Page 44 of Remmen

I jerked my hand back and stepped out of reach. “You’re not about to die,” I said. He was in a mood today, and it wasn’t one I wanted to be around. “I need to see to the others.”

“They’re all good,” Mestyn challenged. “Stay here for a while.” He patted an empty space on the bed beside him.

Warning bells were blaring in my head. I didn’t like this, not at all. But I pulled the chair that was pushed up against the wall closer to the bed and sat. We were in a building full of people. Mestyn was injured. Maybe he just needed someone to talk to.

“It was just supposed to be a bit of fun,” he said. “That beast liked blood and we liked giving it to her.”

“It could have hurt people in town,” I had to point out. “And Remmen told you to get rid of it.”

“So the mayor’s the only one who can break the rules?” Mestyn asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” More ice trickled through my veins.

Mestyn didn’t clarify.

I didn’t like where he was leading this conversation, and I needed some control back. “You don’t need to fight things anymore.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s not about need, little human. Some of us still remember how to have fun.”

I was saved from having to answer that by Otho thankfully making his way into the room. He took one look at me next to Mestyn and pursed his lips. “What are you still doing here?”

I wasn’t sure which of us he was talking to.

“You don’t think she should talk to me?” Mestyn asked.

“I think you’re taking up a bed I need. You’re well enough to go, so go.” Otho glared as Mestyn made a show of getting out of the bed and putting on his muddy boots. He gave me one final nod that was almost a bow and left.

“I don’t like the way he was looking at you,” Otho said.

Neither did I. “He’s gone now. I think he was just trying to get a reaction.”

“Hmm,” was Otho’s response.

I helped him change the sheets on the bed to clean ones and prepare the slot for its next patient. “I wasn’t kidding,” he said. “I really do need an apprentice around here.”

He’d said something about that after the gorrel attack. Jealousy, hot and stupid, scored through me. I was helping here. Why did he have to go and think about getting someone else in? Wasn’t I enough?

I squashed that down.

“You’ll have to talk to Remmen about it, I guess.”

Otho opened his mouth to say more, but one of his patients groaned. While he was occupied, I slid out the door. That was enough heartache for one day.

But I was lying to myself about that, wasn’t I?

Otherwise I wouldn’t have headed to Remmen’s.

It was the last place I should go. I didn’t like the way Mestyn had asked if only the mayor had gotten to break the rules. I didn’t like the stares I got.

But I needed my minotaur’s arms right now.

It was full dark before I made myself go, and New Knossos still wasn’t asleep. A lamp burned in the tavern window. Two bulls stood talking low outside the bunkhouse, so I gave them a wide berth, stuck to the shadows along the fences, and told my heart to knock it off. It didn’t listen. I crept the last stretch to Remmen’s door and checked the street both ways before I crossed. Sneaking to a man’s house in the dark. A grown woman.

He hurried me inside as soon as I arrived and didn’t need me to say anything before he opened his arms and I stepped into his embrace. Remmen held me tight enough that I was sure he’d never let go, at least not until I gave the word.

Eventually, I did.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.