Page 45

Yet, Amalia felt lighter, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Not completely. No, the pain in her heart was real and continued to linger, but it just wasn’t as prevalent. The memories were not as clogging to her mind.

Amalia had vented hard and for a long time. She knew he held her the entire time, and she guessed he must have carried her to the bed once she fell asleep.

She was still a little surprised that he turned into a human to do so, or that he chose to comfort her at all.

She could barely remember his human face since she had only seen it once before, and she’d been in a daze at the time. She hadn’t seen it when she had been crying. He never pulled them apart for her to do so.

Her eyes fell back to his.He comforted me.Her, a Witch, his enemy. He’d taken away that suffocating loneliness she had felt by doing so and given her someone to desperately cling to.

Amalia had needed to hold someone, to feel a moment and the embrace of safety when all she could remember was her skin melting.

“Why were you watching me sleep?”

She knew the first words out of her mouth should have been of gratitude, but she didn’t want to remind him of her behaviour.

“To make sure you were well when you woke,” he answered, his head lifting slightly to respond before he laid it back down.

She hadn’t realised she’d needed someone to make sure she was okay until he said those words. That she needed someone to care for her while she was injured internally in the same way she cared for others physically.

She sat up to rest against the pillows and headboard. She didn’t want to leave the warmth she felt under the furs just yet. That seemed to be his cue to permanently lift his head up.

“I also wish to ask you something.” She waited for him to continue, but he seemed to think for a long while. “It may be a difficult question to answer, tell me now if you are not prepared for such a thing.”

He was asking her if she was intending to cry again. That meant her settled emotions may flare. She sighed.

“Ask it.” She didn’t think she would cry again.

“Why did you not run? You knew they were coming, but you allowed them to take you.”

“I was intending to.” She averted her gaze again, this time to stare at her hands folded on her lap. She brushed the furs with her fingertips. “I had a terrible feeling when I saw the soldiers walking to my home, and I knew something was the matter. I had a suspicion that Marya may have overheard me chanting, but I was not sure. I did not have the time to flee.”

“You freed me instead. You made sure that your concoction would not hinder me, and you freed me instead of fleeing.”

“Yes, that is what I did.”

She looked back up when she noticed his head tilt to the side, like he was puzzled.

“Why?” She frowned at his question. “I know at the time I was nothing more than some strange lizard to you. Why did you put my life first and allow yourself to be captured in doing so? You did not know I was sentient. Most would not put a mindless animal before their own safety.”

“What right do I have to decide that a creature’s life is valued less than my own?” He tilted his head the other way, confused by her question. “I did not know you would be able to escape from your cage, but I was worried they may have burned my cottage with you inside it or taken you. I feared they would torture you because you were an odd, unknown thing.”

“Would you have done the same thing if you knew what was going to happen to you?”

He raised his brow at her with an assessing hint to his eyes.

“I do not know,” she answered truthfully, letting her head fall. “If I knew what awaited me, I may have just run. I may not have cared for your wellbeing if I knew I was going to be put on the stake. I may have also just grabbed your cage and freed you later.”

“I expected you to have this grand speech that you would always put another’s life before your own.” His tone wasn’t accusing, but she wondered if she noted the hint of humour in it correctly.

She let her eyes capture his again, but with a boldness this time.

“I will not dissimulate myself with innocence to appease you.”

“And yet, with your honesty, you have just affirmed it more so.”

It was her turn to tilt her head, her brows furrowing.

“How so?”