I was relieved—until he spoke.
“Get them ready to return to the city.”
My stomach dropped. I wanted to go back to the city. I needed to let Ilen know we were all right, and Vihn needed to rest. But a return to the city for Vihn and me wouldn’t mean going home. It would mean going to jail.
He turned to stride away, as angry as anyone I’ve ever seen, like it was my fault he got all hot and bothered by a Drimuti thief.
“Wait,” I cried, forgetting to deepen my voice. “Please. Don’t send me away, Craeshen.”
He didn’t turn back around but he stopped walking, and his entire body gave a mighty shudder. “Bo.”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Take him b—”
“Sir, sir!”
One of the other guards rushed towards us, tripped over a root, then righted himself and came on. “The kid is having a fit.”
I started running back to camp, understanding at once. Vihn had been pushed too far. If something happened to him, I was going to have a fit—only not like the one Vihn was currently having.
When I rushed into the clearing I found him on the ground, his body shaking, his arms curled tightly, his eyes blinking rapidly. He stopped before I could fall to my knees beside him, but almost immediately started again.
“You’ve killed him,” I accused Dexx, who knelt on the other side of the trembling boy. That wasn’t true at all—Vihn had been prone to seizures since I’d known him, but they were very few and far between.
Vihn stopped trembling, and though his eyes were cloudy and distant, he appeared to be coming out of his seizures.
Dexx narrowed his eyes at me, his lips pressed into a thin line, then put his attention back on the boy. “Why is he not medicated?”
I snorted and glared at him. “Because worthless street kids don’t get doctors. You’ve been wealthy your whole life. You have no idea what it’s like out there for a boy whose father ran off before he was born and whose mother tossed him to the streets when she got a new man. Avanya is a cunt and an evil fucking whore. When you go home, you should—”
One of the guards hit me across my sore face, his hand big enough to slam against my ear, as well. I lurched sideways and hit the ground, my ear ringing and my poor bruised face already beginning to swell anew from the latest insult. I’d be fine—I was used to taking hits, but I swore to myself that someday I would be powerful enough to make a man think twice before he abused me.
Someday.
I lay there, temporarily stunned, tasting blood, then struggled to my knees when I realized that Dexx had leaped across Vihn to get to the guard and was proceeding to beat the absolute fuck out of him.
My cap had been knocked off, and I crammed it back onto my head, then crawled to Vihn. I grabbed one of his ankles, forcing myself to my feet so I could drag him out of harm’s way. When I struggled, Bo strode to us, leaned over, and plucked Vihn off the ground.
He didn’t say a word as he carried Vihn to the fire and placed him on a pile of thick sleeping bags. I darted my gaze between him and the enraged Craeshen, unable not to watch Dexx in his violence.
Finally, I knelt beside Vihn, holding my hands to the warmth of the fire as I watched the man who’d actually flown into a rage because one of his people had hit me. I’d never in my life had someone defend me that way, and it took my breath.
At last, when the guard lay battered and still on the ground, Dexx stood with his bloody hands clenched into fists and spoke to his men. “You are not a bunch of fucking Khorks.” He lowered his voice and slowed his words as he looked at each and every one of them. “Touch them again and I will kill you.”
The guards dropped their gazes and muttered, “Yeah, boss,” and I had to force myself not to grin with a rather sadistic delight. Fuckers.
Dexx’s knuckles were torn and bloody from his assault, and I wanted with every fiber of my being to rush to him, wipe the blood from his flesh, and soothe his wounds. I shivered with the need to not just take care of him the way he’d taken care of me, but to actually physically rub away the blood on