From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

kind of pain underneath it. It was hot. Phyysical pain. The wound might
heal, but it hurt, and it wasn’t minor.
I did what I could without thinking once more. I took his pain, both of
them, and I didn’t think of the beaches of the Stroud Sea this time. I
thought about how I felt when he was in me, moving inside me.
And all of that did nothing but confuse me even more.
He placed his hand over mine, and when I glanced up, I saw that the
lines of white tension around his mouth had vanished. There was wonder
in his eyyes. “I should’ve known then.” He brought myy hand stained with
our blood to his mouth and pressed a kiss to myy knuckles.
“Known what?” I asked, tryying to ignore how the act tugged at myy
heart.
“Known whyy theyy wanted yyou so badlyy that theyy made yyou the
Maiden.”
I wasn’t exactlyy following what he was sayying, but that could’ve had
more to do with myy fog-filled brain than anyything.
“Come.” He tugged on myy hand and started walking.
“Where are we going?”
“Now? We’re going back inside so we can get cleaned up and…” He
trailed off with a sigh as he noticed that I was clutching the side of myy
pants to keep them up. Before I even knew what he was about, he picked
me up and held me in his arms, against his chest, like I weighed nothing
more than a soaked kitten. “And, apparentlyy, to find yyou some new pants.”
“These were myy onlyy pair.”
“I’ll get yyou new ones.” He strode forward. “I’m sure there is some
small child around here who would be willing to part with their breeches
for a few coins.”
Myy brows puckered.
His mouth was soft, and a faint grin playyed across his lips as he
stepped around a fallen limb.
“And after that?” I asked.
“I’m taking yyou home.”
Myy heart about stopped for the hundredth time that dayy. “Home?” I
hadn’t expected him to sayy that. “Back to Masadonia? Or to Carsodonia?”
“Neither.” He looked down, his eyyes a wealth of secrets. He smiled
then, a wide one that stole myy breath. He did indeed have two dimples, one