He held my gaze. I passed him, never dropping his stare. Our shoulders brushed against each other, sending a spiral of tingles through me.
As I stepped onto the platform, I was forced to look away from Arrick. When I turned back his attention was fixed on the medic station and the woman he held.
I shook off the buzzing sensations still rushing through me, convincing myself that I had imagined our interaction. And that if I hadn’t, it was pointless to dwell on my feelings anyway.
Eret barked out instructions for when we reached the top. I focused on the mission ahead. I let the task overwhelm me until I became something more than I was, until I became the thing that this village needed the most.
I stayed that way well into the night, until the last fire had been extinguished and the last villager had been accounted for, dead or alive.
When a raven cawed overhead, I wasn’t even surprised.
There was something amiss in my realm—something dark and poisonous and destructive.
12
Dawn broke, lighting the smoky, sleepy world with a different kind of fire than the one we had fought yesterday.
I lifted my tired eyes from the woman I was tending to admire the pinks and oranges that shone through the ravaged limbs overhead.
I rubbed a hand over my sore right arm and took a shaking breath. My lungs hadn’t recovered from the smoke yet, nor had my throat felt anything but parched and aching.
Still, I was proud of the work we’d done, of the villagers we’d saved. Even if the village itself had gone up in flames.
Looking down at the woman once more, I lifted a cup of water to her bloodied lips. “Here,” I coaxed. “Drink. Slowly, now.”
Her trembling hands took the cup from me and lifted it to her mouth. She sipped carefully. Meanwhile I smoothed singed hair out of her face and checked her over for worse wounds than fatigue, smoke inhalation, and minor burns. She had none.
I left the water with her and moved to my next patient. The villagers had been rescued and deposited out of harm’s way without a second glance while I worked with the army to douse the fire. We had struggled into the night to stomp out the last bits of flame and then moved directly to the abandoned villagers waiting to be helped.
I was exhausted. But we had saved lives.
Arrick interrupted my path, stopping me from reaching my next patient.
“You need to rest,” he said tersely.
I looked him over. His clothes were badly singed. His usually tanned skin had been blackened with soot, dirt, and blood.
“As do you,” I returned.
“There is much work to be done.”
“Yes,” I agreed easily as I tried to walk around him. He stepped in my path again, placing two hands on my shoulders.
“Tess.” He reached up to tug at his hair with a filthy hand. I had started to look for this gesture whenever he was frustrated with me. Arrick was used to men blindly and obediently following his orders. “Sit down. Rest. The work will wait for you.”
“And what will you do?” His eyes moved impatiently to a group of soldiers interrogating villagers coherent enough to give an account of how the fire had started. They’d been moving from person to person, hoping to gather as much information as possible.
“I…” His eyes moved back to mine. “I have matters that need my attention.”
I nodded, “See to them then.” I started to move around him again, but he held me in place with his strong hand curled around my shoulder. “Arrick, go, help those that need you. And I will do the same. We can rest later.”
“You’re not steady on your feet,” he argued. “Your eyes are as red as rubies. Sit. For just a few minutes. Have a drink of water. Get off your feet. Then you may return to your work. There will be plenty waiting.”
I nibbled my bottom lip, tasting the sweat and danger from the previous day that coated my skin. My knees buckled from the weight of his one hand on me and my vision was not as clear as it should be. He was right. I was sinking rapidly. “Sit with me, then,” I countered. “We will have a drink of water and give our feet a small reprieve and then we can both get back to work.”
He didn’t hide his surprise quickly enough. Did he think I was searching for a way to spend time with him?
In truth, I was afraid if I sat down, I wouldn’t be strong enough to stand back up again. I wanted his accountability. I knew he wouldn’t rest for long. When he stood up again, so would I.
“If I rest, you’ll rest?”
“And if you work, I will too.”
He released me. I waited for him to be on his way so I could be on mine. Instead, he surprised me by walking over to a jug of water sitting on a salvaged table. He poured two cups and moved to a wagon.
He looked around for a moment, then handed both of the cups to me. Before I could ask what he was doing, he reached for a discarded stack of bedding that had not yet been ripped to pieces and used for bandages. He grabbed the top blanket and shook it out, setting it on the edge of the wagon. With a satisfied grunt, he gestured for me to sit down.
I looked down at my ruined traveling gown. “I’m more likely to ruin the blanket than the wagon is to ruin me.”
“It was covered in blood,” he explained.
I stared down at my hands. “So am I.” I sat down anyway. I had been handing out water for hours, but I hadn’t had a drink myself in much too long. Bringing the cup to my lips I
