Chapter 9 #2
“With all due respect, mistress. I’m a full-grown male, not a child. I’m quite aware of my magical abilities, and I can assure you, healing others is not one of them.”
She drew a slow breath, lips pursed, shoulders squaring. “You may have reached your age of maturity, but in terms of your royal lifespan—”
“I’m well-versed in the history of my people’s longevity, Maelis. Please do not lecture me on magic and how it works. Although it pleases me to see Sylvi doing well, I can’t take credit for it. I know I did not heal her.”
Maelis sighed with annoyance. Arguing with the prince was always a never-ending battle—a scenario I was all too familiar with.
She packed up her supplies, fingers trembling slightly.
“I’m not quite sure what you want me to say, Your Highness.
My healing practices are renown in Isenheim, but even my concoctions can’t speed healing like that.
If not your magic, then what else would you suggest?
” She finally glanced back up, challenging him.
Jack’s jaw flexed. Something about this whole exchange had unsettled him, but I couldn’t understand why.
“Jack,” I said softly. “Maelis is right. It must be your magic. Nothing else makes sense.”
He didn’t answer, didn’t even bother acknowledging me, his gaze shadowed with turbulent thoughts.
“So…does this mean I’m cleared for duty?” I asked Maelis instead, refusing to let Jack’s darkened mood mess with my head. Pulling my legs from under the covers, I tried to stand, smoothing his shirt down to my knees, but the motion made me wobble.
Jack snapped out of his daze immediately and rushed to my side, easing me back onto the bed. “For fuck’s sake, Syl. Take it easy, will you? You’re not fully healed yet.”
“I’m fine,” I snapped, brushing his hands away.
“Despite the rapid healing,” Maelis cut in, “as the prince said, the wound is still fresh. However, you don’t need to stay in bed all day.
Move around, yes, but take a week or two off from your guard duties.
No combat training or strenuous activity.
Stay off your horse if you can. And I left you the ointment on the table there. Continue applying it, twice daily.”
“A week or two off my duties? That’s not going to happen. I just got this position. I can’t simply abandon my post.”
“You’re not abandoning your post, Syl,” Jack said, standing over me. “I’ve already told Varik last night that he can cover as captain while you recuperate.”
“You took command of my guard without consulting me?”
“You were nearly dying, Syl. And I am the Crown Prince; it’s within my right to command the guard if I please.”
Rage rumbled in my chest. “Thank you for reminding me.”
“Don’t do that. You know that’s not how I meant it. I wasn’t trying to upset you. I was merely—”
“The Unseelie Court is due in a week,” I said, cutting him off, uninterested in his excuses for making me feel like my authority as captain was only a formality. “You know the level of preparation needed for a royal visit of that magnitude. I can’t sit on my ass when the palace needs me.”
“Can we discuss this later? In private?” he said in a low voice.
Maelis stepped closer, securing her satchel over her shoulder.
“I understand your eagerness to get back to your duties, Captain, but you didn’t suffer a normal stab wound.
The blade that cut you was severely contaminated.
You’re lucky to be alive. Regardless of how well that wound looks, I can’t have you possibly tearing a stitch.
And you can’t skip the treatment, either. The sickness could return."
“I won’t skip the treatment,” I said, “but I can’t promise that I’m going to sit around like a pampered courtier while others do my work.”
“I’ll make sure she follows your instructions,” Jack added, nodding at the healer and dismissing what I said as if he was now my personal nursemaid, or worse, my mother.
I gently pinched his arm. “I’m not helpless, you know. I can decide for myself.”
He eyed me, that hardened blue gaze of his telling me to stop arguing.
Maelis cleared her throat. “Very well. If you’ll excuse me, my work here is done. Good luck, Captain. Come see me in seven days so I can remove the stitches.”
After the healer left, I remained sitting at the edge of Jack’s bed, too conscious of the fact that, although I was swimming in Jack’s shirt, my legs were still naked. The soft fabric barely brushed below my knees, and I tugged it down with little effect, my skin prickling in the cool air.
He moved closer, each step unhurried, as if not to spook me, his posture loose, unassuming.
But I crossed my arms, refusing to let his calm peel back the edge of my indignation.
“You can be mad at me all you want,” he began, his voice breathy, “but I wasn’t trying to overstep your authority as captain. ”
“It’s not just that. It’s the way you spoke to Maelis, too. You didn’t have to be a dick to her.”
