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“I can walk.”
“It’s easier and faster if I carry you,” he grumbled without stopping, and I winced as my leg jostled against his chest.
“I can still walk.”
“Fuck, Adara,” he hissed my name. “Can’t you just let me take care of you?”
I studied his face, and I knew it was foolish to think I could see his worry hiding behind his anger. Worry that caused my own heart to race.
“Who was that man who attacked me?”
He bit down on his bottom lip before he finally spoke. “I don’t know.” He moved down the hall quickly, in the opposite direction of my room, and I realized that I had no idea where Evren’s rooms were. “He escaped my guards before they discovered who had done this, but I promise you, princess. I will find him.”
Every part of me believed him. He was infuriated that someone had done this to me, and I didn’t know if it was for my sake or the crown’s. But I knew that he wouldn’t stop until he had his dark fingers wrapped around the neck of whoever tried to hurt me.
We walked down a long hall at the opposite end of the palace, and I watched as black smoke dripped from Evren’s fingers and into the intricate lock that held his door. I had never seen anything like his magic.
I had never felt anything like him.
My mark sparked to life under his touch and near his magic, and I clung harder to him as his door clicked open. He pushed through his doorway without any hesitation, and I searched his room as he kicked the door closed behind us.
It was set up similarly to mine, although it was far larger, and it hit me how little belongings he had throughout the room. A dark shirt was slung over the single chair that sat in the corner, and his dark bedding was tousled as if he forbade the servants to come in and make it for him.
He sat me down on the edge of his bed, careful with how he laid my leg against the soft fabrics, and he stared down at me for a long moment before he pushed away from me and stalked into his washroom.
I gripped the bedding in my hands as I stared down at his dark shirt wrapped around my thigh. Pain still thrummed through me, but I felt so on edge being alone in Evren’s room that it distracted me from the discomfort.
He walked back toward me carrying a copper bowl that was steaming from the water inside and a stack of white fabrics. It felt like he barely noticed that I was currently sitting on his bed or the fact that my breath hitched in my throat, not from the pain but from the memory of his hands on my body as he kneeled in front of me.
He set the small basin at my feet before slowly untying his shirt from my leg. He didn’t say a word to me as he worked, but I didn’t need his words to know how angry he was. His normally controlled fingers shook with fury as he pulled the soiled fabric away from my skin.
He reached into my boot, surprising me when he quickly pulled my dagger from its home, and I didn’t stand a chance as he moved it out of my reach.
“That’s mine.” I winced as I tried to move for the only thing that still felt like home to me.
“Calm down, princess.” He pressed his hand against my chest and forced me back onto his bed before unsheathing my dagger and bringing it toward my leg.
I held my breath as he dipped his fingers into the tear in my trousers and pulled them away from my skin. Then my dagger followed. The metal grazed my skin just below my cut, and I didn’t look away from it as Evren used my father’s dagger to cut away my trousers from my leg.
“What you did tonight was reckless, Adara.”
“I know,” I hissed as the dagger tore through the fabric at my hip until my trousers were no longer held together on my left leg with a single thread.
Evren shook his head before setting my dagger next to me on the bed and sliding my boots from my feet. “Stand.” His voice was demanding and crass, and for a moment, I wanted to defy him. I wanted to make him finally look up at me like I was more than some sacred blood that had tried to run from his brother.
Instead, I stood on shaking legs in front of him. He stared straight ahead at the apex of my thighs, and even though I shouldn’t have noticed that look on his face when my leg was still aching in pain, it was impossible not to.
“Hold on to my shoulders.” He gripped the back of my thighs, and I did as he said. He slowly pulled what was left of my shredded trousers down my legs before helping me step out of them.
I sat back down on the bed in front of him once he threw my trousers behind him, and I watched as he silently dipped his dark fingers into the steaming water. He wrung out a cloth before looking up at me, and this time, I could see the pity that was hiding behind all his anger.
I swallowed hard as I looked away from him. His anger I could handle. “Fuck,” I cursed as he pressed the hot cloth against my cut. My hips jolted off the bed as my leg screamed in pain, but Evren pushed me back down as if I weighed nothing.
“I have to get it clean,” he growled at me before pulling away the dirty cloth and grabbing another from the water.
“I can do it myself. I want to go back to my room.”
Evren laughed before wringing out the cloth. “Are you going to stitch it yourself too? What are you going to say to Eletta when she sees it tomorrow or the queen when she accompanies you to your next fitting?”
