Nev nodded and then grimaced as Wyatt began to remove the bandages. She could see the ones that he dropped in the boat were stained bright red.
Addi stretched and opened her eyes. “Why have we stopped?” she asked. Spying Wyatt kneeling in front of Nev and the chainmail shirt on the floor of the boat, Addi sighed. “Really? I’m right here,” she grumbled, sounding annoyed.
Wyatt glanced at Addi, shook his head briefly, and then returned his focus to Nev’s shoulder.
Addi moved to get a better look at what had Wyatt so focused and gasped at the sight of Nev’s wound. She quickly began to pull supplies from her pack and watched Wyatt work. He’d always had a gift for treating injuries, and Addi often wondered if that was true of all Tinks. If perhaps the way they saw the world differently helped them see ways to mend injuries that others couldn’t. Or maybe her brother had an actual gift for something besides annoying her. She smiled briefly to herself and then focused on assisting Wyatt.
“You’ve torn your wound open again and in two places this time,” Wyatt explained, sighing heavily. “I can…,” he paused as Nev shifted with discomfort. Wyatt looked at her and waited for his gaze to catch hers before smiling warmly. He then went back to working on her shoulder. “I can close it again, but you really, really need to take it easy for at least the next few days,” he suggested firmly but lovingly.
Nev nodded before whispering, “I will.”
Wyatt looked up at her and placed a hand on her cheek. He rubbed his fingers gently along the other wound he had recently mended. “I mean it, Nev,” he repeated earnestly.
“I know. Me too,” Nev replied, her voice hushed and sincere.
Wyatt’s sincerity in his request settled heavily in Nev’s heart. She could tell he was truly worried about her shoulder. Beyond that, he was also becoming increasingly concerned about her. Nev had been wrestling with the same thought ever since she faced Sagrine. She had not expected it to be an easy fight, but she didn’t think she would be so outmatched. Since then, she’d tried to convince herself that she had done well enough to hold her ground at all. She knew the truth of it, however. Had Wyatt not done whatever it was he’d done to save her, then she and he would be dead or worse right now. She watched Wyatt work and made a vow to herself and him. I will make it right, but we will also be careful, she promised.
“Alright. Well, try not to wiggle too much. You really did a number on it this time. I don’t suppose you have some plant stowed away that would help with your shoulder or know where we can find some, do you?” Wyatt asked, hoping she had just forgotten she had something tucked away.
“No. I don’t have anything. I had been looking for some elder root to make a salve, but with the rain… it’s practically impossible to find,” Nev answered, lost in thought. Her inability to find it and her wound’s severity had been what pushed her to Serenity Falls. To Wyatt. Nev suddenly found herself feeling strangely appreciative of the unrelenting rain.
“Well, it was worth a shot. Hmm… it occurs to me that once your shoulder heals a little more, I should find you a proper shirt. You know, one with two sleeves,” Wyatt suggested smiling. Once he finished closing and bandaging Nev’s shoulder, he rinsed his hands off in the lake water and gave the remaining supplies back to Addi to put away. Then, rather than attempting to put Nev’s chainmail shirt back on her, he carefully folded it and put it away in her pack. As he moved to untie the fabric Nev had left on his pillow, he felt her hand on his.
“Keep it, please,” Nev requested softly.
“Are you sure?” Wyatt asked, scanning her for reassurance.
“Yes, very. I want you to have it,” she assured, smiling at him.
“Very well, my lady,” he replied, leaning in to kiss her forehead.
Addi was now perched at the front of the boat, scanning the faint horizon. The mist had finally stopped, and she pressed her vision to see as far as possible. “Nellis doesn’t live too far from the lake. If ‘someone’ doesn’t take too long to get us to shore, then we should be able to make it to his house in two or three days,” she informed, glancing back at Wyatt.
“Right. ‘Someone’ here, ready and reporting for duty,” Wyatt quipped, chuckling to himself.
Nev moved to the back of the boat and let the fingers of her right-hand trail just below the water’s surface as Wyatt moved to the middle seat.
Wyatt pulled out one of the spindle vine leaves Nev had given him a while back and popped it in his mouth. As the headache he had gotten from searching for Nev began to fade, he set out to row them towards the shore. “So, Nellis?” Wyatt questioned, cocking his head slightly. “This should be fun. Well, for me, anyway,” he joked.
Addi just shook her head and groaned. “It has been five years, Wyatt. I’m sure he is well past it,” she suggested, trying really hard to sound convincing.
“Hey, I think it is a swell idea. Of course, I am not the one…,” Wyatt responded, before being splashed in the face by Addi.
“That is quite enough,” Addi interjected, sounding annoyed. “No matter how you think Nellis may or may not respond to seeing me… us, he is a good man. He will help us,” she stated.
Wyatt laughed and replied, “Like I said, it should be fun.”
Nev leaned towards Wyatt and whispered, “Should I be worried?”
Addi glared towards the stern of the boat before refocusing back on the horizon.
Chuckling, Wyatt responded quietly, “About Nellis? Nah, he really is a good guy and a damn good cook. But about Addi? Well, we’ll
