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We followed the main army. It would confront the Changelings head-on and absorb most of the casualties. We set up the field hospital beneath the canopy of a nearby copse of trees. Titans carried operating tables, workbenches, and what few beds they managed to rescue from the base.
Other Titans used knives to slice rectangular boards from nearby trees and used them to hang as makeshift beds. They placed their hands on the trees to thank them for the sacrifice they’d made for our cause.
I helped the nurses carry the supplies. We opened the boxes and organized their contents to prepare for the injured and dying when they arrived.
The entire time, I couldn’t stop thinking about Fiath.
It could just as easily have been him heading out to fight the Changeling soldiers, to lay his life down and distract the enemy while the real attack happened in the palace.
It hurt that he was so far from me and was taking such a risk with his life. I knew his men would take good care of him, but I wouldn’t learn what happened to him until after it happened. And by then, there was nothing I could do to help him.
I shook my head. I couldn’t let myself think about what might happen to him. It would distract me too much from my duties here. My job was to help the soldiers.
My hand reached into my pocket and rubbed at the stone he’d given me. I didn’t want this pebble to be all I had left of him.
But that wasn’t true. We’d shared many memories together, so many magical moments on our recent adventures—
I hissed through my teeth and yanked my thumb from my pocket. I’d cut the fleshy part on the stone’s sharp edge. A pearl of blood seeped from the thin cut. I had plenty of supplies to clean and treat it.
Instead, I just stared at it.
That ball of blood. That life-giving source.
But it was not the only life-giving source.
Fiath was a life-giving source to me.
I needed him, just as much as I needed blood in my veins and oxygen in my lungs.
Just as he needed me.
We were fated mates now.
We had bonded.
My heart sank into my stomach at my mistake.
I never should have let him go. Not when so much of me depended on him.
I put the supplies down and marched away from the camp.
“Where are you going?” the head doctor said, ticking off a list of items as Titan soldiers carried them into the makeshift hospital.
“I can’t stay here,” I said. “I have to be with Fiath.”
“You’ll be of more service here,” he said.
“No, I won’t. Not with me thinking about him every moment. I’ll be useless to you. I’ll get in the way. I need to be with him.”
The doctor had more than a handful of soldiers under his command. They were there to protect us in case Changelings attempted to sweep behind the main Titan army. He could order them to seize me and tie me up.
Maybe Fiath had even given him those commands. I wouldn’t have put it past him.
The doctor appraised me and must have seen by my eyes that I was serious. He nodded.
“Then go find him,” he said.
I brought my fist to my chest in thanks and bowed respectfully. He did the same to me and then turned to direct the supplies to the right location.
