‘What the fuck are you talking about?’
‘You know it’s not safe for her kind in Pedion?Some can’t hide what they are so easily.’
Torgrin said nothing, and the tension grew.Recognising that Torgrin wouldn’t listen to anything he had to say, the general strode away to meet his soldiers, who were gathered and waiting for him in the early morning light.
‘Hey, come here.’Torgrin drew me up out of the mud.
I pulled my arm from his grasp and walked away from him.He made no effort to stop me, but he followed me up the bank.Everyone was waking up on the first morning in three days.There were cheers of relief from familiar voices.
‘What the stars is going on, Caris?’he asked in frustration.I picked up my speed the moment he caught up to me.
‘Look at me,’ he said.
Had I not asked Cillian to do the same just days ago?Oh, the pain of losing him was too fresh.Why did I wake?What was here for me but endless pain and the fear of what I’d become?
Knowing I had no choice, I stopped in the middle of the camp, keeping my gaze on the ground.A tingling at the base of my neck told me everyone’s eyes rested on us.
‘Please, Caris.After everything that has happened, I need to know that you’re okay.’
I heard gasps around me when I lifted my head, but Torgrin’s expression was relieved, as if my gaze was all he needed and that the change in my appearance was of no consequence.
Over his shoulder, Atlas was observing us with concerned eyes.Standing beside him were Ania and Wolfe, who weren’t as good athiding their shock.Tomas, Braya, the curator and Mae gathered around us.
‘They all stayed here to wait for you to wake up, Caris,’ Torgrin said softly.
In the light of day, I saw Ephemeros soldiers guarding the camp’s perimeter.‘Where’s everyone else?’I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear how he would explain his men’s absence.
‘I don’t know how much you remember, but it’s been night ever since we left Capita, and some were afraid.’Torgrin ran a hand through his messy hair, making it stick out from his head even more.‘We decided it was better we camped a little away from everyone to keep things calm.’
‘You mean to stop them from killing me?’
His silence told me everything.
‘Maybe they are right to be afraid of me?Who knows what I’m capable of now?Don’t you have a responsibility to protect them from me?’I pointed at Ania and Wolfe.
I was coming to realise I was angry with him.He had saved me instead of letting me stay buried with Cillian.And now he put himself at risk by being near me.How could he have been sleeping in the same tent as me when I had turned men to ash without even knowing it?Who knew what I could do to him in my sleep?My eyes were proof there was something unnatural about me.I was not a Weaver; I was something far more dangerous.
‘You would never hurt them,’ he ground out, his stony mask slipping.
‘Are you sure?’I was spiralling, and I couldn’t stop myself.‘How will you protect them or anyone else from me when I can just turn you to ash with a snap of my fingers?’I laughed darkly.
‘I know how you feel better than you think.’A muscle in his scarred cheek twitched, and something flickered in his eyes.
‘Really?How?’I asked, stepping forward so our faces were only a breath apart and he could see my soulless eyes up close.
His lips parted briefly, and then they snapped shut again.
‘Oh, wait.That would mean you’d have to actually tell me something about yourself,’ I spat.
‘You aren’t the only one who’s traumatised by what happened in those city walls,’ he growled, finally losing his cool.
I flinched, remembering the marks that covered his body.
‘I know!I took too long to come back!If I hadn’t left you that night, Cillian might be …’
‘No!That’s not what I meant,’ he said quickly.‘The trauma was watching you almost die, Caris!’I was shocked to see him so bare.His mask was gone, and I could see pain in the lines around his mouth and fear in his obsidian eyes.Fear for me, not for himself.
‘Stop.’Atlas came to stand between us.‘You both need to stop,’ Atlas pleaded, placing a hand on each of us.
