Page 107 of Bitten & Burned
“This won’t taint that,” he added.
“I know, but… gods, she’s amazing. It’s the first time anyone’s ever made me feel—young.”
“That’s a trick,” Quil said. “Aren’t you nearly four thousand years old or something like that?”
“I’m three hundred and sixty-seven,” I said primly. “And I’ll thank you to remember that.”
He winced. “Sorry. I was trying to be light. Was it—too much?”
“No,” I said. “You’re fine. I’m just… shaken, that’sall.”
“Me too.”
We sat in the blood-slick quiet a beat too long.
Then I exhaled. “We need to do something about the bodies. Before dawn.”
Quil looked at me like I’d grown two heads. That he’d rather do anything than leave her here.
I raised a brow. “It will just take a moment. The crew will be back in the morning. And, while an extra sack of florins can hide a lot of things, I’d rather not test whether it can hide this.”
“I don’t want to leave her,” Quil said, voice barely above a whisper.
“Just for a moment. Help me with the bodies, then you can go back to her.”
He hesitated. Then nodded once.
“Where do I put her?”
“The lounge,” I said, standing. “It’s at the opposite end of the boat. Comfy chaise. Far from the carnage.”
I picked up the gift bag and led the way, blood squelching faintly underfoot.
Quil followed, still cradling her, his lean arms gentle for once. Soft. Gods, that was a word I never thought I’d use to describe Quil Ashborne:soft. But that was Rowena’s effect on him. Her effect on us all.
She made Vael tolerable, Quil soft, Cassian falter, and Dmitri weak. And she made me… tame.
Well, considering my first thought had been to skin the intruders alive and make them watch me do it, perhaps I wasn’t as tame as I’d previously thought. But still… a blood-soaked room would have been enough to send me into a frenzy. I would have lost more than my temper.
And yet… here I was, calmly cleaning up the mess after I’d let someone else handle it for me.
That was tame—for me.
When we reached the lounge, I set the bag on a table and gestured to the chaise.
“What’d you get her?” Quil asked, eyeing the bag.
“Oh, it's….” I hesitated, suddenly unsure. “It feels silly now. I’d planned something more extravagant for dinner tonight, but… this was just the warm-up.”
He didn’t answer.
But the way he looked at Rowena as he laid her down—carefully, reverently—said he understood.
The room was quiet again. No words, nothing but the steady thrum of guilt pouring out of both of us.
ROWENA
My neck hurt.
