have been to the human realm many times, but you would be mistaken if you think your people are of any interest to me. I find humans to be cruel… vindictive. But they’re also fantastic writers.”
She snorted. “Yes, well, I just escaped from a fae realm where everything was a dangerous lie. Don’t get up on your high horse about fae morality.”
He dried her shoulder before unrolling a long strip of fabric. “I do not understand you, Lady Brea.”
“Ditto, Douchey Loch. See, I can call people things they’d rather I didn’t too.”
“Douchey.” He paused for a moment. “I like the sound of that. What does it mean?”
She choked on a laugh. “Erm… noble.”
He nodded. “Then you may call me by that name if you wish.”
Winding the fabric tightly around her shoulder, Lochlan looked on with honest-to-God sympathy in his eyes as she winced in pain. Who would have thought he could feel anything other than irritation?
His fingers worked nimbly to bandage her shoulder and the upper half of her arm.
“If Lewis is the healer, why isn’t he doing this?” she asked, trying to distract herself from the pain.
Lochlan looked away under the pretense of trying to find something, but nothing was there. “You are my responsibility.”
“But why? Your queen wants me. I get that. But everyone keeps mentioning your trips to the human realm that supposedly had to do with me. We didn’t meet until that day you stole me from the police.”
“They were going to send you to one of those human prisons, and I can guarantee they’re not like our prison realm.”
She’d ask later about there being an entire realm for a prison. That sounded… extreme. “Because I almost killed my best friend. What do you have to do with any of this?”
He sat back, not looking at her. “I cannot give you the answers you seek.”
“Well, that’s just peachy, isn’t it? I’m stuck in this creepy world. Someone stabbed a sword through my shoulder. I have no clue what’s going on or why I’m some special snowflake everyone seems to want a piece of. And you… the most frustrating man I have ever met… Just leave me alone. Please. Send Finn to watch me or something. He’s much better company.”
Lochlan stared at her for a long moment, his eyes icing over. “No.” He seemed to shake off whatever had come over him and pushed to his feet. “There is a shirt for you on the end of the bed. I will step outside for your human modesty.”
“What about you?” She gestured to his blood-stained clothes.
“I do not have another garment, but it will only be a couple days until we reach the palace.” His eyes flicked from her to the remaining strips of fabric before he turned to walk out.
“Wait,” she called.
He didn’t stop. She felt the bandage on her shoulder, knowing where the fabric came from. Lochlan cut up his only spare shirt for bandages, leaving him with memories of the battle caked into his clothes.
He’d said many things that altered how she saw this world, but maybe it was what he didn’t say that mattered more.
Lochlan O’Shea was a man of secrets and hidden thoughts. She laid her head back, staring up at the canvas ceiling. How did a man she barely knew, one who spoke in grunts and scowls, make her feel safer than his brother ever had?
Griff had been a fantasy, one that crashed down around her when she learned none of it was real. Lochlan… he didn’t put on faces, he didn’t lie or connive.
But just like in Fargelsi, she was still his prisoner, and she couldn’t forget that one simple fact.
Chapter Eighteen
After another day in the saddle in the dry desert heat, Brea’s arm throbbed beneath the cauterized flesh. It felt tight and hot, and she was restless.
“I thought I perturbed you,” Brea muttered when Lochlan carried her into his tent.
“You do that quite well, Lady Brea. I’ve asked Lewis to make you something to help you sleep.”
“Can you ask him to make an AC unit for the window?”
“We don’t have windows in tents. You’re such an odd girl.” She thought she heard laughter as he laid her on a bedroll for the night.
“No blanket.” She shoved his hand away. “Too hot.”
“Today was a hot day. It will get cooler as we approach the palace.”
“She still awake?” Finn ducked into the tent.
“Unfortunately.” Brea groaned at the pounding in her head.
“I have some medicine for you from Lewis.” Finn crouched beside her