Page 49 of Fate Unchained

Kyril shifted as if to sit up, but she placed a hand on his chest and pushed him back down. “No moving, or that wound will open back up. And I think you should eat.” She pointed at him. “Don’t move while I get you some food.” She leaped to her feet, filled the canteen from the water along the wall, and grabbed the meat Kyril stored earlier in a small hidey-hole in the back wall.

Back at Kyril’s side, she brought the water to his mouth. He let her take care of him, handfeeding him jerky and getting him to drink the entire canteen without complaining. Another sign he wasn’t all right.

She checked the wound. “I think it’s getting better.”

“All I need is a few more hours, and the silver will work its way out of my bloodstream. Then this wound will be gone.”

She kept her hand on his chest but not to keep him in place. She could feel his heartbeat, and it’s slow and steady rhythm was reassuring. “How did you know it got into your blood?”

“I fought against silver weapons during the Territory War. I’ve had silver in my blood before.” His gaze grew distant. “Pure silver, like what Boris threw at us, is dangerous because it sticks to us, and if we get another injury, like the one in my side, it can get into our blood and stop our healing process for hours.” His gaze flicked away toward the fire. “We need a chance to recover, or we can die. It’s the same with silver weapons. They do a lot more damage. If they get a vulk in the throat or heart …”

Her breath froze in her lungs. “But the vulk are immortal, aren’t they?”

“All immortals can be killed. A bad enough wound and a vulk could die. The same with getting silver in our blood, even a normal weapon can damage a vulk so he can’t heal fast enough.” He swallowed hard. “I saw a lot of vulk die because of silver. At the hands of humans.”

She shuddered. In the water, he’d barely responded to her. He could have died. She went as cold as if she’d fallen into the river again. She’d only spent a few days with Kyril, but already he felt like he was a part of her life. An important part. And yes, they were linked, so his death and hers were entwined, but that wasn’t what she’d thought about first. All she’d cared about, was him.

“If I hadn’t picked up Boris’s weapon, he wouldn’t have used it on you. But I—” Her eyes widened. She whirled back to where she’d laid out her clothes. “It doesn’t even look wet.” She turned back to Kyril and held out the grimoire. “I took his cepl because I wanted to take this.”

Kyril stared, his mouth dropping open, then he smiled. A warm, wide smile. Her heart thudded as if it flipped over.

“You got the grimoire,” he murmured. He sat up and put his arms around her, pulling her close. “You have the heart of a vulk.”

She’d been told countless times she was clever in school. But a vulk was courageous. Fearless. It was the best compliment she’d ever received.

“I did it for you.” Sitting back, she gave him the grimoire. Her face heated. “Well, for the vulk. I mean … you know what I mean. We don’t know what Herskala wrote in there, and it’s a threat to Ulterra.” She was babbling, but she couldn’t stop.

He ignored the book and took her hand, placing it on his chest. He shot her a cheeky, half smile. “You did it for me. You can admit it.”

Lilah sat back on her heels, and her shoulders sagged. “He took our rune. Exactly like Baba Yaga said. I couldn’t stop it.”

He seemed to be studying her face with more intensity. “Not exactly.” He moved her hand downward a few inches, revealing a hint of gold still tattooed on his chest. “I still have my half, but our bond … is probably gone.”

She kept her gaze trained on the fire. His tone was careful. Quiet. It was impossible to tell how he felt about their bond being severed. Most likely, he was relieved. “No more choice to be made.”

“You weren’t going to keep it.”

She kept staring at the flames. “Right. Right. Of course not.” She swallowed. The rune mark had been on her chest for a couple of days, binding her to a vulk, a stranger she’d never met before, but she felt the lack of it.

When she was young, her father gave her a bracelet made of leather. Just a silly thing, but she’d loved it. She never took it off. While running around outside one day, it broke, and she lost it. For days, weeks, she kept feeling it on her wrist. Missing it. It had become a part of her, and it was gone. She felt the same way about the rune. And from losing her connection to Kyril.

Kyril sat up. “We need to find Boris and free our rune.”

“Not right now, big boy.” This time when she tried to push him to lie back down, he resisted. “You need to recover.”

“No way. I’ll be back to normal in an hour. Two at the most. I can help Finn and Zann search.”

He’d almost died. “No. You lie here and rest. They’re taking care of it, aren’t they? They know where we are, and they will keep us safe. Right?”

He sighed, and she knew she was right. “You’ll have to make me. That means lying down with me to make sure I stay in here with you.”

“I suppose I can do that.” She put more logs on the fire, then arranged the blankets around Kyril. With a contented sigh, she settled next to him. “How does your side feel?”

“You took good care of me, I can barely feel it anymore.” He put his mouth to her ear. “I think you need to take off the rest of your clothes so they can dry.”

“Don’t push your luck.” But she smiled into his chest. He was definitely feeling better.

They lay curled together, with her forehead resting on his chest, listening to his heart, and she finally relaxed and drifted off to sleep.

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