“So I did.”
His chest compacted with a strange, urgent energy that flushed through him in almost dizzying waves. He felt alert and sensitized to everything around him. And so he sucked in a breath as he lifted the hem of his trousers up over his calf and toward his knee to reveal his gash, already having forgotten how tender the area was.
“Saints alive,” Xia murmured with a scolding tsk as she slid off the hay bale to kneel before him. “It’s already swelling. I really wish you’d let my mother have a look. She has a whole assortment of healing ointments that could keep this from becoming infected.”
“I have some at home,” Theron assured her. “I’ll be fine.”
“Home…” she muttered under her breath as if already bitter and jealous of this unknown place that would be taking him away from her.
