35. Ava #2
The seconds passed in agonizing silence. Finnr began to pace, his eyes wide and panicked, and Ava wished she had words to comfort him. Nothing she could say would matter, however, because she didn’t understand his loss and wasn’t qualified to offer comfort.
This burden was his and his alone, and she could only watch from the sidelines and mourn with him. She couldn’t fix this for him, as much as she wanted to.
She stared into Roar’s face, willing his eyes to open, but seconds bled into minutes. A quarter of an hour passed with no change.
And then a little color seeped into the boy’s cheeks. Jerrid’s fingers spasmed against hers, and she shifted to press a hand against his bare chest, her heart hammering against her own.
Had an eyelid flickered?
Her breath caught in the back of her throat as the boy’s eyelids fluttered noticeably, his mouth opening and closing in small smacking motions. Then he blinked up at them, his gaze roaming from one face to another until it lingered on his father.
“Hey, Da,” he said with a weak grin. “I’m so hungry I could eat a cow. No, I could eat a whole herd of cows.”
Nervous laughter rippled around the room, Finnr falling back into a chair with a strangled sob. He buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking. Glamren patted him roughly on the shoulder while everyone else crowded closer to the boy.
“There, there,” Glamren said gruffly. “Don’t carry on like that. The worst is over now.”
But Finnr carried on anyway, and Ava knew that the worst was yet to come. For tomorrow they would pick up the pieces of their lives and carry on without a wife and a mother.
“It’s so good to see you awake,” Ava said, drawing nearer and brushing Roar’s hair away from his forehead. “You’ve been asleep for a couple of days, little friend.”
He absorbed this information without blinking an eye. “No wonder I’m so hungry. Did you defeat the shadow monster? Was there lots of hacking and stabbing, and did you pull off his legs and—”
“It’s good and dead, Roar,” Jerrid interrupted with a grin. “I’ll give you a play-by-play once you’re feeling a little better.”
“Aw, tell me now!” the boy cried, struggling to sit up but falling back as his face lost all color. “Whoa. The bed is spinning. This is a strange bed!”
Finnr reached across the bed to clutch the boy’s hand, tears in his eyes.
Persis yanked open the curtain to the cubicle beside them and guided the prince so that he could sink down onto the empty cot. His body trembled with exhaustion, dark circles hugging his eyes, which reminded Ava, painfully, of how close to death he’d been only a week earlier.
The prince and princess pressed their foreheads together and began to whisper furiously back and forth. Ava averted her gaze to give them privacy.
When Persis finally turned back to face them, her gaze froze on Ava and Jerrid for a moment, as if she had noticed Jerrid’s unusual attire for the first time. Her eyes flickered up and down and then lingered on the hand Ava pressed against the dragon rider’s chest.
A knowing smile lifted the corners of her lips, but she turned away without comment. Heat burned Ava’s cheeks, but she didn’t pull away from Jerrid. The cat was out of the bag, and she truly didn’t care who knew about them.
When his arm snaked around her waist, she leaned closer against him.
Persis drifted around the bed and settled a hand on Finnr’s shoulder, more at home in this infirmary than she was on the throne. “We need to talk about your son.”
Finnr lifted his head and met her gaze, his smile tremulous and still tinged with fear.
“Haryk found damage to his thoughts,” Persis explained in a low voice. “Things are broken inside him, but we don’t know how bad it is. He might heal completely. He might have lost some memories. He might…he might be a little different now.”
Ava winced and glanced up at Jerrid.
“I can’t say anything for certain,” Persis continued in her gentle, matter-of-fact tone, “because the mind is a tricky thing, and Haryk isn’t trained to use sand magic. You need to prepare yourself that things might be different.”
Finnr nodded, turning toward the bed. “But…he’s okay, right, lass?”
Persis patted his shoulder. “I think he will be. But I recommend you stay at the palace for a while so that I can keep an eye on him. Just to be safe.”
Ava exhaled a long, slow breath and pressed her cheek against Jerrid’s chest. He rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head.
“Well, I’d best get this strapping young boy some food,” Glamren said, pushing between Ava and Jerrid with a smirk so that she could get back to the center of the room.
Ava and Jerrid eased away from the cubicle to give Finnr time alone with his son, moving instead to stand beneath one of the high, arched windows.
Sunlight washed over them, warming her skin.
She tipped her face upward and inhaled deeply.
Exhaustion clawed at her bones, but contentment flooded through her body.
