[Lavinia's Pov— Dark Forest—Continuation]
"Don't touch his chest wounds, Osric." I peered over the flank of my horse, one manicured finger pointing with perfect boredom at the slick stain on Caelum's upper side from his heart. "There's poison in it."
Osric's hand froze mid-reach. He blinked, then looked at me the way a man looks at a blade: polite, nervous, and unwilling to be the first to test it. "Why—why would you stab him with poison, Lavi?"
His voice had that low, angry-edged concern I was starting to find… adorably protective.
"Ex-actly," Caelum croaked from his awkward perch atop Osric's horse—dangling like a bad ornament—"She is… monstrously cruel. So cruel." He sounded offended by the mere suggestion of it.
Osric, apparently out of ideas, gave the prisoner an instinctive, scandalized thwack across the cheek. "Shut up," he muttered.
I only shrugged, wide and unapologetic.
