Chapter 15
Wolfe
“Am I ever actually going to use a weapon?” Niamh said through heavy breaths as she went through the repeated motion I’d just taught her.
She forced her palm upward with one foot forward and a slight bend to her knees.
“No,” I said, circling. “And you’re not planting your feet enough. Any attacker could easily get you off-balance when you’re standing like that.”
“What am I supposed to do?” She shot me an irritated glance as she forced her palm out and up again. “Nail my feet to the ground? How are they not planted?”
“Because you lift your heels every time you move. Keep your feet flat.”
“I’d like to flatten you,” she muttered, and my lips twitched.
I had to admit, training Niamh was more fun than I’d anticipated. Mainly because I’d finally found a way to get under her skin. She delighted in irking me, calling me that stupid “sunshine” name, teasing me, but I hadn’t found any way to get her back—until today.
Sweat trickled down the sides of her face, red hair plastered to her forehead, the rest of her hair in a long braid that trailed all the way down to her . . . I realized I was staring at the two round globes of her trousers and averted my eyes, focusing on her movement.
“I’m tired,” she said. “Do I get a water break?”
“No. If you want to learn to defend yourself, you have to build stamina. You won’t get a water break when an enemy is chasing you.”
“Well, I won’t ever learn to defend myself if I pass out from exhaustion.” She jabbed her hand out, arm quivering with the movement.
“You’re getting sloppy,” I warned.
“Because I need a break,” she shot back. “I’ve been doing this same movement for nearly fifteen minutes. Don’t you think we should work up to the stamina building?”
“I didn’t ask for this.” I gently lifted her arm, which was too low and out of position. “I told you to go find some royal guard to train you. You insisted it needed to be me. So are you going to do this my way or are you going to quit?”
Her face settled into a determined scowl as she took a deep breath and kept going, and I nodded in satisfaction.
“The least you can do is tell me some stories to distract me.”
I groaned. “You and your stories. Why can’t the wind be enough? The rustle of the trees? The splash of the water in the distance?”
“Maybe you’re comforted by those things,” she said. “But I like conversation.”
I shoved a hand through my hair and swore under my breath as a chilly breeze blasted us, knocking Niamh off-balance and onto her ass.
I marched over and held out a hand, and she glared up at me, swiping her brow with her arm. “Don’t you say a word.”
“Wouldn’t dare.”
She grabbed my hand, and I heaved her to her feet, but once again, she didn’t plant them firmly enough and lurched forward into my arms. Her palms flattened against my chest, the same way they had that day Cillian had shoved her at me on our journey, and she looked up at me with those wide green eyes that had the smallest halos of yellow around them.
I clutched her hips to steady her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, voice breathless.
“You need to move your hips as you jab,” I said, slowly turning her away from me, ignoring the heat that flared in my chest where her hands had just been.
My fingers dug into her hips, so soft and plush, so much for me to grab.
I cleared my throat and stepped away. Her cheeks were flushed, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the way I’d just touched her or from the workout.
“I shouldn’t have grabbed you.” I rubbed my jaw.
“It’s okay,” she said quickly, looking away.
“It helped me better understand how I need to move.” Her voice rose a few octaves.
“So thank you. And you can do it again. Touch me.” She squeezed her eyes shut, cheeks turning scarlet.
“Not just anywhere or at any time. I mean . . . you can touch me while we’re training . . . for training . . . purposes.”
My lips twitched again, dangerously close to tipping up into a smile, a feeling so foreign I wasn’t sure what to do with it.
“Focus,” I directed, voice firm, and she jolted in response, looking straight ahead and repeating the motion I’d taught her, except now she turned her hips exactly like I’d shown her and her feet remained planted to the ground.
She kept shooting me glances out of the corner of her eye.
“Gaze forward,” I barked, and she snapped her head straight.
I was enjoying this far too much, far more than I’d enjoyed anything in a long time.
Lor had liked to argue with me, too, when we trained together.
Loved to tease me about how I was far too serious.
Lor and Niamh were nothing alike, but some of the fire in her reminded me of his, and it brought me a weird sort of comfort.
I’d missed this. Missed having someone to teach, to share my passions with.
Once she’d completed fifty of the movements exactly how I’d taught her, I gave her a break.
She tromped over to the water barrel by my house, taking a tin cup and dipping it in, then gulping the water down.
“Slow down.” I approached. “Drink too fast after a workout like that and you’ll make yourself sick.”
“I’m not going to—” She stopped, holding her stomach. “Oh. Oh I feel really nauseous. I think I might—I think I’m going to—” And then she vomited all over my boots.
“What’s the emergency?” Nevan burst into my cabin, and I gestured to my bedroom, where Niamh lay, unconscious.
After she’d vomited, she’d passed out into my arms. I’d carried her inside in a panic and sent word to the castle that I needed a healer immediately.
