Fireblood (Fireblood 1)

A small frown tugs at my lips. When he’s done mending me, I’m going to toss it into one of the fires.

Lifting the front of the tunic, his eyes roam over my stomach. “Bastard.” He releases a heavy breath, then says, “If you hadn’t ended him, I would have.”

My eyebrows knit together, and I stare at his pained face, the candlelight flickering in his eyes. “How did you hear?” How is it he seems to know all that’s happened to me, yet I’ve heard nothing of him since the night we said our goodbye in the tunnel?

He gets to his feet and gathers supplies from his desk. He sets everything near the cot—a rag, a bottle of alcohol, a bowl of water, bandages, and adhesive. Then he kneels down beside me. “First drink some water.” He grabs a canteen and places it to my mouth.

When the water hits my mouth, my body remembers how thirsty I am, and I can’t get enough. I guzzle, not caring how desperate I look.

“Slowly,” he says, lowering it from my lips. “You’ll get sick if you take in too much.” He sighs before answering my question. “Fallon had her transmission person hack into the court feed. They were able to view everything that happened in Court.”

“You watched me kill Larkin.”

“I saw a replay.”

My face burns, shame flowing through me that I can’t bury at that moment.

“You should’ve heard the cheers go up in camp. I think there were bets on who would be the one to take him out.”

I know he’s trying to make me feel better about my actions, so I give him a small, reassuring smile, though my chest aches. I never want to kill another person if I can avoid it.

He leans closer to me. “I was at the meadow during it all, setting up last-minute communications for reinforcements if we needed them.” His eyes close. “If I’d have known—”

“No, Devlan.” I run my hand along his tense arm. “I made the decision. Nothing that happened was anyone’s fault but my own.”

He opens his eyes, and his features relax. “You made the right call, Zara.” He smoothes my hair away from my face. “Sebastian fooled me, too. He never would’ve joined with the Rebels, no matter how you tried to sway him. It was a lost cause.” He reaches for the rag. “Before the tournament match, I was on the cusp of trusting him, but those days between us are long gone.”

“So, I’m not a failure?”

The rag hovers just above my skin, and his eyes hold mine. “Hardly a failure. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d lost you.” His eyes flick down my body, then back to my face. Warmth rushes through me. “All that matters is you’re safe, and you’re still the willful girl I trained.” He tilts his head. “Though, that’s easier to admit when you’re half-naked in my tent.”

I bat his arm and wince. “I think I trained you some,” I say. “Now, fix me up so I can train you some more.”

A half-grin creeps up the side of his face, and he winks.

He places a pill on my tongue and makes me swallow, promising it will help with the pain. It does, but only a fraction. A chill sweeps over my body as he massages the wet cloth into my wound, cleaning away the infection, dirt, and debris. The alcohol is like fire searing me from the inside, but I try to keep my face stoic as he works, as it seems my pain hurts him more than me.

When he’s done mending my wounds, he slides next to me on the blanket and wraps his arms around me. I press my forehead to his, listening to his breath as it caresses my lips.

Safe.

“What happens now?” I ask.

“Now,” he says, cradling me closer. “I never leave your side again.”

THIRTY-SIX

I pull a swig of water and swallow one of the pills Devlan gave me, then recap my canteen. After I finish the last four over the next two days, my infection should be gone. My fever broke this morning, and already I’m feeling much stronger. Devlan said that my attempt at keeping my stomach wound clean in the Oubliette saved me from a harsh recovery. Small blessings.

The sky slowly fades from purple to dark blue as I stare up in wonderment. The faint blue lines run against it, doming the air above. My gaze drops and then drifts over the forest as dawn breaks. The rays of early sunlight splinter through the forest canopy.

A howl sounds in the distance, and I wrap my arms around my body. Light footsteps crunch the earth near me. They’re too soft to be Devlan’s.

“Devlan held back many details last night,” I say as Fallon sits down next to me. “I admit I was exhausted, and wounded, but Sebastian raising the barrier is too big a detail to deny me simply for the sake of my health.”

Fallon tosses a stick into the fire before us. “Larkin’s decoding disk didn’t hold up against Excalibur, and shortly after you were taken to the Oubliette, Sebastian restored Karm’s force field.”

I nod. Maybe Larkin never intended for his device to take it down permanently. I remember him rushing with the vials of antidote to rescue his sister, the Virus already taking hold in his body. Now I believe it was a desperate attempt to save her and himself before his mind was taken. Which means he had it planned all along.