and clothing, broken dishes and glass, and general chaos.
I supposed we’d done that when we were fighting. Perhaps I could understand why Raile had referenced being a nursemaid twice in the past ten minutes.
“Duncan,” Alisa said, her voice exasperated. Her hands probed the wound at the center of the red stain, frowning, but her frown deepened when she stared at me. “What did you do to Tiron?”
Duncan didn’t answer. He shrugged.
“It was like she was possessed,” I said, because they needed to understand about the enchantment. “Like Faer made her try to commit suicide. We can’t leave her alone. Not until we get the enchantment lifted.”
Relief flooded her face and lit those bright eyes. Despite the distance between us, in every way, I felt suddenly alive when she looked at me like that.
The next second, she looked toward Duncan instead. Of course she did. Duncan and Raile hadn’t betrayed her. The distance between us felt like a weight on my chest.
“Not you,” Duncan growled at me. “I don’t trust you.”
Raile rolled his eyes. “I know you’re not a moron, Duncan, but do you do an amazing impression of one. Very well—Duncan, you can take first watch. I’ll take second.”
“And what am I going to do?” I demanded. It wasn’t my nature to be useless.
Raile crooked an eyebrow at me. “Well, if I were you, I’d consider finding the ship’s doctor. I have a feeling Duncan might need you all fixed-up if, when we make landfall in the morning, Azrael isn’t standing on the beach waving at us all.”
Chapter Five
Alisa
Despite how Raile baited Tiron, he trailed the winter king as he limped out of his quarters. Raile gave me a look, eyebrows raised, as if he wanted me to know he was a saint for ensuring Tiron had medical care and that he didn’t die along the way.
Then it was just Duncan and me.
“Do you want me to help you onto the bed?” Duncan asked.
“I can manage,” I said, even though the wound still hurt badly; Duncan’s healing was clumsy. It felt as if I were on fire from the inside out.
But I wasn’t dead.
I tried to summon up some gratitude for not dead when I was still under my evil father’s enchantment.
Duncan frowned, looking offended. I wasn’t sure why; it certainly wasn’t his nature to baby anyone. I rolled over onto my side, then rose to my hands and knees; even though the wound had healed, I still felt the blade lodged in my side like a phantom. I couldn’t help it; my hand went to my side again, making sure the knife was gone, that my skin was healed.
Duncan let out an impatient growl and the next thing I knew, I was lifted into his arms. He carried me to the bed and lay me down in Raile’s crisp sheets.
I collapsed on to the bed, feeling better as my head came down on the soft pillows and I relaxed into the soft mattress. “I said I didn’t want help.”
He grunted and stepped back. He was looking pretty pissed off at me given that I’d just come so close to dying.
“What?” I asked, my voice irritated. “Am I supposed to be grateful?”
“Grateful?” He raked his hand through his hair, his eyes flaring with heat. “No, Alisa, gratitude doesn’t make the list of things I expect from you.”
“Really?” I demanded. “Are we still doing this? Are you going to keep pretending I’m so terrible, even after sleeping with me?”
He was so desperate to keep me at a distance. And yet, he said, “We should get you out of that bloodstained gown.”
“I can manage,” I said. I tried to shimmy out of it, but the maids had laced me tightly into the corset. I’d have to cut the damned thing off, and suddenly the sensation of the blood-soaked fabric on my skin made me frantic to get it off. “Give me the knife.”
“Not a chance,” Duncan said. “Can you roll over?”
As he asked the question, he pushed my shoulder over, my face sinking into Raile’s pillows. The pillows carried his crisp, clean scent and I tried to lift my head, but Duncan was roughly tugging at the corset strings, trying to release them.
“You’re a terrible maid,” I told him. It felt as if he were yanking the strings into knots.
“And you’re just terrible, but I don’t keep bringing it up.”
“Actually, you do.”
Finally, the corset relaxed around my chest. His hands skimmed over my bare skin as he tried to push the dress