Valan ducked into Everyn’s room, tucking the privacy curtain carefully back into place.

  "I get the feeling she might have some suspicions about us,” He smiled as he took a seat next to Everyn on the bed. “Do you think that’s something we should be worried about?”

  She shook her head, “No. If anyone can keep a secret, it's Ryala.” Everyn muttered, staring at the closed curtain.

  “So long as Sterling doesn’t find out, I don’t particularly care if she knows.” Valan’s hand slid around her waist as he leaned in closer.

  “Not tonight, Valan.” She pulled away before he pressed his lips into hers

  He made space between their bodies, taking her hands to examine the small cuts on her forearms, clearly trying to decipher her sudden change in mood, “What’s wrong?”

  It was clear he knew something was affecting her far more than a handful of scratches small barely worse than those of a housecat.

  Truthfully, his suspicions were correct, this wasn’t about petty injuries. Everyn simply had too much on her mind.

  Ryala didn’t want her to treat her fragile, but now she had no choice. Anything that happened to Ryala, so much as a broken finger, could mean her ten children would be without one of their mothers. Hells, this would mean Everyn would have to rethink her whole battle strategy. She couldn’t be so careless with her alchemy. The others could recover from her toxins, or be treated for them, but Ryala couldn’t. She had kept this secret so things wouldn’t change, but now they had to.

  Of course, Everyn couldn’t tell Valan any of this. She was trapped with yet another secret.

  So, her injuries were the easier explanation, “I hit the edge of the roof.” She pulled off her dark jacket, revealing her stained undershirt, which clung to her back with old blood, sweat and seawater. She turned away from him, biting her tongue as she peeled the shirt off her back, raising it so he could examine the injury.

  Everyn flinched as his finger gingerly prodded at her sore back. This was minor, hardly worth the attention, but it was a good distraction.

  “Did you get this looked at? I think you may have broken--”

  “Long bone, skull, or spine.” She recited, letting the shirt fall back down. “A rib is none of those. Not worth the resources.” She turned back toward him.

  A scowl darkened his brow, “They would make an exception. They did it for my wound. You shou--”

  “I don’t need an exception made. It’s not my first broken rib and it won‘t be my last. The flesh wounds are superficial. They sting but I'm not bleeding out. If you help me clean them I will be good as new.” She leaned over, rifling through her shared crate for her small jar of antiseptic salve.

  The grimy jar was nearly empty, just a bit of ivory residue clinging to the bottom edges. Hopefully she could salvage some ingredients next time she was out. She wouldn’t take any of the strong stuff from the supply drop. There were people who needed it much more than she.

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  “I know you don’t need anything,” Valan grabbed Everyn’s waterskin from its discarded place at the foot of her bed. “But what we don’t need is anything slowing you down. You think I didn’t notice your swim time tonight? I assumed you had just hit the water wrong, but if there’s actually something we could do to prevent those extra seconds lost, then we should.”

  Everyn hadn’t thought anyone would notice her hesitation. She’d thought she’d made up the time later, but she must have been slower than she thought.

  She passed Valan a rag and pulled her shirt back up, facing away from him, “Once the superficial wounds heal, I won't be slowed down. It was the salt water.” In truth, she didn’t know if this was a lie. Maybe the broken rib had slowed her down and she hadn’t noticed.

  Her back burned as Valan cleaned away the residual salt with the damp rag.

  She sensed a protest building, but surprisingly Valan stayed quiet, the only sound was the wet rag gently dabbing at the scraped skin, amid the dull thrum of life just outside the curtain.

  Everyn was finally the one to break the uncomfortable silence, "So what was in the crates?”

  “I don’t know,” Valan replied as he began dabbing the ointment onto the irritated flesh, which thankfully did take away an amount of the incessant stinging. “I got patched up then came straight here to see you.”

  “I think it was ingredients," She said more to herself than him.

  “Likely. I did hear glass in one. I’m hoping the other has clothes. The children who come in with…” His voice trailed away. “I hope they get new clothes.”

  The pressure of his fingers vanished and she turned back to face him, keeping her grimy shirt over her shoulders and off the newly cleaned area, “Are you okay?”

  “I think that thing’s spell broken a few ribs, there was a fair amount of bruising, but like I said--”

  “I know they patched you but, I mean, are you okay?” She cupped his cheek in her hand, looking into his golden eyes. “I know it’s been hard. I know you miss them.”

  He leaned into her touch, “There hasn’t been a letter in the shipments in months. I didn’t even bother to check this time.”

  “I’m sure Ophelia and Magnus are safe. Helena wouldn’t let anything happen to them. If there was an outbreak, she would have taken them to her cabin. I’m sure they just aren’t sending letters with the shipments anymore. Have you seen letters from anyone else?”

  “No…”

  She leaned up to press a kiss into his forehead, “Then I'm sure they’re just conserving resources. Blumherth is safe.” She wrapped around him. “Your kids are safe. Have faith in Helena. You know she'd never let anything happen to them. She’d sooner take on an army of Demons herself.”

  Valan let out a light snort as a small smile appeared at the corners of his lips, “You’re right about that. Maybe she should be here instead of me, we might have won by now.”

  Before the twins, Helena was part of the Blumherth Navy on the same crew as Valan. She was the most intimidating woman either of them knew. When she found out she was pregnant, she became a whole lot scarier. Her impressive valor was what drew Valan in and led to the unexpected twins in the first place.

  She and Valan were never meant to be together for long, and they didn’t agree on much, but they sure as the hells would do anything for their kids.

  Valan wrapped his arms around Everyn’s waist, pulling her into a tight but careful hug.

  But she slid his arms away as she felt him smudge the ointment he’d just applied, “Get me a clean shirt first.” She laughed.