Page 71 of Of Shadows and Blood

That hand is back again, rubbing my body. Slowly, my eyes open. It’s incredibly hard to manually force them. The grey light above shines down on me, warm rather than a cold overcast. A male blurs above me; his hair falls into his face before he pushes it out of the way.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” he repeats over and over and over.

“Cedric,” I say back.

It’s him. He found me.

He smiles, sliding his arms under my back and knees to lift me up. I use everything in me to put my arms around his neck. “Are you okay?” I whisper, my head bobbing as he carries me to Steele, who is tied by a tree. Sawyer walks with us, his own shirt soaked through.

Cedric looks down to me and laughs, softly saying, “There are far greater concerns than my personal wellbeing.” I moan at the sharp pain in my head again, unable to form a response.

“Sawyer,” I manage to say extending a hand to him before he mounts his steed. “Thank you.” It was him, after all, who pulled me from being swept further into rapids.

“Yes, thank you.” Cedric works his jaw and looks to his brother. “Truly.” Sawyer nods and mounts his honeyed brown horse.

Cedric lifts me onto Steele as if he wasn’t just shot with an arrow. He gets on behind me and pulls me tightly to him again, his arm completely wrapped around my midsection.

“Home,” he urges Steele.

Chapter 17

It is a bittersweet thought to be subjected to the elements of mortality again. The sun is a mistress.

My head throbs, waking me from my sleep. I blink, looking around the space. I’m not in the infirmary wing, so that must be a good sign. But I am in the castle.

My neck is stiff but pliable on the pillow so I look right. The lack of portrait on the wall and stacks of papers in baskets next to the bed alerts me as to whose room this is.

I slowly sit up, feeling the pain in my head again. A chair creaks to my left. Cedric is seated at a desk in the office.

“Don’t rush to get up,” he says as he strides over.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” I moan. I look at my arms, noticing I’m in a nightgown.

“Isodora,” he cuts in.

“Oh, right,” I say looking over at him as he sits on the edge of the bed. My lady helped me dress and I barely know her. I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, shy for a few reasons. His eye catches it for a moment.

“If you’re wondering why you’re in my quarters, we rested you on your bed when we first arrived, so it was soaked by the time we got you in warmer clothing. Grenn and Percy had you transferred an hour ago.”

I nod, not remembering much of our arrival. I begin looking at the vastness of his bedchambers. “So, there were no other open beds in the castle?”

“Not a single one, I’m afraid,” he replies with a hint of tight humor and runs a hand through his hair.

Cedric seems to feel a bit more comfortable around me. I like this side of him. The non-rigid Cedric. The non-kingly Cedric.

“How are you feeling?” he asks, examining me with his eyes.

“Worse than I did this morning,” I joke followed with a few coughs. “Sawyer saved me.”

“I know. For that, I am incredibly grateful.”

Slowly I push into a seated position. “Why was he in the forest?”

Cedric pours wine from a carafe into a goblet before offering it to me. “Heading to or from Krue, I imagine.”

I sip and nod. “Did Duresden really send those soldiers? I noticed a few of them had his coat of arms.” We were there a month ago and nothing seemed hostile. Perhaps tense, but not in the sense that would force Rolan’s hand towards assassination. In fact, Rolan seemed to be the key enforcer for a better alliance.

“We’re not sure. Their uniforms match that of his calvary yet they were horseless. They could indeed be highwaymen who stole the uniforms but twelve of them? Unlikely,” Cedric explains, rubbing his chin. “There have been skirmishes on the border in the past.”