27. Jaxus
TWENTY-SEVEN
JAXUS
“ W hat are you doing?” I demanded when I came in to find her sitting on the edge of the bed, feet touching the floor and hands braced on either side, readying to push off. “Goddess, I stepped out for one minute to speak to someone. Where do you think you’re going?”
“I was going to use the bathing chamber,” she replied indignantly.
“You should have called someone or waited for me.”
“Jaxus, it was bad enough you tried to spoon-feed me broth yesterday. This is going too far. I can get myself there.”
“Do you know that you can? What if you fell and you were alone?”
She groaned and made to stand. I stood near ready to catch her if her legs were still too weak to hold her. I’d had to carry her until now. She wobbled slightly and I took her arm, but the flash of anger in her eyes told me that was as far as I should help.
I stepped aside, her arm resting on mine to let her continue and putting more weight on me than she would probably like to admit, but she did slowly get herself to the bathing chamber. She let go of my arm and gripped the door frame, looking at me sternly. “I can take it from here.”
I nodded, letting her take care of the rest herself, but I didn’t leave my post outside the door until she reappeared, rolling her eyes. But she raised no verbal objection to me helping her back into bed. She was slowly getting better but not quickly enough for her liking and it was making her grumpy.
“Don’t do that face,” I said.
“What face?” she grumbled.
“The sulking face because you want to do everything for yourself.”
“Of course I want to do everything for myself! I’m not a child.”
I resisted telling her she was acting a little like one. “Well occasionally, that’s not possible, and you have to accept that some people care enough to want to be there for you when that happens.” The frustration that rose in my voice even took me by surprise.
She blinked in shock.
I sighed. “Look, I want you back on your feet as fast as possible too,” I said taking a seat beside the bed and taking her hand. “But only as fast as it’s good for you. And yeah, I’m not going to lie, being able to take care of you while you need it is something I want to do.”
“Because it makes you feel like you’ve done your duty,” she snarked.
“Because it’s an honor,” I corrected.
Her eyes met mine, taken aback by my sincerity.
I smiled. “Don’t look so surprised. ”
“I am, though,” she admitted.
I shook my head. “Healers make the worst patients.”
“I just hate being idle, that’s all.”
“Now that you’re feeling a bit better you don’t have to just lay there, would you like me to bring you some books?” I offered.
Her eyes lit up. “Yes! Can you go to my chambers and bring me the volume I keep on my workstation? You know the one. My journal should be with it. Can you bring that so I can make some notes? Oh, and do you think you can ask the librarians for anything they have on dragon genealogy. I want to start looking at the kinds of bonds that are typical.”
I let her finish, her joy was not something I was keen to stamp out. But in this case, it was going to have to happen. “No,” I replied simply.
Her face fell. “What?”
“No work,” I said firmly.
“But—”
“No work, Kiera.”
“But you offered me books.” I could swear her bottom lip quivered.
“I meant a novel or two, or maybe a game or some cards, something light to pass the time.”
“My work will pass the time,” she argued.
“No, your work will stop you resting and make you even more determined to get out of here before you’re ready.”
“I need to work, Jaxus!” she all but snapped.
“It’s in hand, Kiera.”
“This is ridiculous. I’ll have Nyx or my father bring them. You can’t stop them,” she said defiantly.
I quirked an eyebrow. “Try me.”
“Ugh!” she fumed, banging her hands on the sheets ineffectually.