His mouth gapes open.
“If there is another food scent you enjoy more, I’m happy to?—”
He moves more swiftly than I’ve ever seen him, squatting in front of me and pulling my face forward.
“Your eyes are red.”
“They’ve been stinging.”
“Stupid-Little-Vaeyark!”
Before I can argue with him, he scoops me into his arms and storms from the hut, rushing across the village in giant strides.
At first, I think he’s angry with me and trying to bring me to the longhouse, but we turn away from it, heading towards the northern edge.
I cling to him, terrified by his swift pace and overwhelming rage. “Please say you’re not planning on throwing me over a cliff.”
“I need to get you to Orvell.”
“Why?”
“So you are not blinded.”
10
ASHA
Blinded?
Dread twists my gut, because if I were to go blind, the Tempest men would never agree to keep me around, and Elena can only convince the women of so much.
“I didn’t know?—”
“I had thought you were weak, but now I know you are also stupid,” he growls, his grip tightening around me.
Despite my now-burning eyes, my treasonous body comes alive at the way he effortlessly hauls me to the cleric’s hut, and for a moment, I allow myself to imagine what it would be like to be coveted. To be loved. That he’s saving me not out of obligation, but because I mean something to him.
That feeling quickly leaves me when he slams me down onto the cleric’s table.
I open my eyes, but my vision is blurred, and the burning has grown.
Panic rises in my chest at the thought of never seeing again. Of being left in the woods because I’m so weak.
“What happened to her?” Orvell says.
“She rubbed thearnroot all over her body and her eyes are burning.”
“Why would she do that?” Orvell says, clearly astonished. “It is nonsensical.”
“Just fix her.”
A moment later, something cool presses against my eyes, washing away the pain, and I breathe out a sigh of relief.
I’m pushed back into a supine position, and my eyes are forced open, revealing how blurred and distorted my vision is.
“Hey!”
A cooling sensation washes over my eyes. The pressure lets up, and I blink slowly, seeing more clearly.
