Page 55 of Wicked Thieves
She knew what he meant.
“I believe that is something you should ask Adan. He is my keeper.”
“I highly doubt anyone could keep you.” Aeric grinned at that. “Though, I want to know what you think. How you feel.”
Blowing out a breath, she forgot about her bandage and looked to him where the flames caressed the sharp lines of his face, painting one side a golden hue while the other remained in the shadows.
“I believe I can do this. I must, for all our sakes. Iwilldo it,” she said with a surety she felt growing more and more with each passing day.
“But?” he questioned, as if knowing she had more to say.
“Butif I were to fail and die in the process of our attempt to destroy the Loom, then what becomes of the rest who remain?”
“Apart from being sentenced to certain death?”
Anelize scoffed. “Must you always make light of everything?”
“I believe my humor is what keeps me so likable.”
Silence stretched between them, before Aeric said, “I can’t make any promises, nor do I know of a way to see what lies ahead of us, Anya. What I will say is that I will do anything in my power to ensure the Loom is destroyed. The king cannotcontinue as he has been all these years, and if it were up to me, I’d kill him myself.”
“Why don’t you?”
The answer came to her faster than she expected. “There is more at play beyond the king. If he were to be killed, the council would take his place. Men who are driven solely by their greed and their prejudice. Their hatred for the Vedrans runs just as deep.”
“And the prince?”
To her surprise, he said with a tone that revealed the closeness she’d sensed between them didn’t remain above the surface. There was far more between them. A history she had yet to discover. “The prince is quite possibly the only person I would trust to replace the king. Rule over this wretched kingdom and turn it into some semblance of a place we can all freely call home. But that is much too far away as of this moment.”
She could see it then reflecting through his eyes. Deep and vast as the sea beneath its frozen depths. Longing. The same longing she’d seen in Adan and Enid’s eyes. A place where they could all belong, in peace without the constant fear of hiding from the world.
“So it would seem.”
She felt his attention shift onto her while she resumed her work. She’d been well on her way to chucking the bandages into the fire and forsaking trying to maneuver her hand around it, when he suddenly rose. Moving like silk over skin he knelt before her.
She tensed, watching him with a perplexed look on her face. Then he pointedly said, “No cheap shots this time, yes?”
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m helping you. That is, if you’ll let me,” he said carefully, holding his hand out.
“Do I look that incapable?”
He released a breathless laugh. “Can’t I merely offer to help someone who clearly needs it? Come on, you can’t think me all that bad after all our shared history of escaping death on more than one occasion.”
When she still didn’t hand over the wrinkled scrap of cloth, he shook his head and plucked it out of her hand. The fabric equal parts smooth and rough against the pads of her fingers as it slid out of her grasp.
To her surprise, she didn’t fight him as he inched closer, his focus homing in on her palm. This close, where he remained on his knees before her, she watched the way his dark brows furrowed at the cuts on her hand. Forced herself not to move as he took it into his own to hold in place before he began. For a shallow injury, she didn’t expect to flinch when the fibers of the bandage brushed along the edge of one of her cuts. The deepest one she’d accidentally done.
Gasping, she pulled her hand away out of instinct. Only to have his hold tighten just a fraction, making him lean in closer as a result.
There was a sudden sound of a log in the fireplace snapping, sending embers flickering in the air within the hearth.
Their eyes met as he glanced up. For a moment, they seemed to hold each other in place, studying each line and curve. Committing the smallest details to memory.
“Sorry,” Aeric murmured as his long fingers slowly, carefully, resumed their work.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. Anelize rolled her lips, aware of how dry they suddenly felt. Hoping the glow within thefireplace wouldn’t reveal the way her cheeks warmed as his eyes flickered to her lips for a brief second.
