Page 99 of Reaper's Quest

I attempted to push to a sit. Pain rippled through me, halting my rise at an elbow prop. I squinted against the soreness pulsating throughout my body.

“Lie back.” Winter brushed past Camilla in a heartbeat and gently pressed his fingers to my collarbone, urging me to comply and rest fully upon the bed.

I opened my mouth to argue, but he shifted his finger to my lips, halting my words. Choosing not to push, I laid my head upon the pillow once more.

He grinned at my compliance and slowly dragged his finger along my lower lip. “The healing process cannot be rushed. You must give in to it for it to best serve you.”

Camilla dropped a fresh cloth into the basin of water and then wrung the excess liquid free. “The early stages of the healing process have not been kind to her.”

She spoke to Winter without sparing him a glance and slipped to my side, wedging herself in front of him.

Gracing me with a reassuring smile, she flattened the damp cloth against my forehead. Held my gaze. “But I suspect the worst is now behind you, isn’t it?”

“Hope so.” I brushed her hand and cloth away. “And I don’t need that.”

“It’s to help bring your temperature down.” Her features pulled into a soft frown.

Behind Camilla, Winter towed a wooden chair across the room and planted it at my bedside.

He laid his open palm before her, requesting the damp cloth. “Why don’t you let me handle this for a while? You are overworked and deserving of a rest.”

I tried to sit up once more. “I don’t need either of you fussing over me.”

I knew the words to be a lie even before they passed my lips. I doubted I could even successfully get myself off the bed. But I hated asking for help and being dependent on others, and yet here I was, in need of assistance more than ever.

With his hand placed just below my collarbone, Winter once again gently pressed me back to the pillow.

His fingers brushed against my bare skin, lingering longer than necessary. “You can indulge us, at least for a short while, can you not?”

I blinked up at him. His eyes shone like a clear winter sky. A calmer, more relaxing hue than when I’d first laid eyes upon him.

As charming as I might have somewhat found him during his visits to the pub, I wasn’t sure what to make of him or the slight change in his eye color—still blue but different.

Maybe the room’s lighting was to blame.

Based on what I could perceive, someone had moved me to a smaller, more private room on the upper floor that received a healthy dose of sunlight at particular times of the day.

“Trust me, Camilla,” Winter said. “I’ll take excellent care of our patient.”

“You’d better,” she snapped. “Raven and I have become wonderful friends in the short time she has been here.”

I wrinkled my nose, unaware of any exchange between us other than today. My brief awakenings from the nightmares, where Camilla offered me a drink and attempted to wipe the sweat from my brow, were hardly anything I would call friendship bonding.

The arch of Winter’s eyebrows suggested he was equally surprised, but he spoke nothing against her claim.

She dropped the cloth into his awaiting hand and focused on me. “If you need me or need him to leave”?she glanced at Winter?“simply ring this bell.”

She moved a bell from the dresser and set it on the bed next to my hand.

I wrapped my fingers nimbly around the bell’s handle, and I smiled awkwardly. “Thank you.”

Seeming sufficiently satisfied, Camilla turned and headed for the hallway.

“I am alittletired,” she said softly and, sparing me and Winter a hesitant glance, slipped out of the room, pulling the door to a close at her back.

Winter’s gaze lingered on her exit for extra seconds, then he settled into the chair at my bedside.

Lacing his fingers together, he pressed his forearms into his thighs and leaned forward. “Has Camilla been treating you well?”