Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87731 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
He moved as though he belonged there, another sign that Driochmor was not foreign to him.
The realization of what that could mean settled uneasily within her. Not because she sensed wickedness in him. That would have been easier.
She had comforted enough suffering souls to know darkness when she touched it. Rage, cruelty, greed, bitterness—such things left their mark upon people. Sometimes deeply enough that even a brief touch revealed more than words ever could.
Yet every time she touched Kaelan, she felt none of it. Strength and control dominated as did a calm so steady it had flowed through her and eased her fears before she even realized it had done so.
And beneath it all was something she still could not reach fully. Something that stirred whenever he touched her in return.
Kaelan crossed back toward her and set several dry branches in the small stone hearth built against one wall.
Outside, the forest had grown unnaturally still. Even the ravens no longer shifted in the trees. The silence pressed against the ruins so heavily that Bria found herself stepping farther inside without realizing she had done so.
Kaelan noticed immediately. He noticed everything.
The fire caught slowly, orange light flickering across the weathered stone and softening the ruin just enough to make it feel less abandoned. Shadows danced along carved markings nearly hidden beneath moss and soot, revealing fragments of symbols Bria did not recognize.
Her attention lingered on them.
Kaelan followed her gaze. “Best not to touch those.”
Bria looked quickly to him. “Why?”
His expression remained calm, though she sensed caution beneath it now. “Some things in Driochmor are better left sleeping.”
A faint chill slid through her. Not because of his words, but because he spoke as someone who knew.
Kaelan rose then and crossed toward a narrow opening where part of the wall had fallen away. He stood there briefly, looking out into the darkening forest beyond.
Bria studied him quietly while his attention remained elsewhere.
The firelight sharpened the hard lines of his face, though it also revealed traces of weariness he kept carefully hidden. He carried himself like a man accustomed to danger, yet there was restraint in him too, as though great effort held something powerful tightly leashed beneath the surface.
Her gaze lowered briefly to his shoulder… his wound.
He moved as though it no longer troubled him, though she knew well enough how deep it had been.
“Your wound. You should let me tend it,” she said gently.
Kaelan turned back toward her. “It heals.”
“Hopefully, it does, but you have not rested and the bandage hasn’t been changed. If you want it to heal properly, it should not be ignored.”
A faint shadow of amusement touched his dark eyes then, softening them in a way that unexpectedly unsettled her.
“You worry for me still.”
Bria looked away at once, pretending interest in the fire. “I am a healer. Worry comes easily to us.”
But even to her own ears, the excuse sounded weak.
Kaelan watched the faint color rise in her cheeks and felt an unfamiliar warmth stir low within him. Fear surrounded her here, pressed against her from every shadow in Driochmor, and still her concern turned toward him, toward his well-being.
It set a stirring in him. One he welcomed.
“You should sit closer to the fire,” he said, seeing her shiver.
Bria hesitated only briefly before moving nearer. The warmth touched her chilled skin at once, easing some of the cold that had settled deep into her bones since crossing into Driochmor.
Kaelan remained standing for a moment longer, listening.
The forest whispered in ways most would never hear. Branches settling. Creatures moving through undergrowth. The distant rustle of wings.
Nothing was near and nothing threatened… for now.
His gaze shifted briefly to Bria.
She sat with her hands loosely clasped before her, though tension still lingered in the line of her shoulders. Fear remained within her, but she fought hard not to surrender to it.
He admired that more than she knew.
Bria glanced up suddenly, catching him watching her.
Neither looked away at once as the fire crackled softly between them.
“You are thinking again,” she said quietly.
A faint smile touched his mouth before fading. “You notice much.”
“I need to. It helps me understand people.”
“And do you understand me?”
The question caught her unprepared.
Bria lowered her eyes briefly, considering it honestly before answering. “I do not think you mean me harm.”
Something in Kaelan eased at those words, though he gave no outward sign of it.
“But,” she added softly, “I think there are truths about you that would frighten me if I knew them.”
His gaze remained fixed on her. “Perhaps, or perhaps they would simply change how you see the world.”
Bria looked back toward the fire, unsettled not by the words themselves but by the strange feeling that he believed them completely.
Outside, the wind shifted suddenly.
Bria stiffened. A low sound drifted through the trees. Not a growl but unsettling just the same.