Zane flinched. The look in her eyes afterwards… He never wanted to see that fear on her face again. But he remembered Mylis pledging to follow Roth into a war they’d surely lose, even as he’d refused.“You’re an idiot,”he’d spat at Mylis, in the face of that blind loyalty.
He’d been on Oppalli. They both had. Sometimes, playing dirty was the only way to win.
Red beads bubbled against the shoulder of Mylis’s smock, and as he winced and clapped a hand over them, Zane’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry. I’ll do whatever it takes to earn your forgiveness. I had to try for Roth, but I never would’ve hurt you, I swear?—”
“Mylis, breathe,” Zane urged. The crimson beads had oozed into a wet blotch, leaving Mylis’s fingers slick with blood. “Man, calm down. You’re going to hurt yourself.Breathe.”
Panic still shone in Mylis’s eyes. His gaze darted from the door, to the window, then, absurdly, to the air vent. “I wouldn’t have done it. I wouldn’t. You have to believe me.”
Zane let out a slow breath.
Right.The traitor’s son. Mylis knew better than most what happened to those who betrayed a duchissa.
A flash of Landon Grant’s gouged-out eyes made Zane choke. He poured another glass of water, gulping down mouthfuls to quell the acid taste in his throat.
Mylis probably hadn’t been told yet, about his father’s death or the reason he’d died. He would do his best to assure Mylis it wasn’t his fault, but his father had died trying to save him, and that guilt would eat him alive.
Kalie remained on the dresser with her arms folded, studying him. Zane gestured at Mylis’s hunched figure.
Look at him.Look at what he’s done for you.
She didn’t move.
Zane grimaced. “I trust him.”
Desperate relief shone in Mylis’s blackened eyes, and Kalie’s stony expression twitched.
Sliding off the dresser, she crossed the room. She hesitated by the foot of the bed, glancing from Zane to Mylis and back again. Her arms dropped to her sides, but the tilt of her head and the thin line of her lips were the picture of suspicion. Mylis was still shaking. His shoulder was still bleeding.
“Kalie.” Zane’s eyes found hers, and some of the tension on her face eased.He’s going to let himself bleed out here if you don’t forgive him, he almost said. “He risked his life to warn you about the invasion. He nearly died for it. I trust him. So can you.”
Kalie drew her lip between her teeth. Her gaze flicked to Mylis’s hand, still pressed against his bleeding shoulder, and she grabbed a stack of gauze off a cart.
His wide, blackened eyes turned to her as she held out the gauze. “It’s going to take me a while to get past what happened, but I want us to be friends again. Take time to recover. Heal. Then we’ll have a game of mortelle and talk. Okay?”
Zane could’ve sworn she smiled, if only for a moment.
Mylis’s eyes glistened. “Thank you, Your Majesty.Thank you.”
“No.” Kalie inhaled slowly. “Thank you. Zane’s right. If you hadn’t tipped us off about the invasion, I never could’ve stopped Carik. Perhaps I owe you a debt.”
A distant look flashed across her face, and she tilted her head to the side, considering. After a moment, the haze cleared and she shook the gauze forcefully, pressing a button on Zane’s bedside remote. “Iowe both of you. But none of that does any good if you bleed out, so take the gauze until the nurse gets here.”
With a tentative smile that strained his split lip, Mylis accepted the gauze and slid it under the collar of his smock. “Where’s Mira? I expected to find her here.”
Zane’s grin slid away. There was an empty chair by the window.
The air grew too hot, the room too tight.
“I need to thank her,” Mylis mumbled. “She found me there, slipped me painkillers…”
The rest of his words dulled as Zane’s pulse thumped in his ears. The monitor beeped rapidly. A doctor’s voice blared over the intercom, paging nurses to a patient who’d crashed.
That chair.
Empty.
Oh, Mordir.