“We were training, and she passed out,” I said.
Nevan unslung the leather satchel from his shoulder and entered the bedroom. I paced for what felt like an eternity before he finally reemerged and sat down on the lone couch in the open space, shifting to avoid a tear in the cushion where stuffing spilled out.
“Well?” I asked.
“She’s fine,” Nevan said. “She woke up a few times, but I gave her a tincture to help her sleep and help her body rejuvenate. She’ll be okay. She just overdid it a little.”
My shoulders slumped. No she hadn’t. I’d forced her to overdo it.
I’d been too harsh on her. She’d asked for a break multiple times, and I’d acted like a drill sergeant, like I’d acted when I was in the royal guard.
It had been foolish to agree to train her.
She needed someone with a gentle hand, someone who wouldn’t push her to the brink of death.
Guilt consumed me at the events I’d allowed to unfold this morning.
“I’m surprised you’re training her,” Nevan said with a raised brow. “I didn’t think you did that anymore.”
Not after Lor. I hadn’t.
Cillian was all jokes, but Nevan had no problem getting to the heart of any issues, no problem speaking his mind, yet he somehow always did it in such a calm, kind way that it was impossible to get defensive or upset.
I scratched the back of my neck. “Well, I won’t be training her moving forward.” I scuffed the toe of my boot against the floor. “It was dumb. She asked and I agreed, but clearly it was a mistake.”
Nevan looked around, pushing his spectacles up his nose. “Love what you’ve done with the place.”
I snorted.
“I think this is the first time I’ve ever been inside your cabin. You know Mother will have a heart attack once she learns you don’t even have a proper dining table.”
“Mother won’t be surprised,” I said, shooting glances at Niamh, who lay in my bed, chest rising and falling with easy breaths.
“Mother would love to see you sometime soon,” Nevan said.
Guilt swallowed me once more. I knew it hurt her that I didn’t see her as often as my brothers, but I was better off alone out here, better off keeping Cillian safe in the way I hadn’t kept Lor safe.
She’d tried to visit me a few times out here, but she’d cried so much, I couldn’t take it.
I told her I’d see her at the castle, see her around town, and I did.
She came to the castle for lunch a few times a week, and I joined her as much as I could. “I’ll visit soon,” I said.
Nevan shot me a look, his greyish blue eyes flashing. He had this way of looking straight into your soul, like he could see through all the bullshit. “How are you, Wolfe? Really?”
I shoved a hand through my hair. “Well, I’m trying to keep our brother, the High Prince of Fairwitch Isle, safe, but he insists on doing stupid things like leaving our home to find some woman in a tower who he thinks is going to be his wife.”
Shit. I hadn’t meant to say all of that, and I hoped Niamh was truly asleep and hadn’t heard me.
An image of her furrowing her brows, that crinkle she got between them when she was worried, flashed in my head.
I knew how much she wanted this place to be her home, and I didn’t want to completely pop her bubbly delusions, didn’t want to see her sunny disposition turn gloomy.
Nevan raised a brow. “You don’t think Niamh will be the queen?”
I threw up my hands and shot another glance her way to make sure she was truly asleep. “If she were, why wouldn’t the crown have already appeared over her head? Cillian is convinced the castle just needs to get to know her, but that’s not how it’s ever worked in the past.”
Nevan shrugged. “Things are changing. The castle is changing. Ever since the alchemy lab disappeared . . .”
He trailed off, and I sighed, knowing this was a sore subject for him.
It wasn’t just the alchemy lab that had disappeared but all his notebooks, his experiments, his supplies.
I’d never seen a man so broken as when Nevan lost his lab, but he’d spent the last few years rebuilding what he could with the little time he had.
This was one of those moments where I should’ve reached out to my brother, given him some comforting words, but when I opened my mouth to speak, nothing came out. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t be a comfort to my brother when I was already so broken.
Nevan’s shoulders fell.
Niamh stirred, moaning, and Nevan shot to his feet. “Well, the patient might already be waking. She’ll need to be on bed rest for the day. Can you take care of her?”
Fuck. I hadn’t expected that. This woman was going to be in my cabin the entire day?
“I can send for others to come here and oversee her—”
“No,” I cut him off. I didn’t need anyone else coming to my cabin and disturbing my peace. “It’s fine. I’ll make sure she gets adequate rest and will return her to the castle tomorrow morning.”
“Perfect.” Nevan patted the little pocket on his dark green shirt and pulled out a quill. “I’ll leave you some instructions. I’m going to chat with her a bit, and then I really should get back to the castle. I have appointments all day.”
I wasn’t sure what caused me to say the next words that came out of my mouth, but they burst out before I could stop them. “Nevan?”
He turned.
“You’re welcome back any time. Maybe next time, bring a few ales.”
My brother smiled, dimples showing. “Yeah, that would be nice.”
He turned and entered the bedroom to check on Niamh.