His shoulders sagged beneath the weight of my reproach. “I wasn’t trying to be. I know she meant well, but I know my abilities, Syl. I don’t need someone trying to redefine them for me.”
“Except I’m common fae. And despite being the best healer in the kingdom, Maelis is just that—a healer. Neither she nor I possess any magic. The only way I could be healing this fast is because of you. Unless you know something I don’t.”
His body went taut, like a string drawn too tight. Silence bloomed between us, charged with the words he wasn’t saying. He stared at me for several long, aching beats, something flickering behind his eyes that made my throat dry.
I leaned forward, tension pressing tight against my ribcage. “What is it? Is there something I should know about my healing wound?”
He remained silent, though I could see something sat on the tip of his tongue.
Gods, this was infuriating.
I huffed, pushing myself to my feet despite the tug of my stitches, pain slicing up my side, a warning I ignored. “For Skadi’s sake, just say what’s on your mind, Jack. I can’t with all these secrets.”
Jack dragged frazzled fingers through his hair, making every chorded muscle of his shoulder and arm ripple beneath pale skin.
Sunlight and shadows danced along the ridges of his body, showcasing a canvas of male beauty so captivating it made me mad.
Damn it. I hated how aware I was of his still-naked chest, especially when I was trying to be angry at him.
“Can you please throw on a shirt or something?” I snapped, the heat in my blood spiraling. “It’s hard talking to you when you look… When you look like that.”
A slow, crooked grin tugged at the corner of his mouth, an eyebrow hiking, whatever troubled thoughts he’d been warring with suddenly forgotten. “Oh? What happened to, we’ve seen each other naked before? I thought we were supposed to be comfortable with this level of intimacy.”
“When did I say that?”
“Last night when you asked me to take you to my privy.”
Heat flooded my face as the mortifying memory slammed into me.
“See? Doesn’t hold much weight anymore, does it?”
“That’s different.”
“How so?”
“I was still clothed last night. You’re…
” I helplessly gestured to the expanse of his torso, and to the trousers clinging too indecently low on his pelvis, thinly veiling his muscled legs and the other, more intimate parts of his body that kept threatening to reduce me to ash. “Practically in the nude.”
He stepped even closer. “My bare chest offends you now? Since when?”
Yeah, Sylvi. Since when?
I backed up, the backs of my legs brushing the bed. The warmth of his nearness crackled across my skin, buzzing like static energy. My heart thundered wildly, betraying me.
Gods. This scene, his proximity… It was all too much. I was on the verge of saying something stupid, something reckless, when a knock shattered the moment. I exhaled in relief.
Bless you, Skadi.
“Saved again, it seems.” Jack’s lips twitched with amusement, his eyes twinkling. He was enjoying this, watching me squirm. Jerk.
My insides churned. If I’d thought broody-but-tender Jack was dangerous, then the playful Frost Prince was leagues more lethal than a sharpened sword.
He opened the door, and one of the palace’s morning attendants entered, carrying a silver tray piled high with breakfast. The young lad bowed, eyes politely averted and set the tray on a small table before slipping out without a word.
The aroma of spiced porridge, freshly baked bread glazed in honey, roasted meats and boiled eggs, fruit, and hot cider steaming in silver mugs wafted toward the bed, and I nearly keeled over from hunger.
Jack took the tray before I could rise and set it between us on the bed. “I know Maelis said you can move around, but for now, can we enjoy breakfast in bed?”
Sunlight shimmered off the mugs, and my gaze was dragged to the large windows. Winter birds chirped beyond the glass, unperturbed about the state of the realm. Oh, to be a bird…
I took a deep breath and allowed myself, for at least one moment, to indulge.
Though I couldn’t pretend nothing was wrong.
I could eat a yummy royal breakfast while curled beneath plush blankets and still work.
“We need to come up with an explanation, Jack. The entire realm is going to rise in uproar, if they haven’t already. ”
“Those males were going to defile you before they killed you. There’s nothing more to explain.”
“That won’t be enough for your mother. And the townsfolk will see it as tyranny. You used magic against individuals who stood no chance against you.”
He went to reach for a fork, then set it back down, his expression hardening. “Why were you in the Warrens?”
I grabbed a slice of bread and curled my legs under one of the furs. Taking a delicate bite, I asked, “What were you going to say earlier…about my wound?”
He smirked, spearing a halved moonberry and popping it into his mouth. “A truth for a truth.”
I sighed, then took a sip of my cider. The sweet warmth made me hum in satisfaction. “Gods, that hits the spot.”
“Syl…” he crooned.