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“I only decided to look for you when I could not find Dom. I suspected he was going after you, so I came to save you.”
“Save me from Dom, the guy who was trying to kiss me?”
I swept his sopping hair back from his eyes. “I did not think he would try to kiss you. I believed he wanted to kill you.”
I stared at him without speaking for a few moments. “You aren’t making any sense. Why would a complete stranger want to kill me?”
“You heard what he said. He is holding me accountable for a horrible thing my brother did when he was at the academy, which means he wants to hurt me.”
“And you thought that meant he was following me out here to kill me?” I shuddered. “That’s pretty dark, even for a Drexian.”
“Now I understand that he planned to hurt me not by killing you, but by taking you as his.” He glowered at me. “Which I might like even less.”
“Thanks, I think.” I blew out a breath. “In case you weren’t aware, I still have a say in who I’m with, and I had no intention of being his. He didn’t feel right.”
“Did I feel right?” Torq husked, reminding me that we were so close that our warm breath was mingling in the frigid air.
I scowled at him. “As if that matters now, and not that it’s any of your business anymore.”
He pulled back slightly and nodded, then his gaze drifted to the lower half of his body still submerged in the pool. “That is why I am so cold.”
I’d been so preoccupied with the fact that he wasn’t breathing that I’d forgotten that I’d only dragged him partially from the water.
“Sorry. You’re pretty heavy, so I could only pull you out halfway.” I stood and helped him move the rest of the way onto the muddy bank. When we were both standing, Torq listed to one side, and I caught him before he hit the ground. “Whoa. You still don’t look too good.”
I peered up at the sky and noticed that the sun was fading, as was the light. Soon, it would be dusk, and I didn’t think I could get him back to the academy before then. Even if I did know the way back, or if I felt confident to make the trek with a battered and weak Drexian. “We need to find a place to stay for the night.”
Torq gave me a questioning look then bobbed his head in agreement. “I think my leg wound might have reopened in the fall.”
Well, that wasn’t good. We needed a place for him to rest and one that Dom wouldn’t be able to find. He might not want to kill me, but from what I’d seen, he was happy to end Torq.
I swung my head around, my gaze snagging on a stone ledge that ran along the back of the waterfall and to an opening beyond the cascade of water. “I think I found us the perfect hiding spot.”
Chapter
Fifty-Nine
Torq
Ilet Jess lead me by the hand to the stone ledge that ran behind the waterfall, flattening my back to the wall to keep from being drenched as we sidestepped our way under the water. Cold spray stung my face, but it was more refreshing than bracing, and I was grateful to be alive to feel it. I was alive because Jess had saved me, even though she had every reason to never speak to me again.
She is too good for you.
Despite what I’d been told my entire life. Despite being made to believe that I was superior based on my clan. Despite the lies I’d been fed, I knew that I did not deserve Jess. She was too smart, too kind, too beautiful, and now I knew that she was more forgiving than I deserved.
My heart seized as I watched her walking carefully in front of me, her hair slick and wet down her back and her soaking uniform clinging to her body and making it impossible to ignore her curves. It did not matter what I had told her or what I had convinced myself about giving her up. I still desired her, craved her, loved her so much it hurt.
“Yes!” Her cheer was muffled by the pounding water cascading in front of us, but I could see her face light up when the rock wall opened up to reveal a hidden cave tucked behind the waterfall. “I knew it.”
I did not release her hand as she continued the last few steps of the ledge and into the cave. The warmth of her flesh was keeping me steady even as my legs wobbled and my lungs ached. After being submerged under the freezing water, every breath was painful. I might be a Blade, but I was not immune to injury or illness, and I feared that the blows from Dom and the fall from the cliff had only compounded my earlier wounds.
“We should be safe here.” Jess stopped and surveyed the shallow cave.
It was tall enough for both of us to stand, but it wasn’t deep and didn’t appear to have any passages leading from within. Light filtered in through the water and illuminated the iridescent-green moss clinging to the stone ceiling and spackling the walls. I inhaled the humid air, both grateful that it was a touch warmer within the open-mouthed cave and aware that the temperature would drop once the sun sank beneath the peaks.
“You’re shivering.”
I glanced at her, aware that she was assessing me with shrewd eyes. “I am fine.”
