Chapter 37 #2
Alvara pinched her eyes shut and inhaled through her nose. A gentle hand grazed her arm, and her heart lurched into her throat. She swung blindly, a quiet curse the only confirmation she had struck her target. Yet it invited no further violence, only a voice that sank her to her knees.
“It’s me.” Boden tugged her fingers open, and her spear thudded into the sand. “Rav is here too, I found him on the way. I wasn’t sure how much help you might need.”
Was she dreaming? “You came,” Alvara rasped.
His warm eyes met hers, and she held back a flinch as his fingers caressed a cut on her face. “Always.” Boden glanced at the bodies scattered around them. “Though it seems like you handled it quite well on your own.”
A laugh should have left her throat, but instead a strangled sob broke free, and the world trembled.
A nightmare. That’s what it was. It couldn’t be real—the blood, the bodies. None of it.
The air thinned. Alvara’s breaths quickened. Her frenzied heartbeat drowned out every other noise. She doubled over and wrapped her arms around her sides.
How did she get here? And gods, why couldn’t she get a damn breath in?
A warm weight moved in smooth circles in the center of her back. “You’re safe. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
Safe. Her mind clung to Boden’s touch. She was safe.
One of the humans groaned. She slid to the ground and dug for her dagger, a rock, anything to smash into the man’s head.
“Rav, take care of him.” Boden placed his hands over hers, halting her frantic movements.
Thump.
She stilled. What if that was Rav, and the human had overtaken him? What if she was next?
Alvara grabbed a pitiful handful of sand and waited for a blow that never came.
“They won’t hurt you anymore. I promise,” Boden whispered.
Hurt?
Those men had hurt her. Tried to kill her.
Alvara shook her head and leaned forward to bury her face in the sand, but she collided with Boden’s shoulder instead. She gripped fistfuls of his shirt and reveled in the quiet darkness that blanketed her senses as he cradled her in his arms. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt her.
Breath after breath, his familiar scent calmed her shaking body, her hammering heart.
She wanted to stay here forever. But when terror finally removed its claws from her spine, she pulled back.
Boden’s gaze remained fixed on her neck, and she swallowed.
It felt like burning sand had been shoved into her throat.
“Are you comfortable with me checking for injuries?”
Alvara opened her mouth, and no sound left her lips. Any other day, she would have thoroughly enjoyed the excuse not to speak, but not today. She had so much she needed to say. Instead, she nodded.
With a whisper of a touch, he examined each of her wounds, letting loose a rumble each time he discovered a new one. “None of it is terribly deep, but we should have a healer look at everything to be safe.” His jaw tensed, and he spoke through tight lips. “Did they…hurt you in other ways?”
Alvara shook her head, already tired of this new and limited manner of communicating.
Boden released a long breath and turned to Rav, who stood with such unnatural stillness in his dark clothes that he almost blended in with the night. “Stay here with them. We’ll find the guards.”
Boden offered a hand to Alvara, but her legs felt as stable as jelly, threatening to give at any second.
He slid an arm around her waist and led her to the entrance of the sleeping halls, where the sounds of deep breaths and even snoring through the open door provided some temporary relief from her anxiety.
They wouldn’t strike here, not with so many people gathered in one place.
He settled her just inside the building in a corner where she could see every slumbering body and tightened his grasp for a brief moment before letting go. “I’ll be right back.”
Please don’t go. The heel of her boot clicked on the floor, and she counted each one of Boden’s steps as she watched him move farther into the hall. It did nothing to stem the panic rising in her throat.
True to his word, he promptly returned with Kat in tow, who outpaced him almost immediately and ran to her side.
“Gods, Alvara, are you all right?” Kat asked, but a nearby elf sat up from their bed roll and shushed her. She glared back. “Try that again and see how that works out for you.” She linked an arm through Alvara’s, gently guided her outside, and settled her on a nearby bench.
Kat whipped around and smacked Boden in the arm, clearly abandoning any attempt to not wake the other people sleeping paces away. “I can’t believe you didn’t get me. You left me sleeping while she almost faded!”
Aurilena joined them, her face still heavy with sleep. “Who do I need to burn?”
“It’s been taken care of.” Boden addressed Kat now, but his eyes didn’t leave Alvara’s face.
“There was no time. I didn’t know if she…
” He snapped his mouth shut, clenching his hands into fists at his sides.
“I need to speak with the guards and have these men imprisoned. You can stay here with Kat—”
“Please,” Alvara said in a hoarse whisper. She blinked the gathering tears out of her vision and took the deepest breath she could manage before forcing out the next word. “Stay.” If he left her alone, for even a few minutes, her composure might shatter completely.
“I’ll find them.” Kat laid a warm hand on top of Alvara’s for a heartbeat before straightening.
“And give them a piece of my godsdamned mind. Lena, come with me. I need your scary flames.” She stormed toward the town, and Aurilena followed, skirting around the cracks and holes Kat’s magic left in the earth.
Boden slid onto the bench beside Alvara and produced a canteen and rags. “I’ll bring you to a healer first thing tomorrow.” He poured a healthy dose of water onto one of the cloths and touched it to the cut on her arm.
Each careful movement, every look into her eyes as he treated another wound, only multiplied the apologies swimming in her head. She had done everything to push him away, tell him he meant nothing, and yet here he was—washing her injuries at this godsforsaken hour.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Damn her throat for spoiling any chance at a decent apology.
The cloth stilled on her cheek. “Not now. All that matters is that you’re safe. I will always come for you, no matter what.”
She knew. She had always known. It was a fact, as reliable as the moon gracing the sky each night. More than anything, Alvara wanted to tell him how much what he had done meant to her—what he meant to her.
But she had to settle for “Thank—” Her throat gave out, and she sighed.
A beautiful smile tugged at Boden’s lips. “Seeing as you’re unable to speak, what should I take this opportunity to bore you with? My favorite teas, from best to worst?”
He could have talked about the weather for hours, for all Alvara cared. She just wanted to hear his voice day in and day out, a reminder of all the good still left in the world.
The last thing she saw that night before she closed her eyes was a hulking bear, curled up in the doorway.