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She tightened her fingers on the basin, her knuckles turning bone white.
“I’m not sure I have anything pleasant to talk about.”
“Scars.” The word slid through her teeth. Damn her curiosity. She glanced down to catch him pausing in contemplation.
“I have thirty tooth marks on my calf.”
“Continue.”
This earned another soft laugh, then he returned to his work piecing her back together. “I was fishing with my two brothers on the lake outside my family’s cottage. I’m not sure why I thought it would be fun. My eldest brother had a way of coercing me into things I didn’t want to do. The first time he pressured me into killing, our father ordered us to run thirty laps around the lake for cutting down a harmless Bogland beast protecting its kin. I learned never to strike first. Mias learned to hide his capacity for violence. He preyed on my weakness. He knew wherever my youngest brother went, I went too. So, I found myself on a boat with both of my brothers. When we reached the middle of the lake, Mias pushed me in.”
Tenah hissed, and Renton laid a rough hand flat on her thigh to keep it still. The pain had nothing on the jolt of pleasure that shot through her as his concerned eyes found hers.
“Shall I stop?” he asked.
“No. Stitches and talking. Please,” she added. His manners with the innkeeper earlier had reminded her a bit of Ames.
“I’m assuming you’ve never visited the Boglands.”
She rolled her eyes. “What gave it away?”
“Several things.” He flashed a slow, crooked smile that produced a fluttering in her stomach. “I was born in Mire, a small hunting village in the Boglands. I’m not allied with Adra’s rebels, so don’t look at me like that.”
“What? I wasn’t judging,” she complained, forcing a neutral expression.
“It’s no secret our isles have had their disagreements, but not all eastern islanders fought with Queen Advanth at Roan’s Wake. Some of us didn’t want war. The aftermath was…” He shook his head, jaw tensing.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
And she was. That same line of judgment had been cast upon her family countless times. It boiled her blood. Except, after witnessing what her father had been capable of, that judgment didn’t seem so unfair now. Her fatherwasa monster.
Tenah squirmed. She wasn’t ready to dive into the possibility that she might have absorbed a sliver of the infection that had unraveled him.
Renton went back to easing the needle through her skin. “There are many lakes in the Boglands that are unnatural. They’re either poisonous or too viscous to swim in. Before my younger brother could pull me out of the thick waters, a creature we call the Lurda had slithered out of its holes along the banks. I wasn’t afraid of much at that age. I was first in training camps to volunteer to get the shit kicked out of me and to lead practice hunts. But I was terrified of the Lurda, and Mias knew it.”
“Your brother sounds terrible,” she said, frowning. Tenah had spent her formative years wishing she’d had a sibling. Maybe those relationships weren’t exactly what she’d conjured up in her mind.
Renton’s silence rubbed at her wrong, so she did something stupid.
“I was afraid of my father and his magic,” she admitted. “When I sensed it in the air, I’d hide for days until Ames convinced me he was well again.”
His head tilted, his light hair spilling down one shoulder. “That fear is justified, Tenah. So was my fear of the Lurda when it nearly tore off my leg.”
She nodded and tipped her head up to keep the tears stinging in her eyes from falling. Elementals, she was a hot mess. Giving in to emotions right now would only rip open the jagged wound inside of her. That pain would eat her alive. She was certain of it.
“When I found you in the wreckage…” He cut off for several heartbeats. “I was certain you weren’t breathing.”
His words hovered in the air. She recognized them for what they were.A test. Admitting she’d died and had been resurrected by some sort of death king was definitely the wrong answer. He could never know her truth, so she played into ignorance.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “One minute, I was struck down by lightning. The next, I woke up on the back of that hateful welkin.”
“Do you know where Kherathi is headed?”
“As if I understand his mind right now.” She sniffled. “He belongs in a grave.”
Renton eased back on the stool, considering her response. “All right, next wound. Assuming you want to change into clean clothes, it would be easier if we removed this now so you don’t tear stitches.” He motioned to her tattered gown.
Turning to hide her reddening cheeks, she replied, “I’ll need help.”
