"If you'd like to," she says, extending a hand to pull me up. Delicate diamonds glitter on her hand, her nails immaculately filed. A gentle arm holds mine as she helps my battered body walk out the door.
"Have you seen Onyx?" She asks, breaking the silence as we walk.
"He asked me to leave him alone. Rexxan broke the news to him that his leg may never heal," I say, my voice hoarse with unshed tears. "What is he going to do?"
"We'll give him all our support, Renna. I'm going to work on him too, with Talyn. We've already started on the research. If anyone can get him back on his feet, it's Talyn, Aanen, Rexxan, and I."
"Have you seen it before? Someone recovering from it?" I ask, my chest puffing with a little glimmer of hope.
"I must say, aside from Rexxan's burns, it's possibly one of the worst injuries I've seen anyone obtain and live to tell the tale... but I'd refrain from telling him he's lucky because he won't feel that way at all. Often we see people create distance between themselves and their loved ones after an injury like this, even if you think it ought to be the other way around. Trauma either unites or divides us, Rennalya, and for Onyx it's the latter. All we can do is be ready for when he wants to open his heart up to us again."
"How did you get so wise? You make me feel so..." I absentmindedly kick a leaf in the courtyard as we cross it.
"So...?"
I shrug. "I don't know. Inferior. Young."
"If you feel younger than me, it's because I'm almost seven times your age. And what if I told you that I feel the same way about you?"
A laugh escapes my lips before I realise she's deadly serious. "You feel inferior to me? Being the richest, most influential, most intelligent, most desired woman in Yterras doesn't cut it for you?"
"I think you're the most desired woman on this earth already, and that you'll be the richest and most powerful woman in history once you marry Rexxan, but that is beside the point. There are many things about you that I wish I had, including your fearlessness and your complete and utter acceptance of who you are—“
"Easy when your tits look like this," I quip, my hands on my chest.
Lynna laughs out loud. "That's exactly what I mean! I've never met a woman so comfortable with exactly who they are and what they look like. It's delightfully refreshing. But my point is, Rennalya, if we all had each other’s characteristics then we'd all be clones. You're different to me, I'm different to you, that's why we're friends. We spend so much time tearing ourselves down in comparison to other women that we forget that what we ought to be doing is building ourselves upwithother women."
I sigh, my fingers tightening around her arm. "I'm grateful Rex didn't marry you, of course, but he's a bloody great fool not to have done."
She breathes out a soft laugh. "I'm high maintenance, Renna. I think I've spent half of his money on dresses and jewels even though I can buy them myself. I've inherited my mother’s love of luxury gifts."
I smile sadly. "Stellan was like that."
"How are you coping?"
"Well, I've only cried about it six times so far today. Annaliya has been away with the army rescuing people stranded on a hill near the River City. I'm dreading her arrival so much I can't explain it. Even the thought of telling her…,” I shake my head, tears welling in my eyes. "Can we talk about something else?"
Our conversation doesn't last long, because I can't summon any words to speak when I hear Rexxan's deep voice swearing in agony, muffled like his mouth is covered. "Why doesn't he ask me to cool them for him?"
"Because you ought to be saving your energy for recovery," she says, unlocking the door with a key. I hear my swallow, my breathing unsteady as I tentatively step in, equally as scared as I was the first time. Rexxan is tied down, trying to break the restraints as Talyn and three other healers treat him.
This month has been utterly relentless. It's one thing after another, and if there's one person who doesn't deserve to suffer any more, it's Rexxan. He's only in this position because he helped Ocealia. I sit down on the corner of his bed and try to talk to him, but he isn't listening through the pain. The veins on his tanned arms bulge as the heat of past flames torture him.
I hover my fingers over his chest, drawing warmth from his skin into mine, diffusing it through my body just like he has taught me. I'd trade all of my abilities with my powers just to keep this one. In the quiet peace of the spare bedroom, I watch as his breathing regulates, his chest rising and falling a little slower, and I know he's fallen asleep.
"Thank you, my lady," says Talyn, his smile warm. "I'll leave you two alone."
"I should leave him to sleep too, I suppose," I reply, sliding off the bed, my bare feet dropping to the ground.
Rexxan's hand tightens around mine and my heart melts just that little bit. He struggles with showing emotion, I know, but he does little things that show me more than words could. "I think I'll stay a while, actually," I slide back onto the bed and curl up on his chest, spending my afternoon dozing in and out of sleep with my body on his.
When I wake up, Rexxan is no longer in the small bed in one of the guest rooms, and I roll my eyes in the mirror as I tie my hair up in a ponytail. The muscles in my shoulders burn with an unwelcome ache as I do it.
The room is silent, and I mutter an insult to Rex under my breath. He has no problem asking me to stay, but won't do it himself.Infuriating man.
I've bathed today, but I'm going to have another. I think it's a coping mechanism; it'd usually be fighting in the training courtyard but I've lost both the strength in my limbs and my favourite training partner. I brush away a tear before it can escape and focus on the task at hand, just like Rex tells me to. Tie hair. Stand up. Walk across the courtyard. Bathe.
Gods save me. He's leaning against the bathroom door as I arrive, one ankle crossed over the other, the densely packed muscle on his legs hugged by brown riding trousers. Forget whatever nonsense I said about the bathroom,he'smy coping mechanism. His dark green linen shirt is immaculately laid out across huge shoulders, and just the sight of him heals my mood somewhat.
