“Your energy faded.” Warm fingers brushed a few fallen strands of hair from Austin’s face. “You have not eaten much since you arrived. What would you like? I can obtain anything that will please you.”
Tristan sat on the edge of the bed. He’d tucked the blankets over Austin, and the mound of them hid Tristan’s nakedness. “Anything?” Austin asked, voice bleary.
“I command a city,” Tristan said as answer, though in a gentle enough tone.
Anything. Austin’s thoughts went to Liam. Not to his immediate worry for the man, but to one beyond that. To the one thing he so desperately wanted, and had no way of getting. “I command more than a city,” Austin said tiredly, bitterly. “But an empire and more money than I can ever spend isn’t enough to get me whatIwant.”
That lit a fire in Tristan’s eyes. He leaned closer. “Tell me.”
“I want something to block a siren’s power.Mypower. Something I can give to someone that protects them from my voice.”
Surprise flitted across Tristan’s face, followed by a considering look. “Not an easy task. Nevertheless, I will search. But for food, what will you eat?”
Austin’s lashes shuttered down, and he rolled away from Tristan. “Don’t be annoying,” he muttered.
Tristan leaned over him, speaking directly above the ear Austin buried beneath a shield of blankets. “You will not recover if you do not eat.”
Austin ignored him.
“Starvation might lessen your power.”
Austin’s irritation revived him enough to get him sitting up, albeit supported by shaking arms. His muscles were just sosore. He glared at Tristan. “I am notweak.” It came out too thready to be a snap, too shaky to maintain a growl. And he felt weak. Physically tired and mentally drained.
Tristan’s predator eyes gleamed. “You arehungry. Tell me what food you like, and I will—”
Austin’s composure cracked. “I don’tknow!I like—I like—” Austin could not think of a single food he liked. Nor could he think of anything he’d ever eaten in his life, until Liam sneakily slid him a tray of—“Toast! With butter.Irishbutter.”
Tristan paused. “Irish?”
“Through the Tear. The butter from that land.” Austin glared. “And I want Irish white bread too.”
“I will have it ready when you awake.”
A warm hand cupped Austin’s cheek, and a soft kiss against his cheek surprised him into silence. “Forgive me foraggravating you, and please rest,” Tristan said, his voice now all gentleness.
Austin surmounted his surprise. “I wastryingto rest when you, when you—”
“When I disrupted you.”
“Yes.”
Tristan blinked, head canted slightly to the side in a supplicating manner. But thesorryhad yet to come.Forgive mewas more of a demand, was it not? There wasn’t repentance for his actions inthatphrasing. Austin’s top lip shook, but even his facial muscles deserted his control now in his tiredness. He couldn’t muster a full snarl.
Tristan must have seen the utter exhaustion in him, and the fight. His expression remained guiltless. “Forgive me this as well.”
Before Austin could issue a demand, hands cupped either shoulder and a modicum of weight sent him flat onto his back, head landing harmlessly on the pillow. His glare was cut off as Tristan pushed him onto his side and righted the blankets over his shoulder. “Sleep well.” He wisely left the room before Austin mustered the energy to bite his head off.
???
Body aches, a burning throat, and a blistering headache brought upon a black mood that boiled Austin from the inside out. He couldn’t move without groaning, couldn’t hear so much as a drop of water falling on fabric without covering his ears, and he couldn’t utter a peep that didn’t hurt him fiercely.
Austin’s wish to protect Liam from his voice had been granted by a higher power with a twisted sense of humour. All were now safe from the harm his voice could unleash.
Luckily for Tristan.
Austin forced a painful growl from his menagerie of soft blankets, but Tristan’s patience was at an end. He thrust back the covers and caught Austin by his midsection, hauling him out of bed. Austin fought him, and lost with insulting ease.
“You arestarvingto death.” Tristan kept his voice to a whisper. Hours earlier, before Austin lost his voice, he’d threatened to tear out the merman’s tongue if he dared raise it above that. Tristan wrangled Austin only a few feet away from the bed to where a couch had been brought in, placed next to a blazing fire. The fireplace had previously been hidden behind a large tapestry, now removed, and the fire was lit in the early morning when Austin uttered his first complaint of being cold. That little prickling shiver down his arms was now a tremble that no amount of blankets could stave off.
