CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR #2
Without hesitation, Ethenn cradled her close, burying her face in his chest. He rocked her slowly and gently as his hand glided across her back.
Tears slipped from Evylin’s eyes at the sight.
Deckard had held her that way after Hewitt’s death.
He’d held her close and let her expel her grief until she lay there, an empty shell of pain.
She knew Ilain’s sorrow, the gut-wrenching agony of knowing you’d never see your loved one again, knowing the world would never be right again—that you’d never again be whole.
A sudden urge swelled within Evylin. She needed Deckard; she needed the calm and comfort he provided to her. Yet, he lay unconscious a few feet away.
Evylin turned to see her sleeping husband.
Rafferty and Vayden had laid him on his back so he could rest peacefully.
With his eyes closed, breath steady, and body relaxed, he looked as though he’d simply chosen to nap.
She reached out with her free hand, stiff with Thom’s drying blood, and brushed her fingers along his jaw.
Was this how Deckard would look if he died?
She would never see his lifeless form, she realized.
When he died—and he would die, even if it were two centuries from now—she would either die with him or fall into a stasis to recover from the wound in her soul.
When she awoke, he’d already be cold in his grave.
It was somehow a bitterly sad and hopeful revelation.
The morbid thoughts drove Evylin to check Deckard’s pulse just to ensure that his life remained. It was strong and steady. He was fine. He was alive. And her heart ached to hold him.
Instead, she turned back to Thom. He’d closed his eyes, scrunching them shut. He appeared to be in miserable pain.
Rafferty crouched down next to them. “Hey, Thommy-boy,” he said. “Ready to set that leg?”
“Not if you’re going to do it,” Thom quipped, face still contorted.
Rafferty smirked. “Can’t blame ya. Fact is, I don’t even know how.”
“Then I definitely don’t want you attempting it.”
Evylin squeezed Thom’s hand. “I can do it.”
His eyes opened, meeting hers with sorrow. “I’m not going to be able to walk on it,” he said. “Probably not for a month or two at the least.”
Though she understood his point—he would be no good to their mission any longer; he wouldn’t be able to ride a horse, let alone walk if it wasn’t healed by magic—she chose to tease him rather than placate his self-pity. “So,” she raised her brow, “you don’t want me to set it?”
Thom snorted humorlessly. “Of course I do.”
Evylin offered a light smile and shifted toward his knee. “Then you’ll need to tell me how.”
“What?” he gasped, head shooting up. He groaned and leaned back against the wall once more. “You don’t know how to set a bone?”
“I never needed to learn.”
“And you’re going to practice on me?”
“Do you want your leg repaired or not?”
Thom sent her a flat stare. “Yes, but it’d be nice if it were by someone who knew what they were doing.”
Ethenn moved to sit next to Evylin by the mangled leg. On the far side of the room, Ilain now sat in Vayden’s arms, the siblings crying silently together.
Ethenn set his hand on Evylin’s arm. “I’ve got this,” he said.
“You know how to set a broken limb?” she asked.
He nodded, sizing up the leg. “It’s a rather necessary skill when you’re out in the woods for weeks at a time. If you or your fellow hunters break something,” he felt along the knee, causing Thom to grimace, “you need to be able to set it as you’re likely to be days from the nearest healer.”
Ethenn leaned back on his haunches, releasing the leg.
“The good news is,” he said to Thom, “this isn’t as bad as it looks.
The kneecap isn’t fractured, just dislocated.
However, there is a fracture on the bone beneath.
That’s what’s causing the strange bend. I can set the break and shift the kneecap back into place.
” He paused and offered a frown. “But it’s gonna hurt like hell. ”
“What’s new?” Thom replied, lips still twisting from his current agony.
Ethenn shrugged. “The bad news is I don’t have anything to use as a splint. I can’t set it until there’s something to hold it steady, so it’ll heal properly.”
Thom sighed. “So much for that.”
“I can fuse it,” Ilain murmured, kneeling next to Ethenn. Her cheeks looked sunken, her body worn ragged with exhaustion and grief.
“Ilain,” Ethenn argued, “you don’t have the strength.”
