Page 69 of Bought to Break
‘What’s the last thing you remember?’
Lana thought hard through the fog, trying to piece together the events that had transpired to set them back on a boat so soon.
‘I left the ship to look for you. I walked up a hill … I was so tired.’ She closed her eyes as she saw the road she’d taken and the citadel looming before her. ‘I snuck into the hall while you were all meeting with Greygor. Then you were sent away and they brought a priest. He told them where to find something. Greygor and the others left. The priest knew I was there. I – I’m sorry.’
She felt Kane’s eyes on her, but he said nothing. She couldn’t look at him.
‘What for?’ asked Sorin gently.
‘I tried to save him. I couldn’t leave him like that. I know I’m a Dark Brother and I shouldn’t have helped him, but I had to.’ She opened her eyes expecting Sorin’s censure and was surprised when she saw none in his gaze.
‘But then Quin came,’ she continued.Quin …‘He put something over my mouth. I couldn’t breathe. When I woke up, I was in a cave.’
Gods. The cave.She swallowed hard as a rush of images came back to her.
‘What happened in the cave? Lana, did Quin or one of the others hurt you?’
She suppressed a shudder. ‘No. Not them. Not really. But I tried to escape, so Quin left me tied up there – for hours. Two men came much later. I tried to fight them, but I … I couldn’t.’
Kane had come for her. She remembered how he’d burst in like a shining knight saving a princess and almost laughed at the absurdity. He was about as far from a chivalrous saviour in a childish story as she was royalty. She turned her head slowly to look back at him.
‘I thought I was imagining you when you found me,’ she said softly. ‘Thank you for stopping them. I owe you my life.’
‘You owe me nothing,’ was all he said, his face somehow more expressionless than usual.
Sorin knelt by the side of the cot and probed her shoulder gently. ‘Did the soldiers do it?’
She winced and nodded.
‘It needs to be put back into place. We’re far enough out to sea now to do it.’
‘What do you mean?’ Lana asked, a cold fear settling over her.
‘It’s going to hurt, I’m afraid,’ Sorin warned her darkly, ‘but the quicker we see to it, the better.’ He pulled the blanket down, his eyes surveying her body swiftly as if looking for more injuries. ‘Can you stand?’
Unable to summon even a modicum of her usual embarrassment at that moment, she merely grimaced as she took the hand he offered and he pulled her into a sitting position. Swinging her legs over the side of the bunk, she tried to rise, only to fall back with a groan. ‘I don’t have the strength. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m sorry.’
Sorin’s hand cupped her cheek and smiled at her. ‘There’s nothing to be sorry for. Stop apologising.’ He held another cup out to her. ‘Drink this.’
‘What is it?’
‘It will help with the pain and send you to sleep.’
She took it, poured the contents down her throat without tasting it and handed the empty vessel back to him without a word.
‘Kane, hold her still if you can do so without mauling her.’
Kane moved around her and smoothly extricated himself from the tiny bed. He put his arms around her and pulled her gently into him so that her good shoulder pressed into his body while Sorin picked up her other arm and raised it. She grabbed onto Kane’s arm, holding it tightly as she buried her head into his chest. She braced herself for the pain Sorin had described while stupidly revelling in Kane’s touch, innocuous though it was.
Chapter 35
Kane
Lana’s scream echoed through the ship as Sorin pushed the joint back into its place with a pop. She struggled against Kane, but he held her fast, not letting her move as her tears of pain wet his shirt.
When it was done, she sagged against him, her eyes closed, and he put her gently back into the bed. When Sorin pulled the blanket over her, hiding her from his sight once more, he wanted to tear it off her simply to see her again. She wasn’t even awake. Whatever Sorin had given her had worked quickly. She had sunk into oblivion. But that didn’t stop him from wanting to cover her body with his at that very moment.
Disgusted with himself, he turned away from her to watch Sorin clearing away his tinctures and powders. ‘Whatiswrong with her?’
