Jadon. “My missus, Zinnia. She’s not feelin’ well. Much worse since yesterday, and the soldiers, they hurt her. I don’t know what to do, and I know you’re not a healer, but you’re plenty smart. Freyney’s busy with the other wounded. Can you look in on her?”
Jadon says, “Sure, but I need to fix a few cracked beams before this part of the cottage collapses. Hopefully, it shouldn’t take too long.”
“Okay,” Gery says, but he’s not okay.
“I can come over and look,” I say. “I’m not a healer, but I can stay with her as you tend to other tasks around the farm.”
Farmer Gery blinks at me, eyes my pendant with distrust, then shifts his gaze to Jadon. “That will be appreciated,” he says, dipping his head in thanks.
I follow the farmer next door to his barn. I stutter in my step, though, as I remember Olivia’s warning before I started my chores to earn geld.Don’t go inside their house. And I recall Jadon’s concern about not knowing how Miasma is spread.
Shit.
“A soldier pushed her out the bed,” Gery says, oblivious to my hesitation. “He was trying to steal some jewelry she was wearing. A butterfly ring I gave her on our wedding day. She fell, and when I picked her up, she feltbroken.Freyney refuses to help—he says she’s not a priority.” A teardrop slides down his cheek. “I brought her outside for some fresh air—she has Miasma. I’m sure you heard.”
I nod, breathing a sigh of relief now that I no longer have to enter their home. We reach the garden behind the barn, and that’s where a pale Zinnia Gery rests on a featherbed.
Her cheeks are sunken, and her bones poke at her sallow skin. Her death glow is more straw-colored than all the hay on this farm. She’s barely conscious and merely murmurs at the sight of her husband.
“I’m gonna show her,” Gery says to his wife, pulling back her nightshirt. He points to the bruise on her hip. “This came due to the fall.”
I peer at the purple discoloration that nearly blends into the grayness of her skin. “I’m going to touch you,” I tell Zinnia. “I’ll try not to hurt you.” Then I feel her hip bone, lightly press her ribs, her arms, and her back.
“Her bonesarebrittle,” I say, “but I feel no broken ones. She didn’t wince from my pressing. There’s no swelling.” She looks as though she’s sinking inward even as I crouch here beside her. My own limbs feel heavy, but that isn’t sickness. That is sorrow. “She’s bruised from the soldier’s assault, but she isn’t broken. This sudden decline is from…”
