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* * *
The next morning, Radax was well enough to get up.
I waited by the bracks’ trailer. Hiding around the corner, I watched them come out and head to the tents to finish loading the trucks.
When Radax came out, I rushed to him. “Radax!”
He turned to me, smiling. “Morning.”
I took in every line and dip of his face, committing it to memory. His full beard, his dark brown eyes, the red streaks in them barely visible in the morning light, the fine lines fanning in the corners as he smiled for me.
I touched his hand. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” he easily replied.
A slight wince didn’t escape my notice when he rolled back his shoulders, neither did the reproachful glance he tossed toward Madame’s trailer.
Madame might control his mind enough to make him forget the whipping, but I didn’t think she had the power to completely erase how he felt about it or her.
“You can’t use his rage against me,”she’d said. But I wondered if he’d use it against her himself one day. Sadly, I would no longer be here to see that.
The thought of leaving him was devastating. It crushed my heart, but I bit back the tears. Seeing me upset would make him ask questions, but he couldn’t have the answers. The least he knew, the safer he would be.
“I love you, Radax.” I rose to my tiptoes and gave him a big hug, the biggest I’d ever given.
He grunted in surprise, then wrapped his arms around me in response.
“I love you, too.” He kissed my hair.
“I’ll never forget you,”I vowed in my mind.
Tears burned my eyes, but I blinked them away, shoving my emotions deep inside me. This was the only goodbye I could afford to have without risking putting Radax in danger. No one could suspect he’d helped me in any way.
I was ready. All I had to do was to get back to Kyllen. Then I would leave the only world I knew.
The idea terrified me, but there was no going back now.
