My eyes narrowed. “Why do I get the feeling ayetshould follow that statement?”
He kept chewing.
“Briar.”
With a soft sigh, he reached across the table for my hand. “Please don’t worry over it, love. Between the knights taking on extra patrols in the dark wood, as well as the uncertainty of our situation with Haran, precautions are wise. That’s all.”
“Makes sense, I guess.” My bottom lip quivered. “I hate war. And fighting. And those crow demon things.”
He squeezed my fingers before pulling away. “I’m no fan of those creatures either.”
“Are you making a protection stone for Maddox?”
Softness touched his eyes. “Yes. The stones I had weren’t strong enough to contain the level of protection magic I need, which caused a delay. But I believe I found the perfect one.”
We both wanted our captain to be safe.
Minutes later, the door opened again, and two knights came in. Blood trickled down the head of one, and the other held his arm as though injured. By their armor, I placed them as being from the Third Order.
“An incident during drills,” the bloody one said. “Apologies for interrupting your meal.”
“Not at all.” Briar quickly wiped off his mouth and stood. “Let me take a look at you.”
The daily life of a physician and his apprentice. Between sickness, burns, and training injuries, they were kept busy. Briar called the students over and used it as a hands-on learning experience, showing them how to mend the sprain and heal the cuts, both with the aid of magic and without.
I cleared our plates and washed them, then bounced over to tell Briar goodbye.
“Off to see the knights?” he asked, adjusting his glasses.
“Yep. I’ll leave you a sweet treat for later.”
He kissed my temple. “No treat is sweeter than you.”
With my heart a fluttery mess, I stumbled away—because that level of swoon hit me like a Mac truck, turning my body to jelly—and withdrew a stack of oatmeal cranberry cookies from the basket. They’d recently become his favorite.
“Be careful, love,” Briar said as I reached the door. “Please don’t trip or get lost.”
“I won’t!” But it wouldn’t be the first time either had happened. Falling down and getting lost were kind of common for me, unfortunately. “Andyoumake sure to take breaks.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Leave it to us, Evan,” the freckled boy said. “We’ll take care of him.”
Briar sighed, and I grinned. Apparently, even his students had noticed his lack of self-care.
Back outside, the chilly afternoon stabbed at my exposed skin, and I burrowed more into my cloak. Well, Rowan’s cloak. He was right. It did fit me pretty well. And it still smelled like him. Peppery but sweet too.
Don’t think about him.
A week had passed since his visit, and damn if I didn’t find myself missing him, hoping he’d visit again. Which was… well, dumb. My men didn’t trust him, and his presence would only cause friction between all of us.
Sigh.
Pushing a certain auburn-haired non-bandit from my mind, I strolled down the path toward the knights’ barracks. Muscle memory led me there with no trouble—well, apart from the tree root jutting up that had been out for blood and caught on the front of my boot, nearly sending me and the basket of muffins tumbling to the ground.
My saving grace? None other than my precious cinnamon roll of a knight.
“Easy,” Callum said, one arm secured around my waist to keep me upright. Once I was steady, he slowly released me. “Are you all right?”
