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The door banged open, and Eliza flew into the room, her heart-shaped face panic-stricken. “What happened?” she cried as she rushed to the bedside, her green eyes shimmering with worry. “Were you attacked?”
“No,” I croaked. “Sparrow and I were sparring, and I got distracted. I didn’t block a blow that I should have seen coming, and he wasn’t able to pull back in time.”
“It’s my fault,” Maximillian said.
I swiveled my head around to glare at him. “What are you talking about? How could it possible be your fault?”
Despite the situation, the faintest of smiles played across his lips. “The sight of me standing there distracted you. Therefore, this is my fault.” He shook his head, the smile fading. “I’m sorry, Kitana. This never should have happened.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I snapped as Eliza drew a syringe and a vial full of golden liquid from one of her pouches. I tried not to look at the needle as she plunged it into the vial and filled the syringe. “I’m the idiot who allowed myself to get distracted.”
“This will sting,” Eliza warned me. She grabbed my arm, used a towel to wipe it clean, then plunged the syringe just below the crook of my elbow. I hissed as pain shot up my arm, followed by an electric sensation as the elixir pumped through my bloodstream. A haze washed over me as Eliza murmured something to Maximillian, and then the door clicked shut behind her, leaving the two of us alone.
Maximillian’s face came into view as he leaned over me, his eyes hooded as he brushed a curl of hair from my forehead. “Get some sleep, Kitana,” he said, his voice almost hypnotic. “I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”
He turned away, and my hand shot out to grab him. “Please,” I begged, gripped by a desperation I didn’t fully understand. “Don’t leave me.”
He hesitated, and I tightened my grip even as I braced myself for the rejection. I didn’t know why I was doing this, why I was reaching out to an enemy for comfort, except that an overwhelming sense of loss hovered just outside my periphery, threatening to crush me. Everyone I’d ever loved had walkedaway from me, had left me in the dust when I was at my most vulnerable, and I had no one in my life that I could trust.
Pathetic as it was, the wounded little girl inside me needed the illusion of safety he provided. Even if just for a little while.
Maximillian’s gaze softened, as if he could read every thought that flitted through my head. He returned to the bed, then gently gathered me into his arms, tucking my back against his chest and curling an arm around my side.
The ache in my chest faded, replaced by a sublime sense of safety and security that defied all reason. I didn’t understand how a vampire could possibly make me feel this way, but I was too weakened to do anything but lie there and soak it in.
“I’m not going to abandon you,” he murmured into my hair as I drifted off to sleep. “No matter what happens between us, you can count on that.”
And for some reason, I believed him.
10
When I opened my eyes the next morning, Maximillian was gone, and I was back in my own bedchamber.
I blinked, sitting up to find I was still dressed in the same blood-encrusted chemise from the night before. My cheeks heated as I remembered how Maximillian had ripped my gown open to get to the wound—I’d been so delirious with pain and blood loss I hadn’t stopped to wonder how much of my body he might have seen.
But then again, modesty wasn’t really a factor when you were bleeding out from a blade wound, was it?
Gingerly, I prodded at the bandage wrapping around the front of my chest. When I didn’t feel any pain, I slid my chemise down to my waist, then carefully unwrapped the bandage. Blood and adhesive flaked away to reveal fresh skin beneath, unmarred but for the faintest of silvery scars.
I shook my head in amazement. I didn’t know if Eliza herself had invented this elixir, but I wanted to kiss her, then demand to show me how she’d made it. This couldn’t be the work of aetheralone—as I understood it, aether was simply a type of energy; it had no healing or otherwise magical properties. The secret had to be in the ingredients, whatever they were.
My bedroom door banged open without warning, and I jerked upright as Nyra flew through it. “Oh good, you’re awake.” She hustled over to the bed, a bowl of porridge and a glass of water in her hands. “How are you feeling? Are you all healed?”
“I’m fine.” I peered at her as she set the items on my bedside table, noting that she seemed a bit frazzled. “Is everything all right?”
“I came to tell you not to leave the keep today,” Nyra said briskly. “In fact, it would be better if you stayed in your rooms altogether.”
I scowled. “Why in Hecate’s name would I do that?”
“Because the commandant has arrived, and he has a bad habit of flaunting Lord Starclaw’s rules when it comes to human slaves and servants,” she snapped. “He normally wouldn’t dare to touch one of Maximillian’s personal servants, but given what happened between you and Sparrow last night, I don’t think it’s wise to take risks. He’s only here for three days, so keep your head down and stay out of sight.”
Nyra left the room before I could get in a word of protest, her heels clicking rapidly as she rushed away to deal with gods-knew-what. Huffing, I threw back the covers and crossed over to the balcony to peer out the windows. The compound seemed busier than normal, and I spied a black and red carriage parked just outside the stables, stamped with House Invictus’s sword-and-spire crest.
The conversation with Nyra, Lucius, and Sparrow from last night rushed back.Good old Vinicius has come to test the new prototype.A new aether cannon that Vladimir’s fleet would use to blast through Trivaea’s naval defenses. A cold sort of anger crystalized inside my veins, freezing out any fuzzy feelings Maximillian might have inspired in me from the night before. They were handing this bloodsucking monster the keys to destroy my home, yet they wanted me to help them?
Well, fuck that.
Fuming, I stormed into the bathroom to wash and dress, then emerged from my bedchamber, dressed for battle and armed to the gills. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I would find a way to sabotage this prototype and kill this warmonger along with anyone else who stood in my way.
