“So strong, aren’t you? So brave.”
“I’m stronger and braver than you might think. Mark my words, your highness: I will hate you and your father for the rest of eternity. Now kill me or let me leave.”
“It’s only the ale that’s making you brave tonight. You wouldn’t say any of these things to me if you weren’t already drunk.”
Nic pushed the tip of Magnus’s sword away from his throat. “I assure you, I would.”
Nic stood, drank the rest of his tankard, and left the tavern.
CHAPTER 9
JONAS
PAELSIA
Let me see it just once . . .”
“No, Lys,” Jonas said. “Keep your hands to yourself, would you?”
“Come on, don’t be shy.”
“I’m not being shy.” When Lys reached for Jonas’s shirt again, he scooted out of her way. “Stop it.”
She glared at him. “Let me see your wound, you stubborn arse.”
“No.” He focused on the campfire, poking at it with a stick to keep it burning.
“Damn it, Jonas. It’s bad, isn’t it? Worse than you’re letting on.”
He refused to meet her eyes, lest she see right through him to the truth. “I feel fantastic. Never better. Now, let’s rest for a few hours and then we need to keep going. We have a lot of ground to cover before we get to Limeros.”
“Don’t you trust me?”
There was a catch in her voice that he’d never heard before, and it made his heart ache. “Of course I do.” He swallowed hard, past the lump in his throat. “I trust you more than anyone else in the world.”
Her bottom lip trembled. “The mud isn’t working at all, is it? You’re getting worse and you don’t want me to know how horribly sick you are.”
He tried to laugh. “Do I really look that bad?”
“Yes, actually, you do.” She put her hands on either side of his face, forcing him to meet her serious gaze. “Are you dying?”
“We’re all dying. We’re mortal, remember?” He tried to maintain his grin, but found it took too much strength. “All I have is Bruno’s assessment, which is that I don’t have much longer, not that he knows anything for sure.”
Her jaw tightened, and Jonas could tell she was fighting to appear resolute. “So we need to focus on finding someone to help you.”
“If we happen upon someone, yes. But my first priority is to get to Limeros and kill Prince Magnus.”
“And my first priority is fixing you—and it should be yours as well.”
He snorted. “You really think I’m worth saving again after all the trouble I’m responsible for? Things would be a whole lot easier for you without me around.”
Anger flashed through her dark eyes. “You’re really this big of an idiot? Have I been traveling with a complete and utter moron all of these months?”
Her outrage was strangely endearing to him. “Gee, Lys, your honeyed words are so soothing to my—”
Before he could finish, she pulled him to her and kissed him, hard and deep. Suddenly the pain in his arm and the numbness in his hand fell away. He weaved his right hand into her mass of dark curls and pulled her closer.
“I’m in love with you, you stupid arse, and I’m not losing you. Got it?” she whispered against his lips before kissing him again.