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My stomach lurches. Before I can think better of it, I’ve sprung to my feet.
As I stride to the bedroom door, Julita lapses into silence. She must be able to tell there’s no point in arguing with me now.
I can’t bear to just sit there knowing he’s trapped in a dream with me doing who knows what despicable things.
I push open the door and hesitate on the threshold. Stavros is sprawled on his side on the bed, the sheets tangled across his torso and thighs, his face half buried in his pillow. His brow is furrowed, his hand clenched tight.
I don’t think I want to get within striking range.
“Stavros,” I say, carefully quiet. When he only hisses through his teeth, his eyes still squeezed shut, I raise my voice. “Stavros! Wake up!”
With a flinch, he rolls onto his back. He swipes at his face and stares at me blearily through the faint moonlight.
I’m abruptly aware of the fact that I’ve got nothing on but the chemise and drawers I normally sleep in. Not that Stavros hasn’t seen me in a similar state of undress before.
The sheet has fallen far enough on his chest to reveal some of the sculpted muscles that fill out his massive frame. The brand of Sabrelle’s sigil marks his light brown skin with a darker, ruddy shade low on his sternum.
I have the sudden, ridiculous urge to find out what those muscular planes would feel like under my fingers.
Heat trickles through my veins, but I clench my hand against the thought, resting the other on the doorframe. At least the former general isn’t yelling at me.
So far.
He pushes himself into a sitting position, his arms tucked in front of him—his hand of flesh cupping over the stump left by his sacrifice.
“Did I wake you up?” he asks with a hint of a rasp in his voice.
I shake my head. “Already had my own nighttime terrors taking care of that.”
His mouth sets in a grim line. “I’d say ‘good,’ but that isn’t really good at all.”
“It meant I was awake to disturb your sleep in a less discomforting way,” I say with forced brightness. “I’ll let you get more rest that’s hopefully better.”
As I start to turn, Stavros leans forward. “Ivy—wait.”
I glance back at him. “What?”
Now that he has my attention, he looks as if he’s groping for something to talk about. “You haven’t had any further contact from the scourge sorcerers?”
“I’d have mentioned it if I had. Nothing since the last trial four days ago. But I suppose making me stew might be a trial in itself. There were a few days between their first and second tests anyway.”
I pause with an uncomfortable pang through my chest. “Or maybe they realized something was odd about my magic that night after all, and they’re deciding what to do about it.”
Stavros gives a guffaw derisive enough to be weirdly comforting. “Whatever they might speculate, it won’t be the truth. There’s no way at all they’d imagineIcould tolerate hiring a riven sorcerer or that you could have been in my presence so long without my realizing it. The riven generally avoid notice by staying away from anyone who’d want to execute them, not prancing around in plain sight.”
I smile tightly. “Yes, it is pretty bizarre that I’m still here. Although I suppose that might change, given thatyoudo know what I did to that guard.”
Stavros blinks at me. His next words come out careful but firm. “I don’t think that had anything to do with you being riven.”
It’s my turn to stare. “What are you talking about? It was my blasted magic that knocked her off the wall.”
“Yes. Your magic. Which probably would have done the exact same thing if it’d been the typical kind of magic that no one would think of hanging you for.”
My arms come around to hug myself. “I’m not sure why you’d think that.”
Stavros’s tone turns a bit dry. “I’m not sure why you wouldn’t. You told me yourself that they went as far as cutting off your finger to bolster your power. They’ve constantly talked about how people should give in to wildness and violence. Unless you’ve been misportraying the scourge sorcerers, it’s sounded to me like what you did is exactly what they meant to happen if you’d had a regular gift.”
I open my mouth and then close it again. I hadn’t considered the situation that way.
