Five Mates Let Me Burn, So I Rejected Them All novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Nolan in the Rain

I locked the cellar book in my mother's cedar chest and told the healer to say nothing to anyone.

"Six vials is a threat," he said. "It isn't a poisoning."

"It's a line in a ledger. She'll say it was for the hounds."

"Then we wait for her to pour it."

"In front of the whole kingdom," I said, and he nodded.

He went out into the dark, and Elias at the gate stepped aside to let him pass.

The storm broke after midnight.

I was alone in the kitchen with a candle when I heard the stable door bang.

I took the poker and went out.

Nolan was standing in the stable passage with rain pouring off his jacket and a fresh gash above his eyebrow where the old bandage had come loose.

"I'm sorry," he said. "The gate was guarded, and I didn't want Elias to see me. I climbed the wall."

"You climbed my wall."

"Yes."

"In a thunderstorm."

"I was going to knock," Nolan said miserably. "Then I thought you'd say no."

"You were right."

He laughed a little, raggedly, and then his face crumpled.

"Can I say something, and you don't have to answer?"

"Say it fast. You're dripping on my horse."

He took a breath.

"The night you cooked for us and nobody ate it," he said. "I ate it in the pantry. Standing up. It was the best thing I'd had in months, and I was too frightened to say so."

"Frightened of what?"

"Of how it felt to have you look at me." His voice dropped. "Every time you touched me, my whole body went wrong. I flinched. I couldn't help it. I saw your face every time, and I hated myself, and I did it again."

I leaned the poker against the wall.

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