Before Aurelie could drift off to sleep, a knock came on the door. She sighed in protest, expecting Kirin to explode through her door and to go over her stupidity one more time. She knew she was wrong in what she had done on that field, but she hardly needed to hear about it again. Her wounds ached and burned, and her head was throbbing.
Aurelie waited before answering, hoping that whoever it was would go away. "Who is it?" she asked.
"It's Sasha. Can I come in?" she asked but did not bother to wait for Aurelie's response and came in at once after she had finished her question.
"Yes, come in," Aurelie said, just for the sake of being polite. Sasha had already been standing inside, making the room feel crowded. She turned her head and faced Sasha, her burns had stuck to the sheets already, and it was too painful to lift her skin off of the bed.
Sasha sat on the bed and placed a tray on the bedside table. "Your wounds are bad, indeed."
She moved Aurelie's hair off her back and surveyed the burns. "I have brought some of the remaining herbs that were left after Leila's injury, but I am afraid that it is all that I have left. We will have to work very carefully with them. We have gone through this supply in too short an amount of time. I should have ordered more, but I wasn't expecting . . . Well/."
Sasha looked at Aurelie with her brow raised and reached for the blue pot on the tray. She scooped out the green salve and pressed it against Aurelie's skin.
"Goodness, I'll have to cover half your body!"
The pain disappeared as soon as it touched her body. Goosebumps rose on her skin as the salve cooled and eased her skin.
Sasha had been kind to Aurelie after the unfortunate events of the afternoon, she had fully accepted the pain as her punishment for her foolish behavior, but Sasha would not have it. She massaged the salve onto every part of her damaged skin.
Later, when she was done, Aurelie realized that most of her skin was now completely covered in green salve up to the point of where her clothes allowed it. Now, it was just her head that throbbed, though her wounds were still stinging a little, they began gradually healing as she watched them.
"I left some over for your head too. I have mixed it with a little tea and honey, which should, at least, make it bearable to swallow. I have tried it with just water before and could hardly keep it in my stomach long enough for it to actually ease my pain, but I'm sure you know from the last time you had to drink it," she said and smiled at the memory.
Aurelie did not care what it tasted like. As long as it took her headache away, she would drink anything Sasha had made. She picked up the tea from the table and gulped it down in one large mouthful. Sasha was right. It was awful. The tea and honey hardly made it any more bearable. The grassy taste was even more prominent with the honey and tea, if anything.
"Thank you so much for your kindness," Aurelie said, feeling suddenly vulnerable and on the verge of tears. She wanted to burst into tears and hug her, cry on her shoulder, and thank her for the entire night.
"What's the matter, dear?" Sasha asked. "Does it still hurt so much?"
"No, it's nearly gone," she replied and wiped away a tear.
It was nice to have someone who showed genuine affection. "I'm really sorry about what happened today," she tried to explain, but Sasha lifted her hand to stop her.
"Get some rest, we canâ"
The door swung open in the middle of her sentence.
"Oh Kirin, I was just about to come and find you," she told him and looked back at Aurelie. "Don't roll around too much. The salve might rub off, and as I said earlier, I have barely any left. Now, sleep well," Sasha added.
"I'll be right there," he told her.
Sasha gave Kirin a puzzled look then walked out of Aurelie's room, closing the door behind her.
Aurelie's eyes shifted to Kirin, who stood motionless next to the closed door, his eyes were focused on her face, but he did not utter a word.
"What is it?" she asked him, breaking the silence that appeared to be haunting both of them.
"I want to apologize for what I said earlier," he said.
Aurelie cocked her head, her eyes widening. She could not have been more surprised. From what she had come to know about Kirin, he was not the sort of man to throw out apologies, especially when he was not the one in the wrong. He waited for her to respond, but she was too taken aback to utter a word, and after a moment, he continued to speak.
"I choose to believe that you are now a little more aware of the power you have. I will not say a word about today . . ." He took a deep breath, trying to calm whatever had been raging inside him. He opened his mouth briefly to say something and then shut it again, his hands forming tight fists at his sides. "Do you have any idea how much danger you put yourself into?" He exhaled and continued before she could even attempt to defend herself. "Any idea?"
"Kirinâ"
"What I want from you is a promise," he spoke over her forcefully.
"Okay."
