Harem System novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Rest

Liriel caught him at dawn, in the corridor outside the sickroom.

"Veyra went out in the night," she said. "A nurse found her sitting on the Ward steps an hour ago."

"Is she hurt?"

"She walked to the Center and back on an empty stomach."

"She's furious at herself and she won't say why."

Liriel rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"She's asleep. She's stable for now."

"Okay."

"That's all you'll say?"

"I told you I wouldn't touch her."

"You did." She looked at him for a moment. "Come with me."

She led him to a small room at the back of the Ward.

There was a narrow cot, a table of glass jars and a window with a green blind drawn down.

She shut the door.

"New terms," Liriel said. "You rest two hours a day. Real rest, lying flat, eyes closed, while I watch your numbers."

"I don't need a keeper."

"You need a bed and a witness." She patted the cot. "Humor me. Boots off."

He sat and took them off.

She knelt in front of him, undid the button of his cuff and turned his wrist up to the light.

Her fingers were cool on his pulse.

"Lie back."

He lay back.

She put one hand on his sternum and one low on his stomach, and closed her eyes.

He felt the small clean warmth again, and under it something slow and patient.

"There," she murmured. "That's the floor of you."

"What floor?"

"Your reserve. The bottom of it."

Her thumb moved a little, back and forth.

"It's not empty anymore. Ruenna put a little back, and the Ward's put a little more."

"You've got a bed of coals under there."

"Is that good?"

"It's the beginning." She opened her eyes. "Which is not nothing."

She did not take her hand away.

He noticed that.

Her palm sat warm and flat on his stomach, a hand's width from his belt.

She was not looking at his numbers anymore.

"Liriel."

"Mm."

"Your hand."

"I know." She did not move it.

"I'm a B-rank. I run a Ward."

"I've never been paired. The Ward's debts ate my fee every spring."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not asking you to be." Her voice was dry and steady.

"I'm telling you, because you're lying on my cot with your shirt open."

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