Annie Hayden's Arc

Chapter 26 of 27

Annie woke in a soft bed. Warm light filled a high, airy room with green-tiled walls and tall arched windows. This was Frostwyn's home, the elven hall on the hill. She had made it out of the labyrinth alive. She lifted her arm and found it wrapped in clean white cloth from wrist to elbow. The burn no longer screamed. It only ached. The fox slept curled at her feet, its tail a low, steady flame. She let out a breath she had held for days. Then she saw him. Kaelen sat in a chair at the end of the bed. His coat still bore the knife cut across the shoulder. Dark shadows ringed his icy blue eyes. He looked like a man who had not slept. "You're awake," he said. He leaned forward fast, then caught himself. "How long?" Her voice came out cracked. "Three days." He poured water and held the cup to her lips. "My father dressed the wound. It's healing. You lost a lot of blood." She drank. "Have you left this chair at all?" He glanced away. "People from the village came. The baker. The old woman who took you in. They sat with you, hoping you'd wake." He paused. "I told them I'd stay until you did." "Why?" Kaelen's jaw tightened. For once the mystery dropped from his face. "When I found you in that dead end, you weren't breathing right. I thought I was too late." His voice caught. "I've known you for so little time. But the thought of losing you—" He stopped. Color rose in his tan cheeks. Heat climbed Annie's face too. She looked down at the blanket. The fox stirred and pressed closer to her leg, as if it felt the shift in the room. "You came into that maze for me," she said quietly. "You could have died." "I'd do it again." He said it plainly, like a fact he'd already settled. Annie shifted under the blanket to sit up. That was when she noticed. The torn and damaged armor and clothing she had on was gone. She wore a loose white sleeping shift, soft and clean. Her hand flew to her chest. "My clothes—who changed my clothes?" She yanked the blanket up to her chin. Kaelen shot to his feet, hands raised. "Not me. I swear it. The old woman from the village. Mirael. She and my father tended you. I wasn't—I only carried you in." His face burned red now. "Okay. Okay." Annie's heart pounded, but she believed him. She loosened her grip on the blanket. They sat a moment in the warm light, neither meeting the other's eyes. Annie flexed her bandaged arm. The burn had come from overdrawing the fox's fire. She had survived Vexor, the labyrinth, the blood loss. But her body still broke when she reached for too much power. She turned to Kaelen. "When I can stand," she said, "I need your father to teach me the rest. I can't keep burning myself alive." “And he will” Kaelen said before shifting to sit on the bed at her feet, “but for now you need to rest and heal”