Page 2 of Staff of Nightfall

“Not as badly as you are.” She guided him to the ground. “Hang on.” She fetched her dagger from the jaw of the last kanadosus, limping as she walked.

“Your leg...?”

“My foot.” She sat next to him, cutting strips from her dress. “Just got twisted.” She kept wincing as she worked with her left foot out to the side. The leather of her boot was mangled, but he didn’t see any blood on her foot. Only on her arm. She moved to wrap his arm, but he stopped her.

“You first.”

“It’s just some scratches. You’re bleeding more. I...” Her voice cracked. “Let me do what I still can.”

Guilt pricked him as she tightly bound his forearm. “Thank you.”

She nodded and wrapped wide strips of cloth over his shoulder, across his chest, and under his arm. The pressure made the wounds ache but would help stem the bleeding. When she finished, Regulus wrapped the last strip around her forearm. His tired hands struggled. A cloud drifted over the moon, making it difficult to tell where the cuts began and ended, so he wrapped as much of her arm as he could. The memory of the lights Adelaide had conjured before brought another stab of guilt.

“I’m sorry I didn’t stop him,” he said in a strained whisper. He cleared his throat. “I should have—”

“What, Reg?”

He blinked at her use of his nickname. His hands hovered over the knot he had tied on her wrist as he met her eyes.

“Should have, could have.” She pulled her arm to her torso and looked away. “It doesn’t change anything.”

The bitterness in her voice made him wince. He wanted to ask how to fix this, how to fix them, what she wanted from him. Wanted to beg her for forgiveness. But the words stuck in his throat. Too painful to speak aloud. Too afraid to find out the answer.

“We should look for the horses. And find a place to rest, away from the...” He gestured toward the dead kanadosi.

His heart fell further as she stood without looking at him. He followed her in the direction the horses had bolted, leaving the now difficult-to-wield sword of the Black Knight behind. The horses’ rapid pace had left an obvious trail in the moss, pine needles, and dirt, even in the dim moonlight. They followed the tracks, calling to their horses.

The space Adelaide maintained between them stung more than the bites on his arm and shoulder. Her limp worsened as they walked, but with the way she wouldn’t meet his eyes, he didn’t dare offer to let her lean on him. He was about to suggest they halt their search until morning when a whinny caught his attention. He scanned the woods to his right.

“Sieger?”

“Zephyr?” Adelaide called.

Hoof beats, then Sieger trotted around a tree toward them. Zephyr trailed behind, still tied to Sieger’s saddle. Regulus sighed with relief and caught Sieger’s bridle.

“Hey. There’s my boy.” He patted Sieger’s neck, and his hand came away sticky with sweat. “Sorry you had such a fright.”

He glanced around Sieger’s neck at Adelaide rubbing Zephyr’s forehead. She murmured something he couldn’t hear. He gave her a moment before finding a nearby pine suitable for both tying up the horses and taking shelter. He fetched his knife from the saddlebag, then ducked under the branches where Adelaide had already curled onto her side. With a suppressed sigh, he laid down a couple feet away from her, his knife close at hand. The soft sounds of the horses and the background noise of insects filled the air as he drifted to sleep.

Regulus awoke to find Adelaide curled against him, her injured arm crossed in front of her chest between them, her other arm thrown over his torso. His bandaged right arm wrapped up and around her shoulders. The sun had already risen high into the sky, but in the shade of the pine, the air felt cool. The heat of her body against his, the way she fit against his side, her face tucked into his shoulder, healed him and broke him all at once. His shoulder felt stiff and sore around the bite, and his right arm ached. The longer he lay there, the more aware he became of the stinging in his back from where the wolf’s claws had scratched him. He needed to move. Heshouldmove. She probably had drifted next to him in her sleep. But he kept still, treasuring the moment.

Afraid when she woke, she would resent him for what had happened to her.

Afraid to lose her.

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