Chapter 7 #3
His chest rose and fell in a measured breath. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here.”
“You don’t have to sleep in that chair,” I whispered, my words slurring slightly. “It looks uncomfortable as Hel. Just lay down.”
“Syl—”
“Just…stay close.”
He swallowed thickly, hesitation flickering across his features before he finally exhaled, defeated. Silently, he kicked off his boots and climbed onto the bed and under the covers beside me. At first, he lay stiffly, as if afraid even a stray breath might disturb me.
I frowned. “Jack.”
“Yeah?” His voice was quiet, wary.
“I’m not a porcelain doll,” I said, my head resting on the propped pillow. “You’re not going to break me if you scoot closer.”
A beat of silence stretched between us. Then, cautiously, he shifted, his warmth seeping into me as he settled.
He turned on his side, facing me, his face close enough that I could see the flecks of silver in his winter-blue eyes.
His breath fanned against my brow, carrying the faint scent of pipe smoke and eldbrann.
For a long moment, neither of us spoke, the only sound the crackling firewood in the hearth.
He reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, his fingers brushing the delicate tip. My body shivered at the touch. When Leoric had done it, I’d felt a ripple of awareness, a reminder that beneath my armor and duty, there was still a female who yearned for a male’s touch.
But when Jack did it… When his calloused fingers skimmed my ear with such aching tenderness, it was more than that. His touch didn’t just awaken something on my skin; it reached deep, pulling at the tether that had bound me to him since the night of the winter festival.
And every time he touched me, he strummed that tether, drawing me closer.
His voice was barely above a whisper when he spoke. “There was a moment tonight when I thought I might lose you.”
“But I’m here. Because of you.”
“You don’t understand,” he murmured, his jaw clenching. “I’ve never felt fear like that before.”
“Is that why you needed to…eviscerate those bastards?” I tried for a small, teasing smile, but the exhaustion was too strong. My eyelids felt impossibly heavy, the edges of my vision blurring.
His lips pressed into a grim line. “What I did to them wasn’t enough. If they’d taken you from me, I—” His voice caught, raw with something unspoken.
Darkness continued to pull me under, my body too weak to fight it, but I managed to shift a little toward him, careful not to put pressure on my stitches, and cupped his cheek.
Earlier tonight, I’d feared that Jack marrying that princess was going to be the end of our friendship—that this was how I would lose him forever.
But lying next to him now made me realize something different.
“No matter what happens between us, Jack, no one will ever be able to take me from you. You’re my best friend. Forever. Even after death. Remember?”
“Under the Hollowheart Yew atop Blood Mound,” he murmured, the corner of his lips twitching. “How could I forget? We were thirteen and too na?ve to know what we were doing.”
I smiled faintly. “Too na?ve to know we were spilling blood on the roots of a tree rumored to have been cursed by the Shadow Court?”
He chuckled, but there was something distant in it. “Any who swear an oath upon its bark find their fate bound, not only to each other, but to the balance of life and death.”
“See? We’re bound to this world and the next, no matter what.”
“Except magic is never that simple, Syl. It’s always cryptic, and it always comes at a cost.” His gaze darkened, his thoughts drifting somewhere far away.
“What’s on your mind, Jack?”
His focus snapped back to me. “Nothing…nothing to worry about.”
“Na?ve or not, I’d do it all over again. I’d take the blood oath with you again and again.”
His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Me, too.” Then, more softly, he added, “Syl, I’m sorry.
I’m sorry for lying to you…for not telling you where I was those seven days.
For not sending you a message. For not being here when you were promoted to captain—regardless of my mother’s motives.
For being a prick today. I’m sorry for all of it. ”
I yawned, the weight of sleep pressing harder against me. “It’s okay, Jack. I’m sorry for being so hard on you.”
He brushed another strand of hair from my brow. “I promise I’ll come clean with you. Just give me a few days to get some things sorted out.”
I nodded, smiling gently. Somewhere, in the space between waking and dreaming, I heard my voice, soft, barely more than a whisper. “I love you, Jack…” The words trickled from my lips before I could take them back, before I could see their impact.
But just before sleep claimed me entirely, I felt his fingers curl around mine, his grip strong but tender.
And then, with a soft press of his lips on my brow, he said, “I love you, too, elskan mín. More than you’ll ever know.
” The words wrapped around me like an embrace, latching onto my heart with an unshakable grip.
Elskan mín… My darling.