Fracture (Into the Fire Book 6) by Mia West

Author:Mia West [West, Mia]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: romance, erotica
Published: 2016-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

A week later, things had begun to feel almost normal. If he could ignore the hole in his middle where Matthias should have been, he could get on with work. When he stepped outside that morning, the sky was clear, the air cool. A good day to smith.

Britte was in the workshop when he arrived. The space was tidy, the fire pans glowing deep, his tools at the ready. They would work and it would be almost normal. He would lose himself in the sounds of their hammers, in the vibration of the handle in the bones of his wrist, in the taste of hot metal in the back of his throat.

“Morning.”

The girl hardly looked up—“Morning, Master Wolf”—as she went about the day’s preparations.

Good. A normal day. He took up the blade he’d been working the day before and shoved it into the coals.

Britte grunted. When he looked up, she stood at her anvil, studying her piece. After a moment, she shook her head, then went back to work.

Whatever had given her pause hadn’t been a grave mistake. Wolf took a breath.

Normal. Back to normal.

When the blade glowed, he set it on the anvil and began.

Sometime later, a scuffle pulled him out of his focus. He looked over in time to see Britte drop her work on the ground and hurry out of the smithy.

“What—”

Sounds of retching, unmistakable. He set aside his work and stepped out of the shop.

Britte stood with a hand against the stone wall there, bent at the waist, giving up her breakfast. He lifted her plait out of the way, holding it against her back as she heaved. When she finally straightened, her face had taken on the color of unripe cheese. It made her freckles stand out more than usual. Glancing up at him, she looked away quickly, swiping a hand across her watery eyes, a sleeve over her lips. She spit, tensed under his hand as if she would be sick again, but it passed.

“Water?”

She shook her head.

“Several folks looked worse for wear this morning. Too much ale at the fire last night. It’ll pass.”

She chuckled, but it sounded bitter. “For them, perhaps.” She stepped around him with quiet thanks, took a drink from the water jug anyway, then picked up her work.

He’d scarcely reheated the sword when she scuttled back outside for another round. This time she didn’t straighten all the way afterward. Her knuckles pressed up white under her skin as she clutched the stone wall.

This was not how a normal day should proceed.

“Go to Marga,” he said, impatient to get back to his anvil and his oblivion.

“I have.”

“Well?”

She looked up at him, her coppery brows pinched in a frown. “I can work.”

“Not if you spend half the day in the alley. Get something stronger from her and lie down.”

She didn’t move except to press her palms to her eyes. Her hands trembled.

“Britte?”

She dropped her hands and looked at him again. “It won’t pass.” The water in her eyes made them green as the new grass in the pastures.

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