2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

CHAPTER
52
There was a deep, sunken tub in the floor of the mountain cabin—large enough to
accommodate Illyrian wings. I filled it with water near-scalding, not caring how the magic
of this house operated, only that it worked. Hissing and wincing, I climbed in.
Three days without a bath and I could have wept at the warmth and cleanliness of it.
No matter that I’d once gone weeks without one—not when drawing hot water for it in
my family’s cottage had been more trouble than it was worth. Not when we didn’t even
have a bathtub and it required buckets and buckets to get clean.
I washed with dark soap that smelled of smoke and pine, and when I was done, I sat
there, watching the steam slither amongst the few candles.
Mate.
The word chased me from the bath sooner than I wanted, and hounded me as I pulled on
the clothes I’d found in a drawer of the bedroom: dark leggings, a large, cream-colored
sweater that hung to mid-thigh, and thick socks. My stomach grumbled, and I realized I
hadn’t eaten since the day before, because—
Because he’d been injured, and I’d gone out of my mind—absolutely insane—when
he’d been taken from me, shot out of the sky like a bird.
I’d acted on instinct, on a drive to protect him that had come from so deep in me …
So deep in me—
I found a container of soup on the wood counter that Mor must have brought in, and
scrounged up a cast iron pot to heat it. Fresh, crusty bread sat near the stove, and I ate half
of it while waiting for the soup to warm.
He’d suspected it before I’d even freed us from Amarantha.
My wedding day … Had he interrupted to spare me from a horrible mistake or for his
own ends? Because I was his mate, and letting me bind myself to someone else was
unacceptable?
I ate my dinner in silence, with only the murmuring fire for company.
And beneath the barrage of my thoughts, a throb of relief.
My relationship with Tamlin had been doomed from the start. I had left—only to find
my mate. To go to my mate.
If I were looking to spare us both from embarrassment, from rumor, only that—only
that I had found my true mate—would do the trick.