Theo grimaced.
Fuck.
They didn’t have a week. He needed her better now.
Lionel looked her over again with concern. “Her body... Theo, she looks starved. She won’t heal fast in this state. Was she a prisoner?”
“She’s a new recruit,” Theo replied. “Can you heal that piece of her? The frailness?”
Lionel’s bright eyes had been full of questions, but he didn’t pry. “I’ll do what I can.”
His golden light had touched her again. Unnaturally hollow curves filled out, gaunt cheekbones became smooth, the silhouette of protruding ribs under her clothes was no longer visible. The difference in her appearance was extraordinary.
She looked peaceful as the healer worked—beautiful even.
“She’s still very weak,” Lionel said as his light faded. “But she’s not as close to death. I don’t think she would have lasted much longer like that.”
Theo knew Lionel wasn’t talking about the leg. He didn’t understand why she had gotten to such a state. As he watched, Lionel directed his assistants to carry her to her room. He decided then and there she would never become that frail again. Not on his watch.
He turned over in his bed, bringing his thumb and forefinger to his eyes, rubbing them vigorously, trying to rid himself of a headache.
The headache was her, and this damned riddle that surrounded her. “Get out of my head,” he groaned.
He left the softness of his bed. He just needed to see she was breathing. One glance and he could stop thinking about her and rest.
He entered the hall and steadily creaked open her door.
She lay quietly in the dim room. There was calm in her expression, like she hadn’t been granted this deep of a sleep in ages. Her breathing was light and even as she nestled under the blankets. Observing her from a distance, he felt that guilt seep down into his gut again.
He had watched her run and hadn’t followed until it was too late.
His hatred for her actions had gotten the best of him. As captain to this legion, he should have acted better. When they had emerged from the tunnel to find her in the lake, he had told Callum to wait, to not intervene. Theo was sure she was going to use her power to escape the water, just like she used it to escape him.
She didn’t.
Callum was right, her injury was his fault. He had to do better—be better.
As he leaned against the doorframe, the sight of her eased his restless mind. She no longer resembled a walking ghost. Theo tried to will his feet to move and go back to his own quarters. He had assured himself she was okay, he could leave now.
Go to her. Touch her.
He resented that unyielding invisible pull, that unseen force telling him that she was his, to feel her, to be near her. It was a mental battle every second to force those thoughts away.
Whatever this voice was, it was wrong. He could neverwantto feel anything for her. She was a powerful weapon he needed to mold, to save a realm he was entrusted to protect.
There’s nothing more to her than that.He repeated the phrase in his head as he lingered in that doorway, watching her chest rise and fall with every breath.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
BEFORE
She stared up at the stars as they lay in the grass. Dolion’s eyes were fixed on her. She reveled in his long, lazy appraisals. She had never considered herself a beauty, but the way he looked at her, she could be fooled into false vanity.
She matched the intensity in his gaze with her own. His face looked as boyish as the day she met him, a bit more tanned from the summer sun, but the years of hard work here hadn’t compromised his youthful appearance.
Their secret meetings had become a need for Helaina. They had shared their passions, their dreams, their visions for a future. Not like Helaina had much choice in hers. She would grow into an old crone behind these castle walls if her family got their way. Still, it was nice to daydream. He too wanted to travel the world, to distant lands beyond Kydon’s Sea. They were so alike, Dolion and her.
“I had a dream... about you last night.” She spoke in such a hushed tone, she wasn’t sure he heard her.