She held his gaze steadily. “With you and Evylin helping me, I can manage a simple fusing,” she said. “You do the hard work of setting and fixing it, then I’ll channel Day to speed the recovery.” She looked at Thom then. “You’ll be able to walk just fine in the morning.”
Thom eyed her warily. “You’re sure?” he asked.
“Shocking as it may be, I’m not that fragile,” she said, but the words were empty.
After a second of consideration, Ethenn turned back to the task at hand. “Raff, take off your belt,” he instructed.
“You’ll have to buy me a drink first,” the weasel snarked.
Ethenn stared at him with dull annoyance. “It’s for Thom to bite down on.”
While Rafferty moved to follow orders, Thom raised his brow. “It’s gonna be that bad?” he asked, worry pitching his voice higher.
“Sorry,” Ethenn apologized. He turned to Vayden. “Could you hold his left leg down?”
“Seriously?” Thom said incredulously.
“I don’t care to be kicked in the face,” Ethenn returned.
Rafferty offered the leather belt. Thom rolled his eyes, then bit down. At Ethenn’s continued instruction, Rafferty leaned against Thom’s shoulder, carefully wrapping his arms over him to hold his torso down. Evylin continued to hold Thom’s hand, fear causing the whites of his eyes to appear.
She squeezed his hand and smirked. “Don’t be a baby,” she teased. “You were just bleeding out a moment ago. This will be nothing.”
He rolled his eyes at her sarcasm, then screamed through the belt when Ethenn set the broken bone unannounced. His body jolted from the pain, but Rafferty and Vayden held him steady.
“Hold still,” Ethenn ordered.
Thom muttered muffled obscenities into the belt between his teeth.
Tenderly, Evylin brushed the dark hair off his forehead. “You have the lowest pain tolerance I’ve ever seen,” she goaded.
Somehow, she understood when he mumbled, “Don’t try to distract me, Evie. It’s not going to—” He cried out again as Ethenn twisted the kneecap back in place.
Quickly, Ilain grabbed Evylin’s hand while Ethenn gripped her shoulder. Then she rested her hand on the newly set leg. A flare of rusty light seared through as Evylin slumped against the archway, a deep exhaustion creeping into her bones.
Once Rafferty removed the belt from Thom’s mouth, scowling at the bite marks left along the edge, Thom released a whole new slew of curses.
“I’m gonna get you back, Loxley,” he snarled even as his head fell back against the stones.
“Just you wait. When you least expect it, I’m gonna break your leg, then set it with the exact same care you just gave me, and we’ll see how you like it. ”
“I’d hate it,” Ethenn returned, sinking next to Ilain. His features were shadowed with tiredness, but a small grin pulled at his lips, seeing his friend alive, whole, and spitting mad. “But I’d whine less about it, that’s for sure.”
Evylin grinned and patted Thom’s shoulder. Then she looked over the others.
Thom was alive, and they had the Space Relic. But the victory had come at great cost.
In the shadowed stairwell, Brea and Isla watched sadly.
Vayden helped Ilain hobble toward an arched window to slump against the stone.
Ethenn barely made it to sprawl at their side.
Rafferty plunked down next to Thom, leaning his head against the arched window.
Everyone had sustained cuts and scrapes along their faces and bodies.
Their clothing was ragged and torn. And each of them carried a soul-deep weariness.
Worst of all, they’d lost Auden.
Evylin’s eyes filled with fresh tears. She whispered her thankfulness for Thom’s safety to Allore, then released him and turned to Deckard. Grasping his limp hand, she pressed it to her lips. She wanted to curl into his side and take comfort in his nearness.
Instead, she sat there, fearing the guilt he’d face when he woke. He’d take Auden’s death personally. He’d shoulder the weight of the responsibility like he carried everything else. She didn’t want that for him. He was right; it was too heavy, even for the impeccable Jonn Deckard.
Evylin leaned against the archway as close to Deckard as she could. She held his hand to her heart and closed her eyes. Already, her soul felt heavy, anticipating what was to unfold. She couldn’t fathom the added load this would place on Deckard’s heart.
But whatever came, she’d help him carry it and every other burden to come.