Alessia:
The infirmary smelled sharper than usual, antiseptic layered with blood and something metallic I couldn’t quite name. I held the bundle of herbs tighter against my chest as I walked down the corridor, my steps quiet but steady.
Grace had asked for these. Something to slow the bleeding. Something to ease shock.
Something to keep a man alive.
The man whose fate literally changed because Alexander chose to give him his life, for one more day to say the least, because I asked him to.
Alexander stood outside the room.
Arms crossed. Jaw tight. Every line of his body carved from restraint and barely contained violence. He looked up the second he sensed me, eyes flashing, not relief, not concern.
Anger.
He hadn’t said a word to me since I left the greenhouse, and I knew that his
