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Dragging Aren into the barracks, she eased him down on a bench. Throwing aside her sodden cloak, she pulled one of her knives and cut away his tunic, dropping the ruined garment on the floor. Then she knelt next to him, her eyes taking in the injury.
The arrowhead was buried deep in the muscle of his upper arm, the shaft having been broken in half by someone at some point, the wood stained dark with blood.
“Goddamned Amaridians.” Jor’s voice seemed distant to Lara, every part of her focused on Aren’s breath against her neck, hot and ragged.
Lifting her face, she met his pain-hazed gaze. “We can’t pull it out—we have to push it all the way through.”
“Every moment with you is such a delight.” A faint spark returned to Aren’s eyes. “Sorry I missed dinner.”
“You should be.” She struggled to keep her voice even. “It smelled very good.”
“Missing the food isn’t the part I’m sorry about.” He lifted his uninjured arm, fingers brushing against the large diamond still adorning her ear, sending a tremble racing through her.
“Brace yourself on me.” She pushed his hand away before her composure was totally shot. “The last thing we need is you squirming and making the injury worse.”
Aren huffed out a pained laugh, but took hold of her waist with the hand of his uninjured arm, his fingers digging into the muscles of her back.
“This will hurt,” Jor warned, taking a firm grip on the arrow. Swearing, Aren dropped his head against Lara’s shoulder and she pulled him against her, knowing she wasn’t strong enough to keep him steady if he struggled.
“Relax,” Jor said. “You’re being a baby.”
Lara murmured into Aren’s ear, “Breathe.” His shoulders trembled as he inhaled and exhaled, and she knew his attention was on her. His fingers flexed, then slid from her waist to her hip. “Breathe,” she repeated, her lips grazing the lobe of his ear. “Breathe.” As she said the word the third time, she met Jor’s gaze.
He pushed.
Aren screamed into her shoulder, shoving against her so hard that Lara almost went over backward, her boots skidding against the barracks floor. Blood splattered her face, but she held on, refusing to let go of him.
“Got it!” Jor said, and a second later, Lara’s knees buckled and she fell back, Aren landing on top of her. For a heartbeat, neither of them moved, Aren’s breathing labored in her ear, his body pressed against hers. She held him, clung to him, an irrational desire to hunt down and destroy those who’d done this consuming all other thought. Then Jor and Lia were hauling him off her.
Scrambling upright, Lara wiped the blood off her face, her heart hammering as Jor examined the injury. “You’ll mend,” he said, then moved aside as one of Nana’s students arrived.
All around were bloodied soldiers. Some gritted their teeth against the pain. Some screamed as their comrades tried to staunch horrific wounds. Some lay motionless.
Every one of them injured in defense of their home.
Lara’s eyes fell on Taryn, tears dribbling down the woman’s face as she pressed her hands against a young man’s stomach, trying to hold his guts inside. “Don’t you die on me.” Her whispered voice somehow cut through the din. “Don’t you dare die.”
But as Lara watched, the young man’s chest went still.
How many more hearts would still when her father made his move?
They are your enemy,she chanted.Your enemy. Your enemy.But the words were profoundly hollow in her mind.
Lara took one step back. Then two. Three. Until she was out of the barracks and on the empty path.
“Lara!”
She turned. Aren stood a dozen paces behind her on the path, the bandage on his arm half falling off as though he’d pushed away the healer working on him before she could finish.
“Wait.”
She couldn’t. She shouldn’t. Not when every bit of resolve she possessed was crumbling to the ground. Yet her feet remained fixed to the earth as Aren slowly made his way toward her, blood running down his arm and dripping from his fingertips.
“I’m sorry.” His voice was shaky. “I’m sorry that all you’ve seen since you’ve been here is violence.”
All she had ever known was violence. It was nothing to her. And everything.
“I wish it was different. I wish it wasn’t like this.”
