Page 48 of The Dark Mage
Ren’wyn woke to Fael groaning and wheezing, the night at its darkest beyond the yellowed curtains.He burned with fever, and his cough tore wickedly through his chest.She crawled from bed, eyes half-shut, staggering as she put the avens root back on to boil and lit another spoonful of lobelia in the copperbowl.
At some point, Mari had thoughtfully left clean sheets outside the door.Ren’wyn remade the bed—a task that required almost more effort than she could muster with Fael still in it.She washed him and coaxed him to take a few more spoonfuls of tea before he passed out again.Hoping to reduce his coughing, she propped his muscular frame up with pillows.When he finally seemed less agitated, she collapsed with her head in his lap and driftedoff.
When she woke again, late morning sunlight pierced her eyelids.Fael lay still and pale, and she bolted upright, convinced he wasdead.
But his chest rose and fell, and tears sprang to her eyes.With shaking fingers, she passed her hands over his body, silently reassuring herself that his fever had lowered and that he was resting more easily.
Bone-tired, her muscles ached in places she hadn’t known existed.Her shoulders, in particular, throbbed—the price of bearing Fael’s weight on the road.She tucked herself against him, relishing his solid presence.She’d feared the worst—a fever that would carry him away without a goodbye.But he was healing.
The realization of what he meant to her flooded her system.She embraced his body and wept, tucking her head into the hollow between his shoulder and chest.She sobbed until her eyes ached and her chest heaved.
Fael slept on, coughing sporadically, while Ren’wyn drifted, listening to the heavy thump of his heart.
Throughout the day, she refilled the brazier, washed Fael, and changed the sheets.He drank more tea but didn’t wake.When she wasn’t caring for him, Ren’wyn escaped downstairs to inhale the food Mari provided, staring out the window as she suppressed her anxiety.Finally, long after the winter sun had disappeared behind the horizon, she collapsed—completely spent.
A warm hand ran over her hair and back.She hummed with pleasure.
Esrin loves touching myhair.
Her eyes shotopen.
Fael’s face was pale, but his lips were turned up at the corners as he regarded her from his pillow.
“What did I do to get you undressed and into my bed?”he rasped, his voice hoarse but alive.
Ren’wyn threw her arms around his neck.The bristly hairs on his chin brushed against her cheek, and he chuckled.
“It must’ve been bad,” he grimaced, then groaned as he shifted.
She touched his forehead—the fever had jumped again in the night.
“It’s not fair,” he grumbled.“You’re in your nightgown, but I’m too weak to take advantage of the situation.”
He must be delirious—or he’d never have saidthat.
Still, he was right.She was in her underclothes, and they lay skin to skin.The blanket had slipped, leaving her thighs and upper breasts exposed.She fumbled for the coarse wool quilt as his fingers brushed herback.
“Hmm,” he sighed, his touch drifting down her spine and over her waist.
Ren’wyn was aware of every heartbeat, every breath, everything as he relaxed into the pillows.Her treacherous stomach clenched and swirled.His fingers returned to her shoulders, tracing her delicate skin until his breathing slowed and he drifted to sleep.
Ren’wyn scrambled out of bed, nearly overturning the ceramic bowl as she splashed cold water onto herface.
I’m not ready forthis.
Fael was her whole world—and that terrified her.Realizing what his life meant to her was agonizing.A physical relationship could only complicatethat.
The last time I loved aman...
She splashed her face and neck again, trying to rinse away every memory of the times she’d watched Fael, touched him, heldhim.
A pale face stared back from the mirror, her eyes haunted by the truth: Fael had found his way into her stony heart—and softened it.
But he wasn’t Esrin.No, Fael was something else entirely.
Carefully, she made sure Fael was warm and dry.She helped him swallow a few mouthfuls of tea and brushed his hair.He slept with his head in her lap, curly strands tickling her hands.
She indulged the feelings she thought had died after Esrin’s betrayal.Fael’s heartbeat and breath propelled her own as the darkness of night enveloped them and the fire burnedlow.
