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His grim, dark-mahogany eyes flick up to me, then back down to her pale face.
“Okay, Ruth.”
I let my eyes fall closed and sigh, feeling tender all over.
Ruth nods, squeezing his hand that rests on his thigh. “Thank you.”
~
Skylenna
The line going into the stadium is long, winding around the musty hallway.
“I feel sick,” Ruth mumbles against Warrose’s shoulder.
“Keep her legs elevated, and be extremely careful around her bandages,” Dessin instructs, looking a little worried at Ruth’s wincing face.
“You’re not moving an inch the entire night, my little rebel.” Warrose carries a lightness to his tone, like he’s trying to keep her calm. “If I say anything inappropriate while I’m drunk, just ignore it and don’t remind me about it tomorrow. Oh, and if you happen to observe Dessin during all of this, be sure to let me know if he’s a sloppy drunk.”
“I’m not,” Dessin grunts.
I smirk before I’m brought back to reality, where my smile quickly fades.
“Not true. He thinks he’s greater than thou because he considers the drink to be a poison that he would not choose to enter his precious body.”
To our joy, Warrose’s little confession has elicited a laugh out of Ruth. The sound is quick and small, but it’s there like a pearl found in an oyster. Niles turns around to grin wide at Warrose.
“What’s your point?” Dessin glares.
“You are a lightweight.”
Niles snickers. “Let’s get him a sippy cup!”
Dessin slides his intolerable glare to Niles, unflinching as he communicates his lack of humor and annoyance silently.
“Mm-hmm, yep, I’m just going to check on this line.” Niles takes a step to the other side of Marilynn like a coward. She pats him on the back with a chuckle.
I focus on my breathing as I try tapping into the void. After what I did to Masten and Kaspias, it has felt distant, unreachable. I have to do everything in my power to reverse what they’ve done to Dessin.
Before he falls in step with the moving line, I hook my hand around his elbow, pulling him off to the side with a knot forming in my stomach.
“Get your goddamn hand off of me before I cut it off,” he growls with clenched teeth.
I know this isn’t you, but that still hurts.
Respecting his space, I remove my hand, placing it to my side. One breath in, one breath out. I count to four.
“I don’t know what Kaspias has planned,” I say under my breath.
Dessin stares down at me from his lofty height.
One breath in, one breath out.
“To the point,” he grits out.
I know this isn’t you.
“I mean, I—I don’t know what’s going to happen. And that scares me.”
