I nodded into his shirt, finding comfort in the resonance of his every word through his chest.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
When I didn’t say anything, he curled his hands around my arms and pried me back, just a little. Just enough to peer down at me with pleading, worried eyes.
“The Serpent,” I said hoarsely.
He frowned and shook his head like he hadn’t quite heard me, then glanced past me at the chaotic cluster of Kingsmen and growled a low; “Shut the fuck up.”
The silence was instant. He leaned toward me once more and I licked my dry lips, sucked in a shuddering breath. When I spoke again, my voice wavered in the fragile air.
“The Serpent was here.”
Chapter Nine
A Dying Star
He had insisted I was nothing more than a witness, yet after my questioning and a quick bowl of stew, I was confined to my room and told not to leave.
“You’ve had back to back shocks. You’re the sole witness to a confirmed sighting of the most wanted person in the Kingdom. You’re going to stay put, Rosie.”
“But Sorcha–”
“She’s surrounded by soldiers and she’s got Brennan washing dishes, for fuck’s sake.” His lip twitched. “She’ll be just fine.”
I went limp, half with relief that Sorcha was safe – half put out that I’d lost my one excuse to get up and burn off all this nervous energy humming through me. The Captain shut my bedroom door, pausing a moment with his back to me before he turned and leaned against it, brow tense.
“We’re going to have you under guard for the night.”
“You think they’re coming back?”
The words squeaked out of me, and I couldn’t even bringmyself to be embarrassed. My Flame beat a frantic rhythm at odds with my thundering heart, the crash of my magic and pulse making the fire flare. At least in the privacy of my bedroom, I didn’t have to afford the effort to contain it. The slight glow caught the Captain’s eye, and he took a dazed half step forward like a moth drawn in before he caught himself.
“It’s just a precaution,” he said, voice a little low and dazed. He cleared his throat and dragged his gaze from my Flame to my face. “And after what you told us about the tea, Brennan and I have agreed we don’t have much choice.”
“You think theypoisonedme?”
I was quietly shrieking now, fire racing down my arms unbidden. He held up his hands in a placating gesture.
“Not in my opinion, no. There was still some tea in the pot, we’ve got a few herbal specialists in our ranks who want to look into it. It’s just –”
“A precaution,” I echoed.
I could tell there was something more by the way he stood suspended in the small space between my bed and the door, the breadth of his shoulders too straight and tense. He reached up to grab the back of his neck, and his arm flexed with the movement, catching my eyes like the glow of my magic had caught his.
“I’m sorry you’ve had such a fright.”
“It’s not your fault.”
He huffed out a half-laugh, and I could tell he disagreed, but he let it go. He was still kneading at the back of his neck, though – still skirting around something else, something more he had to tell me.
I raised an expectant brow and he smiled, a little sheepish before he straightened up and cleared his throat, all business.
“I thought maybe I could be your guard for the night,” he said steadily. Then hurried to add; “I can assign someone else, if you’d prefer.”
“You’re going to stay with me?”
He paused, unreadable as ever – then nodded.
