Page 124 of A Cruel Kindness

Too far away, the Bond shouted.

I shook my head against burgeoning tears that felt awfully childish. I made a move to reach for him, but Freya restrained me. I struggled against her hold. She didn’t know what it felt like to almost lose him.

That had been my last thought before I passed out. That I might not hold him again. And he was too far away.

“Ford!” Freya called, holding me steady even as I twisted and turned, trying to break free of her arms and flail my body onto Soren’s.

Ford strode across the infirmary floor quickly. Freya pulled me to the edge of the bed as easily as she would a child, while Ford bent and hauled Soren up with a huff of breath.

Soren was dead weight in Ford’s hold and yet he didn’t look all that strained as he lifted Soren’s body up and onto the bed next to me.

The second his form hit the mattress, I curled over him as tears sprang to my eyes.

I sobbed against his side as my hands rushed over every inch of his body, making sure his heart was beating, his breaths were even, his skin was in tact.

It wasn’t until I twisted even further, putting weight on my left leg, that I remembered what happened to me.

“Alright, please don’t tear your stitches,” Freya said, bringing her hand to my leg and lifting it over Soren’s thigh so that it was elevated and saved from being trapped between our bodies.

“What happened?” I asked through a rush of tears, uncaring that I was an emotional mess. “Why isn’t he awake?”

If Soren was just sleeping, there was no way he wouldn’t have woken up when I did.

My hands tightened over him, as if their answer would take him away from me.

“How much do you remember?” Freya said as she took a seat in the chair next to me. I realized then that she had probably been sitting there already when I woke up.

I forced myself to let go of Soren with one hand and reach it towards Freya, grabbing hers and squeezing to thank her.

She smiled, and if I wasn’t mistaken, her eyes went slightly hazy.

I swallowed, recalling what had happened. “Elijah shot me. Right after he told me the Prince was rescinding the engagement.”

Freya and Ford’s eyes slammed together before Ford dropped his head with incredulous laughter. “That fucker.”

I turned to Freya to find her expression crestfallen, but there was something close to disappointment underneath it all. “Do you want to wait for Soren to wake up?”

I looked at him, finding his expression calm. I smoothed my hand over his shorn hair, my heart pinching painfully.

God, I loved him. He was everything to me.

There wouldn’t be enough time in the world to take in every small part of him, from the way each strand of his hair was a slightly different color, to the new freckles I’d find on his face, to the way he stirred his coffee—three times to the left and once to the right.

I shook my head, answering Freya. “No. No, I think it’s best we talk now.”

I assumed Soren knew what had happened to me, save the person who did it.

“Well, Elijah,” Ford said, drawing out his name with a note of disgust. “Clearly thinks he’s fucking hilarious. Do you remember him taking the arrow out?”

My head snapped up to look at him, my brows slamming together in confusion. “What? He took out the arrow?”

Ford nodded, his face harsh with anger. “Fixed your tourniquet, too. He somehow managed to miss all major arteries.”

“Somehow,” Freya repeated, as if she didn’t believe that was up to chance. If she was right, that demonstrated a level of skill that was almost unbelievable. Freya shook her head once in confusion. “He clearly wanted you alive. Just … hurt.”

“They sent out three different search parties for him,” Ford added. “I don’t care who the fuck he thinks he is or if he works for the Prince. That was an attempt on your life. That’s a crime of the highest order.”

Right. Because even if I was here willingly, there was just an attempt made on the Emperor’s daughter’s life. I sighed heavily. “I feel like they might have been planning this. Stringing us along with false hope of a peace treaty.”