Page 190 of Ashborne: Defiance

I’d done everything I could to keep my eyes off anything private, but she didn’t even flinch from me. Just stared. Pleading.

“Get into bed,” I whispered, darting past her to pull back the covers and plump her pillow as she turned stiffly, then crawled into the narrow bed. I pulled the blankets up, over her shoulder, then ran my fingers under her nape and pulled her hair out, and over the pillow behind her where it wouldn’t tangle.

She sighed again at the touch, but curled up on her side, pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them as she closed her eyes.

Her brow remained furrowed.

She looked tiny curled up like that.

I’d seen the developing muscles on her. Evidence of her growing strength. But curled up like this, her expression so pained, and her body so small…

In the stable below, Koa groaned.

‘Koa is worried for her.’

Koa wasn’t the only one.

I swallowed. ‘She will come out of this. She’s in shock. She needs sleep. Then food. Tell Koa about the hell you had to drag me through, and look where I am now.’

‘Koa begs you not to leave her.’

Standing over the bed, I clawed my hand through my hair. I needed space. I needed to do some breathing of my own. But I couldn’t leave her here like this. I wouldn’t.

Casting around for a chair, my stomach sank when all that was revealed was a small stool.

But then Grace shivered, and my ribs creaked with pain.

‘I won’t,’ I vowed to Kham. Under us, Koa rumbled and crooned as I crawled onto the bed, over the covers, and wrapped myself around her.

One arm over her side, holding her so I’d know if she startled in her sleep. My knees bent, so she was curled in my lap and I’d feel it if she tried to get out of the bed.

Forehead resting on the back of her head, inhaling the fresh scent of the hair she’d washed earlier, I pulled her into me, so she could feel me at every side.

“I’m here. I’ll watch. You can rest,” I murmured into her hair.

She sighed again, but very quickly, her breathing evened out.

I remained awake for a long time, but eventually, I slept as well.

When the nightmares came, I felt her twitch, and fight with the unseen enemy. I woke her, dried her cheeks, and held her until she could sleep again.

The endless night passed in the ebb of sleep, and wash of the fear, until I lost track of how many times I had to wake her so she’d stop dreaming—stop crying—and eventually fell deeply asleep myself.

…Only to be woken by the sound of the word “Oh,” spoken softly, in a feminine voice that wasn’t Grace’s.

My head snapped up and Grace stirred. I froze. When her breath returned to slow, even rhythm, I slowly looked up to see who’d disturbed her, and found Bren, still standing on the ladder, her head and shoulders visible above the opening, eyes wide, and mouth making an O.

She closed her mouth, then opened it again as if she’d speak, and I glared with a blistering heat, mouthing, Do. Not. Wake. Her!

Bren’s eyes went rounder and she grimaced, then took a careful step down the ladder.

My heart thumped against my ribs, but then Bren frowned and stopped moving, her head still up in the room.

I met her eyes, shaking my head.

Don’t you speak. Don’t you dare speak and wake—

‘Akhane politely asks on Bren’s behalf, if this is because Grace was drunk? What would you like me to tell her?’