Rosalie finally let out a breath, opened the door, and called out, “Bring me a bucket of hot water, and grab one of my dresses from my room.”
“Okay!”
In no time, someone brought in a bucket of hot water. Rosalie used it to clean the dirt and blood from Faith’s wounds.
Once she was done cleaning her up, Rosalie treated Faith’s injuries. There were fine scratches across her face and body, like she’d fallen on rough ground, but there was one deep gash on her back, like it had been torn open by a wild animal.
Rosalie carefully picked out all the grit, then applied ointment to the wound.
Halfway through, Faith woke up for a moment and stared at Rosalie warily. Rosalie gently reassured her, “You’re safe now. I’m here to help you.”
Maybe it was Rosalie’s soothing voice, or maybe Faith was just in too much pain-she close her eyes and passed out again.
In that instant, Rosalie caught a hard, fierce look in Faith’s eyes. She clearly wasn’t some da in distress, waiting to be saved.
Once Faith was cleaned up and bandaged, Rosalie opened the window for fresh air, then quietly slipped out.
Gael and Julien still hadn’t returned. They’d left in different directions, but if they didn’t find Faith by afternoon, they would come home on their own.
Rosalie went to look for Declan. When she opened his door, he wasn’t inside. Leon told her he’d gone to the river.
Rosalie went down to the riverbank, where Declan was bathing. When he saw her, he turned away awkwardly, grabbing a piece of animal hide to cover his upper body.
Rosalie walked up, teasing him. “Feeling shy? I can’t even look?”
Declan’s face turned red. He lowered his head and muttered, “No, you can look all you want, Matriarch.”
He dropped the hide and quickly washed away the blood and grime. Rosalie waited for him to finish-she wanted to ask about Faith.
But when Declan bent to scoop water onto himself, Rosalie froze for a moment.
She’d known he was hurt, but she’d never seen it with her own eyes.
Only now did she see how bad it was.
His old scars crisscrossed his pale back, rough and uneven like tree bark.


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