Page 45 of Trapped By Clocks and Hearts

I merely grunted in response before walking away.

Across the grand staircase and to the left of the hall, I was going to walk past Allie’s suite but stopped short at the open doorway.

Allie sat on one end of the plush fabric day couch with a bottle of antiseptic and a pile of clean bandages beside her. The Duchess had provided them to replace the ‘atrocious scraps of cloth’ we had used to bind her wounds.

I didn’t have enough magic to heal her injuries either. But I wasn’t much inclined to ask the Duchess for any more favors, in case she asked another one of me—the nature of which I already knew I wouldn’t be able to grant.

Her lab coat was draped over the armrest. Her sleeves folded up, Allie muttered as she struggled to apply the medicine to her injuries, cursing every so often.

Already shaking my head, I marched over to take the bandages out of her hands.

“I can do it myself.” Allie shrugged me off, but her frustration was obvious as she attempted to re-dress her shoulder wound.

She was so bloody stubborn.

Exasperated myself, I brushed her hand aside and gripped her other arm. “I know you can,” I said, my tone firm as I sat down beside her. “But let me.”

Surprised, those honey-brown eyes gazed up at me, half in suspicion, half in…wonder. She stopped her protest and let me tend to her wound. The bleeding had stopped but it would still need a bit of my magic to heal it completely tomorrow.

I quickly checked her aura. Despite her injuries, she was relatively unharmed. But as I worked, I could sense a certain level of confusion in Allie.

She wasn’t sure what to make of me right then either. She definitely wasn’t pleased about our failed quest. She was conflicted about being here. A deep wanting of home burned inside her, but it was marred by frustration since she couldn’t remember anything about it.

Having never had to process feelings before, everything only felt jumbled to me. Much noise without a thread of melody. A cacophony of notions without a shred of sense. I shook off the connection.

“It’s done.” I turned to put the leftover bandages away.

The neckline on my shirt pulled at my skin as it was tugged to one side with Allie peering closer.

I recoiled. “What the hell are you doing?”

She gave me a pointed look. “Your shoulder injury also needs looking at. Take off your shirt.”

Shrugging her hand off, I dismissed it. “Leave it. I’ll fix it tomorrow with a spell once my magic recovers.”

Allie made a face. “It looks horrible. Come on. I’m a doctor, remember?”

“You said you’re not that kind of doctor,” I reminded her.

She pursed her lips in insistence. “At least let me put the healing balm from the Duchess on it.” She leaned forward to inspect my shoulder and I stiffened in my seat.

With excruciatingly slow movements, Allie reached into my shirt from the opening at the neck to apply the balm against my stab wound. Luckily, I had already cleaned it up. I was sure it looked more gruesome earlier.

I glared at the top of her head, of half a mind to push her off and away.

Her hair smelled like…like… I wrinkled my nose as the realization struck me. The flowers… That intoxicating scent was coming from Allie’s hair.

Dammit. I should get up.

“I should go sit somewhere else,” I grumbled but I couldn’t make my body move away. Allie was warm, soft… Her mere presence seemed to quiet much of the conflicted rage in my head. I was tempted to sink into the couch beside her but my back remained stiff. “This is…odd.”

Allie groaned. “What is the big deal? Stop being such a big baby.” To support herself, her other hand was propped firm on my other shoulder. Her small hand pressed warm through the fabric of my shirt and sent shivers up my spine.

The way she was leaning over me was bringing her face quite close to mine. I only needed to lift my hand and I could plunge my fingers through that thick mass of silken hair and grasp the nape of her neck to pull her in and take that mouth—

Rolling my eyes in annoyance at my own ridiculous notions, I averted my gaze to look out the window.

A small flock of birds squawked as they flapped across the lagoon behind the Duchess’s house. The moon’s reflection was full and round among the lilies floating in the still water. Crickets chirped in the humid air. Fireflies dotted the dark gardens.