"I want you to promise that you will take your power more seriously. If not for me, then for the people who risked their lives to save you, and again I do not speak of the people who live here, but the people you loved very much, Elizabeth and Kaiden. I want you to promise that you will start to practice within your capabilities," he told her. "You nearly killed me today, Aurelie," he said in a voice that sounded utterly defeated, "and not physically."
She sat silent for a moment and waited for him to start scolding her. From the vein pulsing on his temple, he sure looked like he wanted to. He stood at the door and waited for an answer.
Aurelie nodded. "Okay, I promise."
"Good," he said.
He walked around the room, his hands tucked behind his back. Her room was dark, and she could hardly see him when he stepped into the far corner. She looked towards the candle on her nightstand and set it on fire with the tip of her finger. Kirin turned around and looked at the fire. The flames reflected in his eyes, and Aurelie wondered if it had looked similar when her eyes were set ablaze with her power.
"I told you that I am against my father, I don't believe that I have ever told you why," he said, still looking at the flame.
"No," she replied and observed his face. He was different, as if his defenses were dropped. He turned away from the fire, and she could no longer see his face.
"My mother was killed by the King. It is one of the only things I can remember from my childhood," he said and started to fiddle with his fingers. "I didn't see it, but I was present during their conversation. After Emile took the throne, I cannot remember the exact day, but I remember it was hotter than usual. I was playing inside my father's chamber. I was not allowed in there without him, so when Emile and my father came inside, I hid under the bed. They began to talk about a traitor and some attempted assassination of the King that they had stopped just in time. It was a while before I realized they were talking about my mother. He let the King kill his own wife and take away his child's mother. He didn't even give her time to say goodbye to me, and later, he told me that she ran away. Can you believe that a father could do such a thing?" he asked and shook his head.
"I don't know what to say, I suppose this would be the right time for a meaningless apology, but that would hardly change anything," she replied.
She was surprised that she could answer as much as she did, Kirin opening up to her like that was strange. Because of the King, she had to kill, she had to lie, and she had lost the only parents that she had known.
"Her name was Hellene," he said and gave a weak smile. Tears appeared in Aurelie's eyes. She couldn't cope with seeing Kirin like that. She wanted to help him somehow, but there was nothing she could do.
"Your mother died shortly after that," he told her and glanced back at her to see her reaction, "though I don't know what happened to her. I was told she died because of how much she missed you."
Her insides turned. Every time someone spoke of the King as her father, she chased away the thought. She very rarely considered her mother. It was tragic, but there was never a click. Her disgust for him overshadowed her entirely.
"It's funny," she said and looked down at her hands. "I didn't know about her, but when you mention her, there's something there. Warmth, a slight connectionâhowever self-made it may beâI feel her loss even though I've never seen her face."
Kirin sat on the bed. "That's blood for you. Pesky little thing."
"Can you tell me about my mother?" she asked him. A tear fell down her cheek, and she wiped it away quickly with her sleeve before Kirin could see. "No one spoke about her very much. I think . . . her loss lived on in Elizabeth and Kaiden far longer than either of them liked to admit."
"I don't really know. I was tiny when they died. The people who did know her thought her to be very kind, and your grandfather loved her very much," he said. "You look like her, from what I remember. You share her thick lips and her curly hair, but mostly it's your character," he said. "She let you go, you know. Even though it killed herâand I'm sure she knew it wouldâshe put you in Elizabeth's arms and told her to flee with you."
She scooted closer to him. "Thank you for telling me," Aurelie said, dropping her head to look down at her hands. "It's nice hearing about her."
He wrapped a lock of her hair around his finger, gently and without seeming to have noticed exactly what it was that he was doing. "It's alright."
Aurelie held her breath, a piece of her scalp warmed beneath his touch, and the hair rose on her neck.
"I'm surprised that you have any hair left at all." He laughed, completely oblivious to what his simple touch did to her entire body. "Your skin's looking better," he said, his fingers moving down her cheek. His touch burned through her, reflecting in her spine. If ever there was a chance, it was now.
She looked up. Their faces were so close together that her nose almost touched his. His breath caressed her skin, gently warming her mouth. She stiffed, vibrations running up and down her body.
Kirin smirked and got off the bed. "I have to go. Sasha is waiting," he said and walked out of the room. She had never seen him walk that fast before.