Page 63 of Keldori By Daybreak

“Ciarán?” I whispered. His hand tightened around the jar, but he kept his eyes on the ceiling. “Do you want to talk?”

“It’s not a keep,” he said.

“What?” I screwed my face up at him.

“Orla called the hideout the Keep of Realta Fiel, but it’s not technically a keep.” He turned his head towards mine and let the glow of his eyes dim, making his face look more like Liam’s. “A keep is part of a castle, but this isn’t part of anything. It’s a single building carved into a canyon.”

“Maybe whoever named it took artistic liberties and considered the canyon to be like a castle.”

“The canyon is not a castle.”

“Is this really what you’re thinking about right now?”

“Go to sleep, Blue. The Lyrian will want us up soon.” He rolled so his back was to me.

“But how will I sleep knowing we’re not actually in a keep?”

“Wren.” He growled my name directly into my head.

“You liked architecture in Keldori too.” I nestled back against my backpack and hoodie.

Ciarán fell silent, and his breathing slowed, but I could still feel his thoughts vibrating against mine—tangible, but indecipherable. His fingers, I noticed, still clutched at the bottle of ashes. His thumb rubbed at the cork.

“I’m sorry about your mom and dad.”

His lean shoulders heaved with a heavy sigh that sounded more exasperated than sad.

“Don’t be. They died doing what they’d sworn to do as Grimguards.”

“They swore to protect the Rift, not to get murdered and decapitated.” The words tumbled out into the dark, harsh and thoughtless. The buzzing of Ciarán’s thoughts stopped. “Oh. Ciarán, I didn’t mean to—”

“A Grimguard’s duty isn’t to the Rift, but to the Saergrims. I made the same oath, and I’ll suffer the same fate if that is what it takes to faithfully serve you.”

“No.” Horror propelled me back into a sitting position. “No, I don’t want that.”

“It’s not up to you.” The orange light returned to his irises and lit the outline of his nose as he turned to look at me over his shoulder. “Now sleep, Blue, before I get inside that pretty head of yours and make you.”

I glared at him in the dark but didn’t want to test if he was lying or not about being able to use our connection to render me unconscious, so I relaxed and finally let the silence settle between us.

Ciarán succumbed to sleep first, which made sense. Crying often made me tired, too. His thoughts stilled in my head, and his breathing deepened.

An ache in my side made it impossible to get comfortable despite my fatigue, and I realized it wasn’t pain from my own aging injuries, but Ciarán’s pain seeping across our bond now that he was unconscious and unable to reign himself in.

I crawled to his side with a hand pressed against my ribs to stare at his sleeping form. Had my injuries hurt him like this these last weeks?

I pulled at the hem of his cloak, and it fell away to reveal the pale, scarred skin of his chest. I shifted closer and hovered my hands over Ciarán’s side. The skin had resealed thanks to my earlier magick but was still pink and puckered. The muscle and bone would still be healing beneath.

I’d done an okay job with his physical injuries, but the helplessness I’d felt as he’d grieved his parents nagged at me. Orla, despite having more reason to hate Ciarán than me, hadn’t wasted a moment in trying to comfort him, even as she mourned her own parents.

I was useless, but I could at least do this.

I pressed my hands against Ciarán’s scarred skin and watched his sleeping features for signs of waking. However, his breathing stayed steady and his face passive, so I continued.

When I pried open the tether between us to better feel his injuries. I gasped as pain bloomed in my side, tracing the path the rotsbane’s claws had made through Ciarán’s flesh, but healing magick was becoming easier after so much practice the last few days. I’d never been much of a crafter, but it felt like how imagined it felt to weave or embroider. I wasn’t quite stitching him back together. It was something different, but just as effective.

“There isn’t room…”

I froze at Ciarán’s voice in my head. I thought I might’ve woken him, but a quick glance told me he was still fast asleep.