Page 73 of Red Demon
“What?” I said, feeling light-headed. Iden… She’d spared him until he’d lost his mind.
She began unzipping her leather chest armor.
“You’re weakening; cold. And that arm needs wrapping too.”
I blinked, taking time to process what she said. She lifted the leather armor over her chest and long hair, and all my dwindling mental capacity turned my attention to where she was ready to pull up her undershirt.
With a glare, she turned around, and I saw her scars extended across her back, thin over tan skin and muscle.
“It could have been my shirt,” I said, trying to be practical.
“It would be no one’s shirt if you did what you were told.”
“Okay,” I said. She bent over to grab her armor from the ground, glaring at me as she shrugged it on. The sharp movement of her neck, the feline shade of her eyes: I needed that. A reminder that she wasn’t human, not—
Two dead towns I’d seen with my own eyes, I reminded myself, even if some of the deaths weren’t what I thought. She had a hand spreading SBO. There were all the other names in the book. The deaths Galen told me about.
“Tie that shirt around the wound with your good arm, idiot. Don’t rip it,” she said, zipping up the armor on her chest.
I obeyed, although she untied and rewound it all with a frown the minute I was done.
“On your feet. We’re going,” she said.
I hauled myself up, using the tree for support. My vision swam, and I crested past a wave of nausea. She was there to hold me, dragging me into my first step, and carrying most of my weight back to the cabin.
Chapter 32
Farewell
I’d done my best to wake first in the cavern apartment, suspecting that if I didn’t, Faruhar might stab me in my sleep before finding her book. That morning, she rose first.
“Jesse?” she whispered, her voice uncertain.
I sat up in the bed I’d yet to offer to share. In two days, the last of my wounds from the dog attacks had scarred over. Faruhar looked up at me from her bedroll on the floor, rubbing her neck.
“Faruhar,” I said, “What do you remember?”
She blinked in concentration. “Jesse. You hate me but won’t kill me. You have honor. I took everyone from you but I don’t know their names. Can you tell me their names?” The same panic rose in her voice.
“You wrote them down,” I said with as much gentleness as I could, unable to say, “it’s okay.” I shifted, drawing my legs to the floor with no pain. “We haven’t corrected the book yet, but I gave you too many names. I’ll set that right before you go.”
She took that in with a grave nod. She read every name and confirmed every detail I knew before starting the day, watching her pack her things. There were so many names I could never clear for her. I needed that reminder too.
We said our farewells outside, the crisp autumn air invigorating my lungs, making me want to run and train at dawn like I used to. This still wasn’t the body I remembered. No matter what was in the salve that Faruhar worked into gashes as deep as my fingertips, I had to recognize the change in how fast I could heal, and wonder. I could barely make out the scar, and I expected it to fade by tomorrow.
Faruhar didn’t seem to give my fast healing much thought at all. She’d spent most of the prior two days outside, coming back at lengthening intervals, bringing medicine or food.
It was essential I kept busy, grinding herbs and preparing meals for us both. Not only had I been ravenous while healing, but it kept my thoughts from swimming in circles. When she was home, I’d catch her watching me, and I’d find my eyes drifting to her unless I forced them away.
For all I knew, I’d restocked these herbs for rebels, the ones who dropped SBO or broke the khels on Nunbiren. Maybe an Attiq-ka rebel used their magic to make Faruhar forget her part in this. Maybe they made her do all of this.
Outside, Faruhar first clipped on her swords and slung her pack, assessing me one last time. Those didn’t look like a killer’s eyes to me anymore, despite the facts. That gaze looked soft, like concern. It was harder to make the pieces fit each day. But since she’d given me no information at all about her allies, I’d need to let this convoluted battle rage somewhere she couldn’t see it.
“Thank you,” I muttered, the words gruff. “You are a better person than I thought you were.” I wasn’t sure what else I could say that was true.
Her smile fluttered and took wing. And fuck me—but that smile was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. One dead town I’d seen with my own eyes, I reminded myself. I was no longer sure it was two towns, but Crofton was enough.
“Please be careful,” she said. “Bria wanted me to tell you that you’ll be safe in the South Bend, or east to Uyr Elderven, but there are swarms further east past Baren Golkhi. She says you should regain your strength before you leave here. There are ruren-sa all over these woods.”
