Wyatt climbed into Nev’s boat carefully and took her face in his hands. “I love you. I could never hate you. And, lest you forget, I promised to not let go. I’ll never break my promises, not to you,” he vowed before kissing her deeply.
Nev wrapped her hands around his neck and then wrapped a single curl around her finger. Desperate for his reassurance, she pulled him closer to her. Kissing him, she ignored the rocking of the dinghy.
“Umm, I hate to interrupt. But I would prefer to get into a boat with far fewer holes and cracks in it,” Addi interjected, pointing towards the large hole in the bow of the canoe.
Wyatt quickly glanced over at Addi and laughed. “Have a sinking feeling, do you?” he jested.
Addi groaned and climbed into the dinghy carefully.
Wyatt looked at Nev and Addi. “Well, this has been an exciting evening. Nev, you and I should chat about why disappearing on me is not such a great thing, but that can wait for now. First, I think I am going to take a nap. It seems reuniting with your sister and chasing down the woman you love is exhausting work,” he surmised before laying down in the bottom of the boat. Wyatt had everything he cared about in the whole world sitting in that dinghy with him, and he would be looking forward to the dreams he had this time. In a matter of moments, Wyatt had fallen soundly asleep.
Nev nodded, picked up the oars, and then paused a moment. “Addi, I’m really sorry about what has happened to you. It is truly horrible. I just want you to know… well, I am going to try and make it right,” she promised, giving Addi a quick smile before starting to row the boat across the lake and away from Birclan.
“Thanks. And I am sorry too. I was too harsh earlier,” regretted Addi, sounding sorrowful.
“No worries,” Nev replied.
“No worries,” Addi repeated, smiling to herself. There was only one other person that had ever said that to her. Oh, Wyatt. You couldn’t have just brought home a nice typical girl from town, could you? Nope. Not my brother. You just had to make things interesting and bring home a… a princess, she said, laughing to herself quietly. Addi lay down at the bottom of the boat and closed her eyes. I wonder what kind of princess you will prove to be, and if you truly love my brother as much as he seems to love you, she thought, as she fell asleep.
Chapter 26
Through a steady drizzle of rain, Nev had pushed herself to row the boat sluggishly toward the horizon for the past two hours. She could finally just make out the shoreline in the distance. Wyatt and Addi still slept peacefully in the hull of the dinghy, and Nev was intent on letting them continue to slumber until they reached the shore. They deserve to rest, she thought. Despite the rain gradually slowing since dawn, the morning sun was struggling to penetrate the evening’s lingering chill. Unfortunately, Nev found the perpetually damp, cool air less of a relief than she hoped.
Her shoulder had been aching even before Wyatt and Addi reached her, but she’d pushed herself to ignore it. Now, it was on fire. The chilly air was no longer doing anything to alleviate her pain. With her shoulder now screaming at her to halt her rowing, Nev silently rested the oars against the boat. She rubbed her shoulder lightly, hoping to alleviate at least a little of the pain. When she pulled her hand back, however, she let out an audible gasp at the sight of blood. She suddenly had an intense urge to see her wound, as the visions of it gaping open pushed into her mind. Instantly, Nev felt compelled to prove to herself that it wasn’t that bad.
She carefully and easily unclasped her cloak and let it slide behind her, but the chainmail shirt would prove much more challenging to remove. She got her good arm out and clear but moaned with pain as she tried to slide the shirt off her head. Sighing heavily, as she tried to figure a way out of her current predicament that did not involve waking the others.
Wyatt’s sleepy mind thought he heard or felt Nev hurting, and he pushed himself to wake up. He blinked a few times and rubbed his face as he worked to focus his eyes. “Nev, what’s wrong?” he inquired, still sounding sleepy.
“It’s…,” she whispered with hesitation.
Wyatt sat up and looked at her. For a moment, he almost laughed out loud at her dilemma, but then the reason for it dawned on him. “Your shoulder,” he stated, suddenly overwhelmed by concern and guilt.
Nev nodded. “I wanted to get you and Addi to shore before you had to wake up, but it hurts. And it started bleeding. So, I thought if I could just look at it… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Then I could just make myself keep going,” she explained, her voice trembling a bit.
“Bleeding? But it was getting better. Nev, you should have said something. You should have reminded me,” he bemoaned emphatically, before shaking his head and sighing. “No, that’s not fair. I should’ve remembered,” he sighed again and moved to carefully help her remove her shirt.
“I just wanted to let you sleep. You deserve at least that much for everything I keep putting you through,” Nev whispered, looking at him before hanging her head down. “But Wyatt, it really hurts.”
Wyatt nodded and cupped her cheek with his hand. He briefly ran his thumb lightly over her mouth before smiling at her. “Hey, you. First, you are not putting me through anything. I want to be here… with you. Secondly, it is going to be okay. One of these days, however, you and I are going to play healer the
