Page 150 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
“Thanks.”
He obliged, but even if his neck was no longer protesting at his positioning, the air still felt thick with tension. The only real sounds besides those of the hospital ward beyond the tent’s canvas was the ripping of the old bedsheets. The soft yet piercingscritchof each tear only added to the tension. His cuts were imprecise and jagged, but he didn’t think the people needing them would mind as long as they kept their wounds covered.
Kase finished the one he was working on and grabbed another. This one was the color of the night sky. It would hide blood better.
“You’re angry with me,” he said as he cut off another strip.Scritch. It was a little lopsided, but Kase didn’t bother fixing it. He threw it on top of her pile.
Hallie’s hands jerked with each movement of wrapping the next bandage.
Someone opened the tent flap. “You have another batch ready for sanitizing, Hal?”
It was the other woman, Petra. Hallie’s friend looked much the same as she had when she’d been scolding Kase the other day—tired and overworked as everyone else. Her apron had a few more questionable stains than the last time.
Hallie set the current stack in her friends’ arms. “I’ll dry the other batch once I’m done here.”
“Thank you.” Petra turned to leave but not without a glare for Kase. “And you’re not supposed to be here, Master Shackley. Especially after—”
“Thank you, Petra.” Hallie said through gritted teeth.
Petra narrowed her eyes at Kase, but she left, the flap shooting a small breeze across Kase’s damp skin.
Hallie turned back to her work. “Why are you here?”
“Because like I said before we were interrupted, you seem to be upset with me.”
“Incredibly astute.” She started on another pile of bandages. She wrapped another and threw it down onto the table. “What tipped you off?”
“Probably the fact that you’re taking it out on bed linens.”
She froze with the latest bandage wrapped around her hand, which had begun to turn red from her vigorous wrapping. How was this same girl who’d run to him after he’d leapt off his hover? “Would you rather I take it out on you?”
Kase huffed. He tore another strip. “Actually, yes.”
Scritch.
She still didn’t turn. “Why do you care?”
“What?” He stopped, the knife hovering over the next section of the bed linen.
“You heard me.”
It took every last ounce of self-control in that moment not to lose his cool. He would regret doing so if he did. He’d learned that lesson the hard way twelve too many times. “Stop being cryptic.”
Hallie’s shoulders tensed further. Well, he could’ve said worse.
“I am not being cryptic.”
He stood then, leaving the linens and knife on the rocky ground. “Oh, I’m sorry. Just immature, then.”
She twirled around then, her eyes blazing. “As if you’re so high and mighty.”
“At this moment?” He still had to stoop a little, but he crossed his arms. “I’m the one trying to talk to you about it, and you’re acting like a petulant twelve-year-old.”
She flinched only a little. “Why do you care? I’m merely a conquest to you, right?”
“What?”
She didn’t drop her gaze. “Not to mention that you still can’t control your temper.”
