Page 110 of Feralheart

“I will.”

My hands trembled as I gathered more things for her pack. The tremor traveled up my forearms, a betrayal written in muscle and bone.

I willed them steady. They didn’t obey.

A lifetime of training. Weapons drills where I’d held a blade motionless for an hour. Diplomatic dinners where I’d lifted wine glasses without a ripple. Control was the foundation of everything I’d been built on. And I was crumbling in a kitchen at midnight while a woman I couldn’t stop thinking about watched it happen.

“How long has Aristus been sick?” she asked softly.

The question gouged through my belly. I set down a packet of nuts before I dropped it.

“Months.” The admission scraped out. “The healers all say—” I couldn’t speak the rest.

She didn’t offer platitudes or tell me everything would be fine, and I appreciated that. She nodded, and I sensed she understood what it felt like to watch someone you love slip away while you stood helpless.

We were both racing to save someone we’d already lost.

I hefted the pack, judging the weight before handing it to her.

She reached for it.

Our fingers connected. The contact barely registered, but I felt it everywhere, a jolt traveling up my arm and lodging in my chest.

Her pupils dilated, and her breath caught. She took the pack and stepped back, breaking the contact.

“Tomorrow…” I said.

“We race.”

Dread flickered through me.

“Don’t die,” I said.

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

A ghost of a smile tried to form on my face. “Smart.”

I turned and strode toward the door, pausing, not looking back. “I’ll escort you to your room.”

“Why?”

“You will allow me to do this,” I ground out.

“Alright.”

Still favoring her foot, she walked past me and out of the kitchen. I shadowed her up the stairs and down the hall. She stopped outside the door, turning back to face me.

“Thank you for helping me with my foot,” she said. “And for…” She gestured vaguely toward the gardens.

My gaze found hers. “You don’t need to⁠—”

“I do. You killed for me. Twice. And I don’t…” She swallowed. “I don’t know why.”

“I don’t either.” My voice had dropped away to nothing. “But I’d do it again.”

“I would’ve tried to save you too,” she said. “If I could have.”

My breath caught.