His thoughts refused to stay in order. He kept trying to remember why they were in a village, and what had happened to his head, why his face and neck were slick with blood, or why his ribs burned. Briefly, he would recall. Then his thoughts would scramble again and he would know that he knew, but he just couldn’t remember. He didn’t know why they were walking. All he wanted to do was lie down and rest, yet they were walking. He stopped. Jaylee made him keep going. “Come on, we can’t stop yet. Almost. Please, stay with me!”
Yhkon instinctively obeyed. “Where are we…getting?” That wasn’t right. “Where…going?”
“Just a safe distance, alright? Not much farther.”
The captain. He had snuck up on them. But why? What had happened?
“Yhkon? Hey, come on, we have to keep going.”
He kept walking. Everything started spinning. A queasiness twinged in his gut, only to become a wave of nausea. He stumbled, the ground and the sky mixing and swirling, pressure rising in his throat. Doubling over, he gagged, but there was nothing in his stomach to come out. Looking at the ground, he watched a few drops of his blood hit the dirt. Have to keep going. He straightened up again. Increased pain made him cry out.
Jaylee’s hands tightened around his torso. He sensed her fear. He felt it tight and smothering in his own chest. “Alright, um, okay, this is far enough. Come on, just over here.” She led him to the side, helping him sit down with his back against a tree. The process jarred his sensitive head more, but after a few seconds of sitting the ache subsided some. She crouched next to him, scrutinizing his ribcage. “I should probably pull that knife out.”
The knife. That was the reason behind the inferno in his side. The idea of her removing it made him cringe.
She had already wadded up a strip off of his shirt and held it ready with one hand, cautiously grabbing the handle of the knife with the other. Even that tiny disturbance of the blade he felt. Without giving him more time to dread it, she smoothly retracted the dagger and immediately pressed the wad of fabric against the wound. He sucked in his breath through gritted teeth. Her gaze lifted to his face, worried. “Are you okay?”
Once again, he wasn’t sure how to answer. Something was wrong. He didn’t feel normal…yet he didn’t know how he should feel, or why he should think that what he felt was wrong. He must have nodded, because she returned her attention to stopping the bleeding. His attention, meanwhile, stayed on her. It was hard not to look at her, at the sun in her hair, the way she bit her lip in concern.
She was stunning.
Yhkon swallowed and forced himself to look away. Somehow he ended up watching her again. Feeling a strange tug…like he wanted to move closer to her, or hear her voice again. He was fidgeting, restless from the pain in his side and his head, trying to make himself stop.
He spoke without thinking. “Jay?”
She looked up. First expectantly, then curiously. Her head tilted slightly when he didn’t say anything more. “What is it?”
Blast. What had been his plan? Cheeks flushed, he lowered his eyes. But he’d already put his hand on her arm, also without thinking. He told himself he should let go. All he wanted to do was instead pull her closer.
“Yhkon?” she asked, when he still didn’t reply.
“Sorry…I don’t know…” Yhkon shook his head, as another wave of pain made him squirm, arching his back…that just made the knifewound burn hotter.
“Shh.” Jaylee gave him a soft smile that made her even more beautiful, something he hadn’t thought possible. “You need to hold still.” She leaned toward him, her hand settled on his collarbone, her sparkling eyes caught his and refused to let go. He wasn’t sure what the strange tug was that he’d felt, but it was getting stronger. For some reason he was fighting it…why? Everything hurt, everything felt wrong…he bit his tongue and broke her gaze.
But then she simply closed the final inches between them and kissed him. His mind went blank. Instinctively he slid his hand from her waist to her back and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss.
It was a long moment before they separated, but not long enough. “There. Now stop squirming,” she whispered.
A frightening chill contrasted the warmth that filled his core. He tightened his grip without meaning to, keeping her close. She would leave. Like everyone did. He caressed a strand of hair from her cheek, knowing by the way she frowned that he was not concealing the inexplicable fear he couldn’t displace. “Don’t leave.”
Her brow creased. “I won’t. I promise.”
Something told him that she would. That he should have resisted the tug he’d felt.
“Just relax,” she murmured, coming close again to rest her head on his shoulder. One hand she kept pressed against the wound on his ribcage, the other she interlaced with his. “Once the bleeding slows, we’ll figure out what to do. Until then, you need to rest.”
Feeling calmed by her soft voice, Yhkon let his head fall back against the tree, and closed his eyes. The pain had been dimmed by the warm contentment of Jaylee tucked snugly against him. Drowsiness eased any lingering tension in his muscles. Her hair tickled his neck, her steady breathing relaxed his own, her hand was soft and comforting in his. A peaceful void beckoned him. Gently fogging his mind, drawing him out of consciousness.
The local lord.
Yhkon straightened, the grogginess temporarily fleeing. The local lord…he knew it meant something. It had come to him for a reason. “The local lord…”
Jaylee sat up, her hand on his upper arm, soothing. “It’s alright.”
“No…” He grimaced, pinching the bridge of his nose, as if by doing so he could squeeze out the haze that obscured his perception. “The local lord. He’ll had…” That didn’t sound right. “Have, um, more kn-knights.” He looked at her, holding her hand tightly. “You have to go. Get…” Blackness invaded his peripheral vision, traveling inward, eating up his senses as it went.
“Yhkon.” She shook his shoulder gently, jarring him back to alertness. “Hey, I’m not leaving you, okay? We’ll be fine, I’m going to figure it out. Just—”
“No,” he said again. Shook his head. It didn’t hurt anymore, but it was heavy and fuzzy. “I think I’m…going to, to pass out.” Another wave of dizziness confirmed the notion. “You need to g-get…” He clenched his jaw, unable to find or speak the words. Exhaustion made it hard just to keep his eyes open, let alone focused.
She rubbed his arm gently, nodding. “Shh. I’ll worry about that. You just rest. Alright? Come on, let’s get you lying down.”
He was too tired to resist as she pulled his shoulders down, making him lie down in the grass. Any desire he might have had to resist faded when she curled up beside him, her head on his chest and arm resting over his torso. She murmured something he couldn’t grasp as his mind dimmed. His senses retreated, until only a flicker of his consciousness remained. The last thing he felt was her kiss on his forehead.
~♦~
Jaylee listened as Yhkon’s breathing soon slowed, until it was steady, if a little shallow. His body relaxed. She brushed his hair from his face and kissed his forehead where it wasn’t covered in blood, noting how hot his skin was. A few more minutes and she was sure he was unconscious.