Chapter Eight

The sun was high overhead when Delilah finally woke, but she immediately clamped her eyes shut against the offending brilliance.

Her head felt as though it’d been stuffed with wads of wet wool. She swallowed and found her mouth felt much the same.

She tried to speak, but her tongue was uncooperative. An unintelligible garble rasped from her mouth.

Water.

She wanted water.

Fresh and crisp, cold and refreshingly wet.

Her saliva thickened in her mouth at the very thought.

Something pressed to her lips.

“Drink, my lady.” Leasa’s voice.

Delilah squinted to see Leasa’s head blocking out the sun, her face shadowed by the glow surrounding her.

The muscles of Delilah’s throat relaxed, and she drew in the water with large, eager gulps.

She didn’t stop until her stomach sloshed with her fill, or at least as much as the corset would allow her to consume. How she longed for the more forgiving leather garments she wore under a leine while practicing with Sylvi and the other women.

A breeze brushed her face, and her loosed hair tickled her skin. Delilah swallowed once more before trusting herself to speak. “Were you not ill as well?”

“I was, my lady, and am feeling much better now.” Leasa assisted Delilah into a sitting position. Though they moved slowly, lightheadedness threatened to pull her to the ground once more.

Sunlight slashed over the pathetic remnants of their camp. A bit of scorched earth and ash stood where a fire had once been, and the grass lay flattened nearby, no doubt where Leasa and Donnan had lain, but that was not what made her cry out.

Kaid lay beside her, as pale and unmoving as death.

“Donnan says he’s alive,” Leasa said. There were smudges under her eyes, so deep in color, the skin looked bruised. Her lips were puckered with dryness, and she’d lost the high color in her cheeks. “Donnan’s gathering wood for the fire now. I guess they trust us finally.” She gave a weak smile.

Kaid’s head rolled to the side and he groaned. The sound, no matter how tortured, eased the clench of Delilah’s heart.

He was alive.

And she cared of his survival for all the wrong reasons.

She should be glad to see him living so that she might bring him to justice, not because he’d earned her admiration or because she thought of his well-being more than she ought to.

“We should care for him,” Leasa said in a quiet tone. “He’s helped us, even when he was sick.”

Memories floated back to Delilah—the ravenous, overwhelming thirst, crying out with need for water. And Kaid being there with soothing words and much-needed relief.

“You should try to eat, my lady.” Leasa pushed a chunk of bread into Delilah’s hands. “It will make you feel better.”

Delilah’s stomach wrenched at the very thought of food, but she knew what Leasa said was true.

An hour later, Delilah was glad she’d listened. The swirling of her stomach had finally settled and the floating feel in her head had dissipated. She and Leasa had even bathed in the loch. The icy water had been a special kind of sweet heaven as it threaded through her hair and swept away the sweat and grit of illness.

She’d even ensured Leasa left her corset slightly less tight in the dress she changed into, the simplest of all the gowns she’d been given. Tiny pink flowers were embroidered at the sleeves and hem, but those were the only adornments on the russet-colored linen.

Although she had rejoined the world of the living, Kaid had still not improved. If anything, he seemed to worsen. He’d been sick several times and had grown paler.

“Ye dinna have to care for him, Lady Elizabeth,” Donnan said. “Ye’ll ruin yer fine gown.”

Delilah shook her head. “He aided us when we were all unwell. I won’t leave him now.”

Donnan shook his head with a smirk. “We took ye to hold for ransom.”

The admission lanced through her, but she kept her face impassive. “I would like to believe you have good reason for what you’re doing.”

He opened his mouth, and she thought for a brief moment he would offer her the explanation she so desperately sought. But he gave her a smile instead. “Ye’re a kind lass.”

Heat crept into Delilah’s cheeks. She was not kind.

It was her fault Kaid was so ill. It was her fault they’d all been ill.

He lay beside her, his face slick with sweat. Why had he had such a violent reaction to the poison? If he’d been well enough to care for them all in the beginning, what had caused it to worsen?

It was then she noticed one of his hands was fisted and realized it had remained thus since she’d been at his side.

With great care, she unfurled his clenched fingers, noticing again that his thumb and forefinger were both smudged with black. Once she straightened his fingers, a small vial rolled free.

She lifted it from where it fell to the ground and pulled the stopper free. Kaid murmured something unintelligible.

Delilah lifted the empty vial to her nose and sniffed. The pungent odor assaulted her nostrils and she jerked her head back.

Valerian root.

She knew the scent well enough from Percy’s workshop. Though she’d smelled it only once, it was awful enough to have seared into her memory. She wished Percy were here now, with her knowledge of herbs and tinctures.

Kaid mumbled once more.

Delilah lifted the wineskin to his lips. “Do you need water?”

He turned his head away from it and said something she couldn’t understand. His lips moved again, and she leaned closer to hear.

“They’re all dead.” Kaid’s voice was thick and rasping in his throat, but the words were unmistakable. “They’re all dead.”

The phrase chilled through her. It was the same one he’d said when he had the nightmare.

Perhaps this might be part of why he had abducted them. He had refused to give her a sufficient answer, and his rage at Donnan’s tale of the deaths, all of it seemed too coincidental. Regardless of the awfulness of the crime Kaid had committed, she refused to believe in her heart that he’d done it purely for selfish reasons.

