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Gavin’s eyes flashed to her mother, and he scrambled to get the last vial of purple liquid from his satchel. He pulled out the cork with his teeth and handed it to Myna. “Here, child, this will make it better.”
“What’s—?” her mother began, but Myna had already downed the liquid without a second’s hesitation, eager to stop the suffering. Her body relaxed into the mattress almost immediately, her breathing slowing until the potion pulled her into a peaceful slumber.
“What was that?” Belle snarled. “Don’t give her anything without me saying it’s fine for you to do so.” She leaned forward, observing the slow movements of Myna’s chest as if she were expecting them to stop at any moment. But her child only breathed calmer now that the pain was gone.
Perhaps Gavin should feel guilty about handing the potion to the child without letting her mother decide whether he could do so. But he didn’t. “It was my last sleeping potion, and I don’t have time to explain every potion or its ingredients to you because you won’t understand them. I need to heal her now, or I won’t be able to save her at all. For that, I need to clean the wound without stopping every few seconds.” He went back to doing just that, sinking his fingers into the open flesh and allowing his magic to sew and heal the tissue.
A potion like this would put a grown person to sleep almost instantly. Gavin wrapped the child’s torso with clean cotton rags and let the air escape his lips as he eased onto the floor, registering vaguely that Laura placed a steaming mug of coffee next to him.
He studied the peaceful face of a girl who could be no older than ten, so close to the age his little sister had been when Violet had saved her from drowning. He’d do everything to try and save her, too.
9
VIOLET
Violet was not a woman to sit idle. Before she’d left the Crown’s army, they’d only had one personal day a week. She had always spent those days in the library, learning as much as she could about the world outside of the Iron Kingdom. About the laws, new and old. And about ancient spells that might help her evade Dargan’s reach.
She’d quickly understood that you could never truly hide from a god…
The longer she sat in bed, waiting for Gavin to return, the more the walls seemed to cave in on her. She grabbed her blouse, which lay folded on the bedside table. It was time she stopped lingering. Packing her things would be a good start. Plus, she needed to find her weapon, so she had it on hand just in case.
She finished tying up the laces of her shirt, covering herself in something more than her undergarments.
A leap of faith, Gavin had said, but then he had disappeared.
Steps outside the door stopped her mid-thought, and her heart sped up as she reached for her knife on the table. As the door handle turned, and the candle beside her blew out in a sudden gust of wind, drenching the room in darkness. She ignored the sharp pain that claimed every nerve ending in her thigh as she leapt off the bed and across the room just before the door swung open.
A man moved past the threshold with careful steps, and Violet jumped out from her hiding spot with a scream. She pushed against him with her smaller frame and pressed her blade against his neck. It didn’t matter that he was much bigger than her. The skills of a trained warrior had made her the weapon, fast and deadly.
“Are you going to do it, wife?” His voice sent a shiver down her spine, just as her knife dropped away from his throat. His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed. Her legs weakened when her eyes met his.
Gavin’s scent embraced her as the blade fell to the ground. His tense posture eased, and they both stared at one another, too close, the warmth of his body burning through the fabric of her shirt.
“I thought you were someone else.” Violet stepped away from him. With the surge of adrenaline dispersing, the ache in her leg was hard to mask as she limped back to the bed.
His light gray coat looked darkened by water. He adjusted the brown satchel that hung across his chest.
“I didn’t think you’d be here,” he murmured under his breath. He withdrew a small parcel from his satchel and threw it at her. “These are for you.”
“Was I supposed to leave?” Violet unwrapped the cloth, revealing butter-soft leather. New pants that surely cost a fortune. She wasn’t sure she could pay him back for these and the healing. “Why get me these if you thought I’d gone?”
He hesitated before taking a short inhale, then bent to pick up her abandoned knife from the ground. “I hoped you’d stayed… but half expected you to be gone.”
“I considered it, several times,” she admitted. It had been a surprise how his parting words had burrowed into her icy heart. The bitter loneliness that was her constant companion had become too much to bear. Every time she replayed them, she couldn’t shake the finality of what her attitude might bring her.
Being alone, waiting for Dargan to take her. In the past, she’d thought that would be preferable. That it would be worse to fall for someone and get lost in feelings which could lead to a false sense of security. To crave for a family that would be taken away.
She was strong enough to survive this situation. She didn’t care about what they’d try to do to her, but if the Shadow God or the Crown took her future child away, like the Society of Crows did when they ripped her from her parents’ arms.
That would break her, and Gavin was a man she could easily make that mistake with. Damn, but she was almost there.
Still, she hadn’t left today. Even when the sun had set and led the way to the night. Violet had stayed.
But why? What if Gavin had been with Julius all day long, planning to subdue her in the most embarrassing way possible? He could have lied to her all along, like all men did. They could have been waiting for her to get comfortable. A revenge for what she’d done to them.
She’d never made it out of bed, despite all her fears.
Admittedly, he’d brought her new pants. That didn’t seem like the kind of thing he’d do if he wanted to trap her. Maybe being standoffish was unnecessary. It was smarter to stay one more night. She would accept the advantage of his healing powers, and then she would leave in the morning.
