feet, standing proud and a touch regal. But as soon as he made it inside the cover of the competitors’ box, he collapsed into a chair and promptly passed out.
“He will be fine,” Mistress Sinead said, patting Kerrigan’s arm a few hours later. “He needs to rest and recover. His injuries were quite severe.”
Kerrigan nodded mutely as Sinead exited the room. Kerrigan took the seat next to Fordham’s bed, where he had been carried after healing. She’d had her own healing, taken a strict power nap, and eaten enough food for a horse. Her magic had flickered back sometime while Fordham was still knocked out. Sinead had given him some kind of sedative to keep him under.
Kerrigan sighed heavily and leaned backward. What was she going to do now? They both probably needed to sleep it off for a few days. Not go rushing back out into danger. She should just leave him to it, but for some reason, she couldn’t move. She didn’t feel comfortable leaving his side.
Instead, she stood and began to slowly pace his room. His notebook was tucked away against his desk. Her fingers itched to open the book, so she could read what he had written, what had made him bleed on the pages. But it felt too private. Now that they were… friends, she wouldn’t intentionally break his trust.
Her eyes swept to the notebook one more time, and then she retreated. Her curiosity always got the best of her. She couldn’t expect him to trust her if she snooped through his things while he was unconscious. So, she plopped back down into the chair with a sigh.
She felt herself nodding off again when a knock sounded on the door. Kerrigan scrambled uneasily to her feet, ready to tell the person to leave, that he wasn’t ready for visitors. But it wasn’t another competitor, it was Clover.
“Clove, what are you doing here?” Kerrigan yanked her inside the room and promptly shut the door.
Clover was still wearing Dozan’s red button-up and vest uniform. She couldn’t have been more out of place.
“Kerrigan,” she gasped, throwing her arms around her. “You never came to see me last night. I thought you were dead.”
“Clove, I’m sorry.”
“What happened?”
Kerrigan sighed and sank back into her chair. She ran a shaky hand through her red hair and then told Clover nearly everything that had happened, leaving out the part about her explosion that had helped them escape. She wasn’t sure she wanted anyone else to know about that yet. By the end of it, Clover looked horrified.
“You were tortured,” Clover whispered.
“Yes,” Kerrigan said softly.
She had been tortured, and her magic had unleashed on the building. She didn’t know if they were all dead… if she had killed them all. What she did know was that this wasn’t the first time it had happened.
That night, five years ago, when she had been beaten in the alley and had her first vision, her magic had exploded like that as well. She had been the one to knock out the Fae who were going to kill her. And all along, Dozan had let her believe that he had saved her. That she’d been about to die and he’d killed everyone to keep them from hurting her. Dozan… who had never done anything magnanimous in his entire life. Now, she knew the truth. He’d done it because she had power… power that even she didn’t know what it was or how to control it. And then she had been stupid enough to tell him about her vision that night.
“What is it?” Clover asked, reading her face all too well.
“Nothing,” she said with a shake of her head. “But we have to go to Black House.”
Kerrigan cringed even saying the words. She knew what Clover’s response would be, but it was her only lead from the weapons deal. Her only chance to find out who the assassin was.
Clover paled. “You can’t go in there, Red.”
“Well, not until Fordham is well at least.”
Clover looked like she was going to argue further when a groan came from Fordham. Kerrigan rushed to his side. Fordham’s eyes opened, and his body went rigid.
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay.”
Then, her face appeared before him, and he scrunched up his brow. “What are you doing in here, halfling?”
Clover opened her mouth to protest the name, but Kerrigan didn’t even feel the bite in it anymore.
“Well, princeling,” she said, giving the sass right back, “you tried to die.”
“Sounds like me,” he grumbled.
“Sinead healed you, and