Eadlyn Selects

Curtains

I come to drowning in fuzzy feelings of urgency. I have to do something. Someone needs me. I'm the only one who can help.

The bombs. I have to warn them.

I manage to use my throbbing hands to pick up the phone near my bed. I call security down at the main castle gate. It rings and rings, and finally a man picks up.

"Station one, what's your status?" he asks.

"Eadlyn Schreave here. They have bombs. They are going to go off. I don't know when."

"Excuse me? Miss? This is not funny. Her Highness deserves your utmost respect."

And then he hangs up!

I try to stand, but gentle arms restrain me.

Kile murmurs, "Eady, relax. You need to heal. Your thoughts are jumbled."

"I'm not jumbo!" I protest, letting him lie me back down and tuck my covers carefully around my shoulders. I have a neck brace on, my ankles are in air casts, and my back is still on some kind of cooling gel pack.

"I have to go diffuse them," I say, already worn out.

"Eady, you need to stay here and let the medical team help. That is the way you can show the rebels that they can't break you. You persevere."

I relax into his arms. His breath is warm on my neck. I wish I could get the feeling of imminent danger out of my head because what I really want is to be that girl again. The girl with a boy. As simple as that. As amazing as that.

I lock my gaze onto his gray green eyes, growing even darker with his fierce rush of emotion. I slowly raise my palms and place them lightly on his chest. Even through the gauze covering my hands, I can feel the strong pounding of his heart and the rapid rise and fall of his breathing.

"Eady, I never knew you were so tough." He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. I don't let myself think about the state of my hair. This is Kile. He cares about me, not my hair.

He lets out a self-conscious chuckle and then adds, "It sounds lame, but I'm so proud of you. I wish you never had to go through that. I should never have left the castle. I knew you didn't want me gone. Not really. If I'd been here--"

Oh no, I won't let him shoulder any of the blame. I can do that much for him after all the heartache I've caused.

I let my palms float up to his shoulders and then loop them loosely around his neck. My body wants to arch into him, to meld us together so tightly that nothing and no one could ever wrench us apart.

I say, "You had to go. I'm sorry for that. For all of it. You didn't deserve it. I basically kicked you out, gave you a job you didn't ask for on live TV, and then chose someone else."

He looks at the corner of the room and takes a deep breath.

I hold my own breath, worrying my lip with my front teeth. I'm reminding him of all my mistakes. Maybe I shouldn't have brought it up. Said all together like that, it had to be painful to hear. Why do I do this?

Kile takes my gauze wrapped hands and holds them tenderly in his own.

"That's behind us now. I didn't find you to lose you again." He gives me a hitched-up smile. "The idea of never seeing you again...I realized nothing mattered if you weren't in my world. I missed you every day. I constantly thought of what you'd think, or say, or how you'd scoff about so many different things."

"I do like to scoff," I say lightly, sorry for the pain he's been through.

"Then when I saw you in the factory and figured out everything that had happened while I was gone, how badly you must have been hurt," he pauses and pinches the bridge of his nose. "I could barely function. Please, Eady, no more sending me away," he voice has a desperate edge.