to forget the church. It’s over and your father already talked about shutting it down.”
“I’ll never forget it, Seth.” Willow searched his eyes, brilliant green like Caleb’s fields. “I’ll never forget a single starving face,” she said. But how could he understand how it had changed her? Only Caleb would understand, only the man who had called her a spoiled brat would understand why she would give her life for just one of those people now.
“Forgive me for bringing it up,” Seth kissed her hand. “Get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He left the room and Willow was soon asleep.
She dreamed of the sounds of weeping. Large, round, haunting eyes of the captured pleaded with someone, anyone to save them. And she dreamed of taking them all to a garden and giving them each a flower.
The passing days found Seth at Willow’s bedside every waking hour while she recovered. He finally allowed her to tell him about Caleb. It all seemed so long ago to Willow, and she began to wonder if any of it was real. When she closed her eyes to see her Warrior’s face, all she saw was oceans of water.
When she could finally be moved, Seth carried her effortlessly in the powerful curves of his arms. Two weeks later, he helped her walk, though her legs ached and felt frail beneath her.
She tried to talk to her father about Predaria, and about giving up the throne, he accused her of treason and the worst betrayal of falling for the Warrior commander. But he’d reminded her that he was forgiving to her and she should be grateful. He sent her away with a warning not to bring it up again.
“Seth?” she asked him one afternoon when she was recuperating in one of the palace gardens. After months shackled in a tiny room, the warm sun felt good on her skin. “Will you get me some seeds to plant?”
“You don’t have enough gardens here?” He laughed. “Why do you want to plant more?”
“Never mind.” She smiled softly, knowing he would only sigh with tender impatience if she brought up Caleb again. She ached to go back to Shondravar but who would take her on such a journey? Who would protect her from Catchers when even Jonas could not? The thought of her bushy-lipped friend dying because of her made her feel sick and somber. She didn’t cry, though there was no shortage of water in Beldar.
Seth left his seat and knelt before hers in the yard, beneath the sun. “I’ll get you soil if it will make you happy again, Willow.” His eyes took in every curve of her face and she looked away in self-defense of his longing.
“Seth, I—I want to go back to him.”
“What?” He stood up, an angry glint in his green eyes. “You can’t still be pining over him. It’s been over three weeks since you’ve been home. I’ve cared for you, Willow. I saved you, not him.”
“I know,” she whispered, defeated. Seth gave her back her life, not Caleb.
“Well then, can’t you forget him?”
But it was Caleb who led her to the Water of Life to begin with.
Her eyes opened wider when she remembered Caleb’s Holy Book. “Seth, where are my clothes that were taken from the church. Where are they?”
“Your father had everything burned.”
Her heart sank to her toes. It was gone. She had lost it. Oh, would this hell never cease? “Seth,” she leaned forward and gripped his collar. “You must get me a Holy Bible!”
He laughed for a minute and then realized she was serious. “Willow, how am I supposed to get that for you?”
“I don’t know, but you found my father in Alare of all places. You can find me a Holy Book.”
“Willow—”
She shook her head, and finally, after a long time of holding back, she felt a mist sweep across her vision. “Please, Seth. I need it or I will die.”
“I’ll check around,” he promised.
“Thank you, dear friend.” She ran her hand down his forearm and patted his hand. “You’re good to me.”
When Willow was finally able to walk on her own, the first place she went was to the servants’ quarters. She promptly dismissed each of them with a piece of her jewelry and a fierce embrace. They looked at her as if she had gone out of her mind. When they realized she was perfectly serious, they kissed her hands and thanked her before they fled the castle. It felt wonderful to Willow and for