Page 73 of All's Fair in Lion and War
“Can I ask where she is?”
“She died a few years back. Cancer.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
He made eye contact for a split second, showing her a mix of confusion and then realization. “It’s a disease that eats a person from the inside out. She had tumors in her brain.”
“I’m so sorry. That must’ve been terrible. We have that sickness in our world, but the magick-benders are able to heal it.”
“Our doctors sometimes can, but my Evie’s was too fast.” He pulled the shirt over her head.
Lorelei crossed her arms over her breasts. There were so many cuts. Then the huge gaping claw wound from where Rivian had dug his hand into her abdomen.
“She went from happy and singing to tripping over her own feet and blacking out within the space of two weeks. When the tests came back from the doctor, they said she had weeks to live.”
Lorelei put a hand on Liam’s hand where it was resting on her leg. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“I’m okay now. It’s been long enough I can talk about her without falling apart. And I have such good memories. She passed only two weeks after that and we spent almost the whole time in bed, laughing and remembering and looking at pictures of our adventures. We used to go camping up on Denali every summer.”
He stood, put an arm around her, lifting and pressing her against his chest, and then quickly removed her pants. “You’re really skin and bones, lass. That fucking bastard was starving you.”
“Yes. He was. All of us.”
Liam made a growling sound and kept her pressed against his chest, lifting her from the ground enough to walk with her over to the tub.
He turned the handles and fixed the water temperature to his liking and then climbed in and turned so that the water hit her first. Then pulled the sheet to keep the water from spraying all over the bathroom.
The warmth was amazing on her dirty skin.
“You’re going to get wet.”
“Doesn’t matter. This is what you need. I’d let Saul do this for you if he could. But the man can barely hold his own weight. Have to give you both credit though. The beating you both took would’ve been enough to take down any man in my unit back in the day.”
His arm was locked around her back. He walked forward until the water was running down her back. She leaned her head back and let it flow through her hair.
“I know.”
“He wouldn’t really eat me would he?”
Lorelei couldn’t help the small chuckle that slipped out between her bruised lips. “He will want to, but no. Still, I wouldn’t recommend ever mentioning this situation again.”
The water running off her body was pink and brown and disgusting. But it was washing all of the filth away and once it was gone she would be able to start building anew.
“Could you turn me around?”
He moved her carefully, turning her so that her back was now to his front and his arm was locked around her stomach.
Using his body as leverage she was able to comfortably start rinsing off the blood and dirt from her arms and chest. The hot water against her wounds burned like fire, but they needed to be cleaned too.
“You doing okay?”
“Yes, it just…hurts.”
He grunted, a very male-like response when they didn’t really know what to say.
The water eventually started to flow clear, just a bit of pink here and there.
“Gonna sit you in the tub now. Looks like you’re pretty clean. A good soak should help loosen up your muscles. And I’ll grab you some shampoo for your hair.”
