Diamond in the Rough - Vivienne Savage Page 0,34

bed at the end of the room while a healer applied an ointment to his burns, which were numerous. Bandages wrapped around his muscular thigh.

“Ah, there’s our horned friend!” a woman called as she emerged from the next room with a steaming bowl of water and fresh bandages. She aimed a big smile that seemed too sunny to be just for Xavier’s sake. “Welcome back to the world of the living. Proper clothes as well as dinner await you.” Then she called another woman in the room and he recognized the name Rosalia among the torrent of foreign words that transpired between them. His heart leapt. He wanted to see her.

“Here. These are for you.” After setting aside the bowl and linens, she swept behind a desk and retrieved a set of folded clothing, as well as his boots from the floor. The clothes had been cleaned and refreshed, scented with desert lavender and sunlight. “Feel free to step into the next room to wash. The tub has been replenished, but the water isn’t hot. Although I’m sure you can manage that.”

He nodded. “Thank you.”

He stepped into the next room, a quieter space with only a few beds. As promised, he found a bath filled just shy of its brim, heated it with a magical spell, then submerged and tried to soak away the long week of hell.

He emerged some time later to the sight of Rosalia approaching the door with hope in her features. Pure, exultant joy came over her features as she rushed to him.

“You’re okay!”

He took her in his arms the moment she came within reach, squeezing her tight. Her warmth and the softness of her skin, the sandalwood scent in her hair, encompassed him in a comfort he hadn’t realized he needed. “I am.”

Rosalia leaned back and peered into his face. She searched his eyes, then cupped his cheeks in both hands. “You scared me to death. When they told me you’d flown off with the wraith, I thought…” Her voice hitched.

“I couldn’t let it kill everyone.”

“So you offer yourself to it instead, Xavier? Foolish, brave dragon.”

When she hugged him again, in a moment almost too personal for the middle of the healing house, he could do nothing more than let her sink against him. He held her for a long moment, rubbing one hand down the center of her back until the subtle tremors of her body ceased.

“Foolish indeed,” Ahrak said from behind Rosalia.

Xavier glanced at the man to see him watching them, his features unreadable and stoic despite the ointment gleaming on the raw, pink skin of his arms and the disfiguring burns that spread down both of them.

Rosalia separated from him and turned to face the approaching man. Her jaw clenched, eyes narrowed with fire blazing in them. Before she could speak, Xavier discreetly squeezed her arm. He didn’t need or want her to fight his battles.

“What you did was damned foolish. Reckless,” the Moritta warrior said. He rose from the bed with a groan, fleeting pain contorting his face into a harsh grimace as he stepped forward. “You knew you aren’t fireproof.”

Xavier sighed. He didn’t drop his head or look away. He was accustomed to the anger and judgment of the Moritta and had begun to wonder if he deserved it after all. “I did.”

“But you took hold of the wraith anyway. You risked your life, risked everything.” Ahrak stopped short of them, standing a few feet away with the help of a walking staff gripped in one white-knuckled hand. “And I have never been more honored to be proven wrong by another. I owe you the deepest of apologies.”

Xavier blinked. An apology had been the last thing he expected from the proud warrior. “There were no other options.”

“You bear the spirit of a true warrior. Grandmother agrees that should you need our aid, our best fighters and I will be there to battle beside you. From this day forward, I consider you a friend of the Red Canyon clan.” Ahrak offered a hand that Xavier gratefully took.

“I did it because it was the right thing to do.”

“It was also brave, and were it not for your deed, we would have died. I was wrong to assume you are like the dark one who robbed us, and I am proud to have fought beside you. Forgive my ignorance, Xavier.”

“It’s forgotten.”

“I may not be in any condition to leave with you now for the city, but we will march soon to help you