Chapter 36. Sweetheart

Silas POV

The fever broke a little after six.

I knew the second it happened. Through the door, her heartbeat slowed from a gallop to something like a walk, and her breathing went long and deep, and the hot, wild edge of her scent faded back into honey and river water.

I'd been sitting on the hallway floor all night with my back against her door. My legs had gone numb around two. I didn't move.

At seven, Tessa came out of her room in a bathrobe, saw me and stopped dead.

"Have you been there all night?"

"She's sick. Fever." I kept my voice flat. "Asher says it'll pass."

Tessa looked at me for a long time. Then she went into the kitchen and came back with a mug of coffee and held it out.

"Dom's right about you," she said quietly.

I took the coffee. "What does Dom say?"

"That you'd fight a bear for her." She almost smiled. "I d