"Stay here. I'm getting the healer."
"No." I grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Please. I don't want anyone else. Just you."
He hesitated, searching my face. Whatever he saw there made him nod slowly.
"Alright. But let me clean these properly."
He retrieved water and bandages from the adjoining room. Sat beside me on the bed. Took my hands in his with a gentleness that made my throat tight.
"Tell me what happened," he said quietly, dabbing at the wounds. "You went to Ashvale. You came back like this. Something occurred."
The story spilled out of me.
Not just today. Everything. The twins. Felix's illness. The medicine. The death. The rumors. What I had overheard all those years ago. My grandfather's death. And now, Cordelia's panicked confession.
I told him all of it, the words tumblin
