Chapter 13

  Present Time

  Yelena drew in an unsteady breath and removed the over-gown so as not to get it wet, laying it over a chest that Eustice had pushed against the wall. She approached the tub and took the cloth that hung over the side, wetting it in the water. The ripples distorted the bronzed skin below, hiding the details of him from her eyes.

  She stroked the cloth over his chest to his shoulders, noting the new scars that puckered his skin. The three years in battle had honed him, she thought as she washed over shoulders rounded with muscles, to arms hardened and bulked by it. His body was a weapon, stripped back to muscle and bone and riddled with scarring.