Page 84 of The Bound Mage
Loren scowled, forcing himself further upright despite the searing pain. “I’m fine?—”
“You are notfine,” Araya bit out, her silver eyes flashing. “You’ve been unconscious forfivedays. They couldn’t even tell me if you were going to wake up?—”
She snapped her teeth shut on the last of her words, looking away as she blinked back tears.
“You gave up,” she whispered. “You were just going to let them kill you.”
“Araya—” Loren reached for her, but a fresh wave of pain lanced across his chest, his hand curling uselessly in the blankets. “You spent five days at my bedside?”
She scowled, swiping the tears from her eyes. “Lay. Back. Down.”
Her hand landed on his chest this time—shoving him flat against the mattress. Loren tried to resist for all of a second before the pain dragged another hiss from between his clenched teeth. Reluctantly, he let himself sink back into the pillows.
“Ael’sura—” he tried again, only for the door to slam open.
Thorne strode in, his expression a storm of relief and irritation. “Of course you wake up the moment I leave to eat something,” he muttered, dropping his bag at the foot of the bed. “How long has been awake?”
“Just a few minutes,” Araya said. She took a quick step back, tugging at the tie of her robe. “He’s in pain. But he was trying to get up.”
“Of course he was,” Thorne muttered. “You better not have ripped out my stitches, Your Majesty.”
“Thorne—” Loren struggled to sit up, to look at his friend. Goddess, the last time he’d seen him he’d nearly killed him. “What?—”
“Lay back down,” Thorne ordered, yanking the blanket back. “Trust me, Loren.”
Loren gagged as Thorne peeled back the wrappings, the pungent reek of necrotic flesh overpowering the sharp sting of the antiseptic. Dark gouges crossed his chest and shoulders, the places where the shadows had flayed his flesh puckered with neat lines of black stitches. Bruises in every color mottled whatever skin was whole, shadowmarks writhing beneath them in an echoing reminder of howdara’elhad tried to crush the life from his broken body.
“You nearly died,” Thorne murmured, his voice pitched for Loren’s ears alone. “I thought you were going to die—more than once. She saved your life.”
“Is she hurt?” Loren rasped.
“Worry about yourself,” Araya snapped. She wasn’t crying anymore—but she hadn’t moved. She stood behind Thorne, her arms wrapped around herself like a shield. “Do you have any idea what it was like? Sitting here, not knowing if you were ever going to wake up?”
“We both knew we could die—” Loren hissed as Thorne pressed his fingers into his side, pain flaring across his ribs like lightning.
“We,” Araya snapped, fire blazing in her silver eyes. “We knew thatwecould die. Yousacrificing yourselfwas never part of the plan, Loren.”
“It was the only way to keep you alive—ah!” He hissed, jerking as Thorne probed the edges of his wound, digging his fingers into a particularly tender spot. “Do you mind?”
“Doyou?” Thorne retorted. “You think what you did to me was bad? We spent an entire day sewing you back together. Every rib cracked, both lungs punctured—not to mention the magical trauma. And the only reason you lived long enough to even make it to us, well—” he shot Araya a pointed look. “I’ll letherexplain that part. But she’s the only reason you’re still breathing, so I suggest you stop arguing with her.”
Loren froze, his pain forgotten as he stared at Araya. “What did you do?”
“It was the only way to keep you alive,” Araya mimicked his earlier words, a pink flush spreading across her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears. “And you said it was my choice?—”
Loren stared at her, his chest rising and falling with short, uneven breaths. She’d spent so much time insisting she had to leave, that it was the only way. But now…now she wouldn’t meet his eyes, instead watching Thorne’s hands as his friend draped fresh pieces of soaked linen over his wounds.
“Well it looks like the two of you have a lot to talk about.” Thorne dried his hands, picking up his bag. “Keep him in bed,” he said to Araya. “No strain—magical or physical. I’ll be in to check on him daily, but send a for me if anything changes.”
“Thorne—” Loren rasped, reaching for his friend. “Thank you. You didn’t have to?—”
“We’re good, Loren.” Thorne caught his hand, pressing it gently back to the bed. “You scared the life out of me—and her. Don’t make a habit of it.”
Loren closed his eyes, sinking back into the bed as Araya walked Thorne to the door. The bond he’d thought was gone in his panic sat right where it had always been—no longer a painful wound in his soul, but something quiet and steady. Peaceful. So different from the clawing ache he’d grown so used to that he hadn’t recognized it at first.
“You really did it,” he said hoarsely.
“You said it was my choice,” Araya repeated. She still didn’t look at him, busying herself pouring a cup of water from the pitcher on the bedside table.