Roar was okay.
And she was home.
Jerrid’s fingers ran down her arm, from elbow to wrist. “I have been thinking about something.”
His low whisper caused her to snap her eyes open so that she could peer up into his face. “Yes?”
“I don’t suppose there is a magistrate handy,” he murmured, his gaze roaming over her features, a wry smile tugging at the left corner of his lips.
Her mouth went dry, her tongue thick and heavy. “A m-magistrate?”
His smile broadened as he leaned closer. “Aye. I rather enjoyed pretending to be husband and wife, Meat Pasty—loads of fun, that—and I’d like to give it a genuine go. If you’re willing.”
A small crease formed above his brows, his face hovering directly over hers.
“Oh my.” Ava choked on something halfway between a laugh and a sob.
In that moment, he sounded so much like Dragon and Jerrid, with Dragon’s sarcastic humor and Jerrid’s subtler insecurities, that it made her heart hurt a little.
His eyebrows wrinkled above his nose. “Is that a no?”
She leaned onto her tiptoes and pressed a hard kiss to his mouth. He tasted like sweat and ash and dragon fire, and it ignited a fire in her chest. He kissed her good and proper and then left a final lingering kiss on the tip of her nose.
“You haven’t answered my question,” he growled.
She grinned. “I just did.”
The furrow eased between his eyebrows, his smile widening.
Someone cleared their throat, and they pulled apart while exchanging guilty smiles.
Persis and Haryk stood nearby, arm in arm. The princess’s grin was so wide, Ava feared it might split her face clean in two.
“I see you two are getting along well,” she teased. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but Haryk has some business he needs to discuss with you before everyone cleans up and rests.”
Ava’s gaze flicked to the prince, her stomach churning unpleasantly. “Business?”
The prince nodded and leaned his shoulder against the wall, weariness etched on his face. Ava frowned, her gaze lingering on the wrinkles at the edges of the prince’s eyes that she had never noticed before, and were his temples more white than silver?
This recent battle had taken a toll on him.
“I’ve been thinking about the girls,” he said in a low tone meant for their ears alone. “I have plans to reengage Haldor in peace talks, to try to amend the treaty, but that’s going to take time.”
Ava’s heart gave a wild stutter, and her gaze clashed with Jerrid’s.
“But in the meantime, I’ve been thinking about starting an investigative committee to look into the conditions of the Haldorian brides.
To make sure they’re being treated right.
I also want to enforce the age limits more rigorously.
” His mouth turned down here, his expression almost angry.
“I had a talk with Brynja before we left. Her input was…enlightening.”
Persis leaned closer into his side, her lips pressed into a taut line.
The prince’s expression smoothed. “I’d like to assign the job to you, Jerrid, and maybe Finnr, if he’s interested.
I want people working on this who have the girls’ best interests at heart.
Eventually, I’d like a joint committee of both elves and humans to improve relations.
But this means you would have to stay in Eroth… ”
Were his eyes twinkling?
Ava shot a glance at Jerrid, warmth surging through her chest. Would they both be able to stay here in Eroth, then?
“I would be honored to consider this position,” Jerrid said, taking his time as he chose his words. “But I will need to speak to my father, of course, to ask for reassignment.”
“Of course. I would expect nothing less.”
“Are you sure,” Jerrid began, licking his lower lip and frowning, “that you won’t mind having a dragon shifter running amok in your city, poking his nose into people’s business? I won’t be popular.”
The prince’s face cracked into a weary smile. “Unfortunately, change is rarely popular. And a dragon shifter might be just what this peace treaty needs.”
Ava slid an arm around Jerrid’s waist, so proud of him in that moment that she thought her heart might burst.
Prince Haryk cleared his throat. “That brings me to you, Ava.”
Her smile froze as a knot formed in the pit of her stomach. Oh no…
“I’m sure you noticed that Glamren was injured recently—it’s a long story I won’t get into now—but she has expressed an interest in retiring.”
Ava nodded and schooled her features. Her heart ached at the thought of the old healer retiring. She’d been working with Ava since she began her apprenticeship as a young girl. She was the closest thing to a mother Ava had possessed after her parents died.
And of course, Persis would make an incredible head healer. Ava would enjoy working under the princess. Things would change, but it wouldn’t be bad. Especially if Jerrid was here…
“So,” the prince said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “it has come to my attention that I have been underestimating your abilities, Ava. I’m half tempted to promote you to the royal guard.”