This might not be about coin at all, or anything so tangible. It had to be about something bigger than her, bigger than him, bigger even than the risk of getting caught.

This was the reason they’d been abducted. She didn’t know why specifically, but she knew with great certainty it was.

She did know something in the valerian root was causing him to give into the torture of his own mind. While she didn’t have the same knowledge of herbs and healing as Percy, she knew well the best way to be free of something was to purge it from your system.

Delilah held the flask to Kaid’s lips and tipped water into his mouth until he swallowed. The more he drank, the more he would need to purge.

Sure enough, within a few minutes, the water came back up, and she repeated the process.

She would ensure he came out of this, and she would not leave his side until he was recovered.

• • •

Kaid woke to darkness.

No, not darkness. Stars winked overhead, countless dots of white against the velvet of a midnight sky. The gentle lapping of water broke into his awareness, as did the awareness of someone lying close to him and the subtle weight of a hand on his chest.

He lowered his gaze and found Elizabeth curled against him, her arm slung over him with the easy comfort of a lover.

The warmth of her body seemed to burn against him, and the delicate scent of her floral perfume held him like an embrace.

He didn’t know how she’d come to lie so intimately against him, but he was grateful. Part of him wanted to touch her, to stroke her hair, to brush his fingers over her cheek which he knew to be impossibly soft, to pull her against him and revel in her closeness.

But a wary part of him worried touching her would break a fragile spell and replace the relaxed beauty at his side with the spoiled noblewoman.

It was more than just Elizabeth, though. He was more aware of everything. The sigh of the wind against his cheeks, the blaze of the fire against his back, the delicate slosh of waves from the loch, even the burning hunger in his empty stomach—everything was sharper. As if the fog in his mind had lifted.

He lay there for a while, giving in to the quiet of his body, and reveling in the world of feeling more than he’d felt in far too long.

Elizabeth shifted at his side and sat up. Their shared heat immediately chilled. While the night was not a cold one by any means, he missed the warmth of her against him.

Her eyes settled on him, and she gave him the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. It was filled with a tender kindness and affection—and meant only for him.

“You’re awake,” she said.

He tried to prop himself on his arm to look at her, but his muscles felt liquid with weakness. Elizabeth put a hand on his shoulder and eased him back. “Don’t sit up yet. You’ve been several days without food.”

The clarity he’d experienced only moments ago faded and left him disoriented.

How had he not eaten for several days?

“You’ve been very ill,” she offered in explanation. Her touch lingered on his shoulder, comforting.

“We all were.” The words burned as they rasped from his throat.

Elizabeth drew her hand from him and lifted a bag of food. “We all recovered quickly. I think you—” Her lips pursed, and she stopped herself. “Here.” She held out a chunk of bread. “It will help you feel better.”

He took it from her. “Ye think I what?”

Her gaze slipped away, and he knew something was wrong.

Elizabeth seldom turned her gaze from anyone.

The yeasty scent of the bread pulled at him. He took a bite while waiting for her to reply. The crust was hard and flaky, the inside pliant and moist. His mouth watered, and a hunger unlike anything he’d known before slammed into him.

“I think you were most affected because of the valerian root you were taking. You had more nightmares. I think it’s the valerian that’s causing those as well.”

She offered him a flask of ale, and he washed down the bread lodged in his throat. It all mingled in his stomach like a comforting balm.

Already he was beginning to feel better.

Elizabeth held the empty vial toward him. He pushed himself onto his arm and sat up to reach for it.

She pulled it back with a frown.

“Kaid, I think this is what is causing your nightmares. And I believe something happened to you, to Donnan, to people you loved. I think it has to do with why you took us.” She was speaking faster now, like the words had been swarming in her head and she finally had a chance to say them. “Please tell me.”

Her eyes implored him, and her fingers closed over the empty vial.

The world spun around Kaid for a brief moment before settling into place once more. A breeze swept through the surrounding forest and sent the leaves chattering amongst themselves.

She was right. He needed to tell her.

The sound of hoofbeats came in a muted clopping, the kind made on wet forest earth. Kaid turned and found Donnan on the back of a horse with Leasa in front of him holding another bag of food clasped in her hands.

They’d expected to stay several more days.

For him.

Donnan grinned at him. “Glad ye could finally join us. We’ve missed yer charm.”

“If I werena so intent on eating this bread, I’d knock ye for that,” Kaid said with a grunt.

Donnan laughed and slid from the horse. “Aye, that charm.”

He helped Leasa from the horse.

“Are you feeling better?” she asked.

Physically, he hadn’t felt better in ages. But deep inside the hurt of an old wound had ripped fresh.

Donnan’s grin wilted.

“We need to tell them,” Kaid said. He shifted his gaze to Elizabeth and found her watching him with a terse expression.

Donnan led Leasa over and motioned for her to sit beside Elizabeth. “I think we should have told them from the beginning,” he said.

Kaid nodded. Donnan had indeed said as much, and deep down Kaid had known it as well.

The time had finally come to tell the women why he had taken them, and why he would hold them for ransom.