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He gripped under her arms and hefted her upright. Efficient fingers worked at the laces along her spine. She sucked in a breath as his calloused hands brushed her calves.
“Is this okay?” he asked, gathering the material of the gown.
A rigid nod was all she could manage.
His knuckles grazed the sides of her legs, her thighs, then her ribs as he removed the gown. Something about those quiet seconds felt too suffocatingly intimate. To her frustration, Renton didn’t seem fazed. He tossed the gown onto the floor, never once becoming distracted from his work.
Facing away from him, Tenah hunched down in the basin and covered her chest with her uninjured arm. Thankfully, it didn’t take him long to seal up the gash along her shoulder blade, but the moments after, when he’d had to bandage the wound, had her blood pressure rising.
“I’ll find you some clothes,” he murmured.
Left alone, it was hard not to ruminate on her decision to eliminate her father. Should she dip out now? Pray Renton wasn’t as good of a hunter as she expected and race back to the Burning Plains? How many more lives had her father already claimed? Would she be strong enough to defeat him this time? Or should she try to convince Renton to help?
Head throbbing, she smashed her fingertips against her temples. The splitting sensation there didn’t mean anything. It could be a culmination of a number of things too. Her death, her tumble from the sky, the tonic she’d consumed…
Renton sauntered back in. He paused, frowning at the obvious pain etched into her face. “I can get you something stronger.”
She dropped her hands. “It’s fine. I’m just…tired.”
He placed a neat stack of clothes and fine leather gloves on the stool. Tenah stared at them, a strange ache in her chest at his thoughtfulness, considering her nails had turned black from the incident in the snowy field.
“Room is yours for the night. Get some sleep,” Renton said, not glancing back as he exited the room.
Chapter9
Renton
Night veiled the trees, moonlight glittering like diamonds on patches of snow when Renton stormed from The Indigo.
His mind was in absolute disarray. It was clear Tenah had cast some form of dark magic to shed death. He had to follow through with his contract now. She was a threat to the isles.
So, why was he buying her a room at an inn? And what the hell was with the information shared tonight? A pretty woman gets hurt, and he starts blathering about the past? He might as well march back into that room and tell her what a hypocrite he was. How he struggled to live with himself when he had a damn shard of dark magic embedded in his heart, one that would no doubt Corrupt him too.
Conversations weren’t supposed to happen. Empathy for his prey wasn’t supposed to happen, no matter the terror in her peculiar eyes when she’d unleashed that forbidden magic.
She hadn’t accepted her fate.
Chaos, however, wasn’t something you just shook off. It was a living part of her, and she was rightfully afraid of it. Add that in with the fact that she’d just experienced trauma on a level he understood far too well.
Renton paced the tree line, craving the embrace of nature. He wanted to run or fight or wear himself ragged until the world made sense again. Until he could piece it back together in an image of his desire. He leaned back against a tree and ran his hands up and down his face. He was so tired. He hadn’t slept in two days. It explained why he wasn’t capable of maintaining a rational head. He’d pushed himself beyond his limits to try to earn Aeyis’s freedom. To correct his past mistakes.
Maybe he should go back upstairs and find sleep. Address this dilemma in the morning over breakfast. He still had four more days built into his contract for the Delemors.
But if he failed to track Kherathi down in time, he wasn’t sure when another contract this important would fall into his hands. Eleven years was far too long to go without seeing his brother.
Renton closed his eyes and drew in the fresh scent of snow and pines. A hint of lavender mingled with the winter air. He whipped his head toward the source, spotting a dark shape limping from the back of the inn.
He growled and stomped after Tenah.
At least she’d dressed in warmer clothing. The dark tunic and pants he’d left on the stool hugged her noticeable curves. Somehow, she’d acquired fur too. A white pelt hung around her neck and shoulders.
And the leather gloves hid the tiny crescents of black that had developed on her nails.
His chest tightened uncomfortably.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he called out to her.
Tenah picked up her pitiful speed, and he fought back an exasperated laugh. It didn’t feel right to poke fun at her foolishness. Not with her injuries and lack of magic after he’d temporarily robbed her of that with creeping smoke.
