Azure (The Silver Series Book 5) by Cheree Alsop

Author:Cheree Alsop
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, werewolf series romance action adventure love
Publisher: Cheree Alsop

Chapter 12

I awoke slowly. Someone clanged on metal bars a few cages down, bringing back the harsh truth that what I had thought haunted me as a nightmare had been reality. I took a testing breath of heavy air tainted with blood, old sweat, and the scent of unwashed bodies and fear. The lash marks across my back throbbed, but with a healing ache. A knot formed in my stomach. I opened my eyes.

Gem smiled down at me from a few feet away. The bars between us didn't mar her cheerful countenance. “Hey there,” she said, her blue eyes twinkling.

“Hey,” I managed to get out. I pushed myself up slowly and noticed the brush of cloth against the wounds on my back. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that someone had torn a blanket into strips and used them to bind the lashes.

My heart slowed at the implication and I looked at Gem. She sat on the bars without anything to protect her from the harsh bite of the coated silver. I rose quickly to give her the blanket I had slept on. “You shouldn't have done that,” I said before my knees weakened at the sudden movement and I had to catch myself against the bars.

Gem rose to help steady me, but wouldn't accept my blanket. “You needed it. It's alright.”

I shook my head. “You didn't need to do that. It would have healed.”

She gave a small shrug. “Maybe,” she replied noncommittally. “You were bleeding pretty bad after all the silver washed out.”

“But still.” I couldn't fathom why she would do such a thing. I didn't know how long I had been out, but for every second of it some part of her had been touching the silver bars. The bottoms of my feet that contacted my own cage burned and I knew she hadn't spent the whole night on her feet. “Take it,” I demanded.

She lifted an eyebrow at my tone and stepped back. She crossed her arms on her chest and tipped her head to one side tauntingly. “You gonna make me?”

I let out a frustrated breath. “If I have to, yes.” I threw the blanket into her cell, then took one of the cloths from my back, tore it into two, and bound my feet so that they didn't have to touch the bars.

Gem watched me for a minute and I could tell she wanted to argue, but I stared her down until her werewolf instincts wouldn't let her argue. “Fine,” she muttered. She turned to pick it up and my stomach dropped at the angry red burns that ran in lines across her legs where her pants were too short to cover them.

“You shouldn't have done that,” I whispered again, sick at the thought that she had suffered for me.

She spread the blanket on the floor of her cell as if she hadn't heard me, then sat in the middle facing me like a girl in a field of flowers. “Happy?” she asked.

I rubbed my eyes and crouched to slow the dizziness that swam through my head.

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