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Gavin pressed his lips into a thin line. “I need to close your wound and get you warm.”
Her teeth rattled, and she grabbed his hand to prevent him from touching her. “I’m not your patient. Don’t touching me or—”
“You will kill me? Not tonight.” Gavin shook his head and reached for the knife she’d dropped. “May I remind you that you were the one that reached for me just now?” She scowled, but he continued, undeterred, “Other than to examine your wound, I won’t be touching you, but you have to let me see it. I can tell it’s deep because you’ve lost a lot of blood.”
“Stop being nice. I know what you’re doing, and it’s not going to work. You won’t take me back.” She pushed away from him, biting the inside of her cheeks to stave off the pain. He watched her wobble to her feet in silence, rubbing his fingers together. Violet held onto the side of the building, gasping for air as the ground shifted beneath her.
Gavin’s eyes picked up the blade from the ground, studying the bloodstained silver metal. He frowned with a resigned expression. “Do you want me to leave you here? Maybe you will make it through the night.”
Violet hesitated. It might have been the cold or the fact that something about his words rang true. Getting hurt in a place like the Obsidian mountain town of Scoria wasn’t ideal. The chances of finding a magical healer were slim, and waiting for her body to do its job without the aid of magic meant staying here for a long time. That meant capture.
“Are you here to take me back?”
“Yes.” His voice came barely above a whisper, but she shook her head and instantly attempted to step away. Her power flickered in and out, giving her strength and dulling her pain. “Stop, Violet. I will not force you to return with me, but we need to talk about it after I heal you. You need rest and sutures.” He made a disapproving noise and pulled at the satchel that wrapped around his stomach, rummaging through its contents.
“I don’t want to talk. In case you don’t remember, I tried to escape when I saw you.”
Gavin sent her a stern look and brought out a rolled piece of gauze, holding the edge of it between his teeth so he could tear off a long piece. He was quick with his hands and worked in silence as he wrapped it around her leg, right above the cut. Then he dug through his bag and passed something shiny to her. “Drink this. It will ease your pain.”
The vial flew into the air as she shoved his hand away. “You think I’d drink anything you give me? It’s probably a sedative so you can take me back to the Iron City while I’m asleep.”
Gavin sighed and raised his face to the sky. “Gods, give me patience.”
“Ha!” Acid burned her tongue. “The gods won’t give you anything, in case you’ve forgotten they just left us in the hands of The Society of Crows.”
Flurries melted against his shocked face. Maybe her outburst had nothing to do with their previous line of conversation, but her hatred for the gods burned bright right now. Especially when the storm raging around them was caused by a god’s emissary.
“That’s it. I’ve had it with this nonsense.” Her heart jolted as he strode toward her, faster than she could track in her current state. He lifted her with one arm under her knees and hooked the other one behind her back.
“What do you think you are doing?” Her adrenaline spiked, but she wrapped her arms around his neck regardless, and they stepped out into the raging blizzard. The crisp air bit at her skin, but Gavin carried her as if she weighed no more than a child.
“I’m taking you somewhere warm and dry.” It was hard to see anything in the night, especially in the middle of the storm, and yet she could make out the light amber ring that rounded his pupils. It was the same color as her mother’s skin. The snowflakes stuck to his dark lashes. If he noticed her staring, he didn’t say a word about it.
Her stomach twisted with a sudden desire that tugged at every part of her, much like it had on the day they’d been pronounced husband and wife. When had someone’s appearance alone made her weak at the knees? Or perhaps she was growing delirious from her wound. He was too pretty and that reminded her too much of Cullen, who’d played with her like a cat with a rodent that it intended to kill but not eat.
“I told you if you touched me, I would have to kill you.” There was no heat behind her words. She’d still escape, but later. At least Gavin didn’t seem keen to drag her away from here tonight in the middle of this storm.
He glanced down at her, and his lips twitched. “I’ve known you’d be the death of me ever since I got that letter. Might as well make you comfortable before you do it.”
“That forsaken letter came to ruin us both—you probably didn’t even know who they’d forced into your life when you got it.”
He brought her closer to his body, his jaw clenching as he looked toward the lights shimmering through layers of wind and ice.
“No, I knew who you were.”
Violet swallowed and ignored the fluttering in her stomach. She needed to heal fast and escape him and this place as soon as possible. Not because she hated him, but because he was her worst nightmare. She liked him too much for this interaction to be safe. He had cracked her defenses, destroyed her carefully crafted plan of never allowing herself to be interested in a man again. To truly want intimacy, both in body and mind. At least she wasn’t dreaming about a family yet, because that was something she couldn’t have.
Unless she found her soulmate. She was one of those fools who still believed those existed, and maybe if she found hers, Dargan wouldn’t be able to claim the debt she owed him.
Alas, her time ran out, and while Gavin wasn’t her soulmate, he was the only man she had this attraction to. Her arranged marriage didn’t feel like a farce when her body heated with his nearness. She wanted his touch; she craved him, and that was dangerous.
She focused on the scar she’d caused, and remorse stirred in her chest. Her fingers itched to trace the pink edges, to soothe them by way of apology.
Damn him.
3
VIOLET
