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“Lord Crest…” Edmund slurred the name, as if he was so tired he could not get his tongue to work properly.
Jalissa squeezed his hand and told General Bloam how they had bargained with Lord Crest. Edmund interjected with short sentences, steering the conversation toward the things he seemed to think General Bloam needed to know as soon as possible.
Somehow, even mostly unconscious and still recovering from nearly dying, Edmund’s mind worked enough to sort through all the information they’d gathered to pass along the most important bits. They finished with the news about the few outposts the Mongavarians had managed to set up across the border where they had tapped into the telegraph lines and were sending the news back to Mongavaria.
General Bloam nodded. “Thank you. This information is incredibly valuable. You both have done well, Your Highnesses.”
Jalissa nodded, something in her relaxing at his words. She had gotten Edmund back to Escarland, kept him alive, and finished the mission by passing the vital information on to General Bloam. “There is more, but Edmund can fill you in on the rest once he fully wakes.”
Edmund gave a weak nod, his eyes falling fully closed once again. Through the heart bond, Jalissa could feel him drifting back to sleep.
“Very well.” General Bloam bowed once again. “I will leave you to your rest.”
As General Bloam left, Edmund’s mother returned, taking her seat and resuming her sewing.
By this point, Jalissa was all too ready to curl next to Edmund and let her eyes fall shut, drifting off into the first restful sleep she had enjoyed for days.
ChapterThirteen
Edmund woke and blinked up at the ceiling, enjoying the softness of the mattress beneath him. Jalissa curled next to him, warm against his side, her breaths soft and steady in sleep. Outside the windows, the night remained dark, no signs of dawn. Either it was the same night or he’d slept for a full day. Given that weariness still pressed against him, he guessed it was the former.
“Edmund?” His mother’s voice drew his gaze to her where she sat next to the bed. She set her embroidery aside and leaned forward. “How are you feeling?”
“A lot better than I was.” He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, taking stock of how he felt.
A deep weariness filled him, as if his internal organs were tired. A faint ache remained, but it was nothing compared to the clawing agony he had been suffering.
His mother’s mouth took on a quirk that said she knew that his words weren’t saying much, considering he had been on the verge of death earlier.
At his side, Jalissa stirred, murmuring his name.
His mother pushed to her feet. “I will give the two of you a few moments.”
Edmund smiled, then turned to Jalissa, only vaguely noting the click of the door as his mother left.
Jalissa’s fingers fisted in his shirt as she blinked sleepily at him. “Edmund.”
“I’m awake. I’m fine.” He wrapped his arms around her, ignoring the aching tremble that still filled him, and pulled her close.
He had only hazy impressions of a train and his arms over Jalissa’s and Sarya’s shoulders. His last clear memory was of the night he’d thought about crawling off into the forest to die. He had told Jalissa the information he’d learned in Mongavaria, hadn’t he? And they had passed the information to General Bloam, right? Or was that just a part of his fevered dreams?
He shifted his hand and touched his shirt, his heart stopping when he didn’t feel the stiff crackle of paper in his inside pocket. Had he lost the papers in his delirium? Had all of this been for nothing?
Jalissa rested her hand over his. “I gave the papers to General Bloam, and we told him the basic information. You were only partially awake, so I’m not sure how much you remember.”
Not a dream, then. He relaxed and pressed a kiss into her hair. “You are amazing, you know that? You are so very strong and brave to keep me alive and get me here.”
The words felt too small for what she had done. She was truly breathtaking. He had known she could do it, and yet he had underestimated her—and overestimated himself. He had thought he could handle this mission on his own, keeping her out of it as much as possible.
But in the end, they were a team. And they’d found a new depth to their relationship. He was not always the strong one, nor should he ever dismiss her as weak. Sometimes, he was weak. He was flawed. And when he was weak, she was strong for both of them.
He was the human, and she was the elf. He would have to accept that she was the one strong enough to give so totally of herself to keep him alive. Not just in this moment, but for the centuries to come.
“I was not that brave. I just…I just…” Jalissa’s voice trailed off in a strangled sound, then she pressed her face into his shirt. “I just could not let you die.” The last word ended in a sob.
He held her close as she sobbed. Through the heart bond, he could feel the waves of stress and terror coming from her. All the emotions she’d shoved aside over the past few days so she could keep him alive and get him to safety.
More than the lingering ache of the poison, his heart stabbed with how much these past few days had cost her.
