Chapter 3

Moving into the guest wing was my idea.

At first, Adelaide refused. "The guest wing barely gets any sunlight. Your body can't handle the cold. How are you supposed to live there?"

She sat behind the desk in her study, reading through military reports without even looking up.

I stood across from her, my voice calm. "The main house is too noisy. I want somewhere quiet."

It really was noisy. Ever since Fabian moved in, doctors and servants carrying medicine had been coming and going every day.

Adelaide had even moved her study into the room next to his.

At last, she looked up from the report and glanced at me. "Fine. Once Fabian has fully recovered, you can move back."

She thought this was some petty attempt to compete for her attention.

I didn't explain, turning to go back to my room to pack. There wasn't much to take anyway. I left behind all the expensive clothes and belongings she'd given me over the years. All I brought were two sets of plain clothes and the bag filled with the odds and ends I'd treasured.

The guest wing was freezing. There was no proper heating, and several cracks around the windows let the wind straight in. Every cold draft made the wound in my chest ache.

That night, the poison in my body flared up. It was a consequence of having blood taken from my heart.

My body had always survived through a delicate balance of different toxins. Now that I'd lost so much blood, that balance had been disrupted, and the cold poison was turning against me.

I curled up on the hard mattress, trembling uncontrollably.

The door suddenly flew open.

Adelaide stood there holding a lantern. The moment she saw me curled into myself, her expression changed.

"Reed!" She rushed over and gathered me into her arms, blanket and all.

"Why didn't you send someone to get me?" She pressed a hand to my forehead, only to jerk it back at how cold my skin was.

"Where's your warming stone?" Her hands immediately searched around my neck.

Years ago, she'd traveled for three days to seek out a renowned healer who'd given her the stone to help suppress the cold poison in my body.

I kept my eyes shut and said nothing.

When her fingers found nothing around my neck, her voice rose sharply. "Where is it?"

I opened my eyes and looked at the panic on her face. "Did you forget, General Knight? Yesterday afternoon, Fabian said he was cold. You took it off my neck yourself and gave it to him."

Adelaide went rigid. Only then did she seem to remember.

Fabian had caught a chill in the garden yesterday and sneezed several times. She'd immediately become worried. When she happened to see me walking past, she'd taken the warming stone from around my neck without a second thought.

At the time, she'd said, "Reed, let Fabian borrow it for a few hours. I'll give it back to you later."

Adelaide's lips parted, panic flickering through her eyes. "I... I'll go get it back right now."

She lowered me onto the bed and started to leave.

"Don't."

She stopped and turned back.

"I don't want something that's already been given to someone else." I rolled over to face the wall, leaving only my back to her.

"Reed..."

She stood beside the bed for a long time.

In the end, she didn't go get the stone back. Instead, she had several heaters brought in until the room was warm. Then she sat beside me and gently patted my back through the blanket.

"Tomorrow. I'll go back to that healer tomorrow and get you an even better one. Come on, Reed. Go to sleep."

Her voice was gentle, but somehow, no matter how warm the room became, I couldn't feel any of it.

The next day, she never went to see the healer because Fabian started coughing up blood again.