CHAPTER 286: 286-THEY ALL STAND UP FOR ME

Clementine:

I fell asleep peacefully, and that was the surprising part. I knew that when I woke up, the chaos would begin again.

Until then, I wanted at least one night of peace.

When I started to wake up, I realized I had been right. Oriana was the reason my peace and sleep would be ruined once more.

"What is going on with you two? You’re so rude to me," she demanded.

She was speaking to someone, but I hadn’t opened my eyes yet, so I didn’t know who.

"Because you keep fucking getting in our way! Don’t you see? She’s sick and needs care!" It was Haiden, snapping at her, not in the usual tone he used before with her.

The gentle and teasing one.

"I’m hurt too, by the way, and I have a more visible injury," Oriana retorted.

Her sassy tone was hard to listen to. It sounded like she truly believed what she was saying.

"Oriana, you got punched in the face because you were doing something completely disrespectful to her. And who told you her sickness isn’t visible? She was burning with fever last night. Instead of being a good friend, sitting beside her and taking care of her, you decided to lie down, snort, and cry because you weren’t getting attention?" Troy hissed at her, surprising me.

I hadn’t expected them to hold her accountable. I thought they had become her little puppets, or maybe they actually believed she was innocent.

Either way, it reminded me that the moment I woke up and Oriana did something stupid again, they’d probably turn their backs on me.

Still, I was grateful they had taken care of me last night when I was miserable.

I remember having so many scattered thoughts, probably because of the fever.

It could have been a horrible night if they hadn’t remembered, even for a split second, that I was their mate and decided to care for me.

"So how long is she going to stay asleep while you guys take care of her?" Oriana kept pressing them, ignoring their tone and the irritation in their voices.

"Oriana, if you just stay quiet, maybe we can all avoid getting sick," Haiden argued.

He spoke to her the way he used to before he lost his mind over her, which made me a little skeptical of him again.

"So you’re doing this because you don’t want to disappoint her too? Hoping you can take us both for a ride?" As soon as she said that, the door swung open and someone barged in.

The others couldn’t respond, but her words made me wonder if she was right.

They had shifted quickly when she started giving them attention, especially when she agreed to that ridiculous sharing arrangement.

But my focus turned to the person who had just walked in.

"What’s going on here?" It was Mr. Rick’s voice.

I slowly opened my eyes. I had already heard enough of the conversation to know I didn’t want to be part of it, but with Mr. Rick, I needed to speak for myself if necessary.

"She was extremely sick last night," Haiden stated.

As I opened my eyes, I saw Mr. Rick standing beside my bed, next to Troy, staring at me with a displeased look on his face.

"Where are the other two?" he asked, referring to Ian and Yorick. His eyes stayed fixed on me.

"I’m not sure about Ian, but Yorick went out to grab her some food," Haiden replied.

Troy glanced at me, giving me a quick once-over. He even smiled a little, but I turned my eyes away. I noticed the way he frowned at that.

"Where is he possibly getting food from?" Mr. Rick questioned.

Not once did he ask what had happened. That showed how little they cared about their crusaders.

We were seen only as tools for fighting. Nothing more.

"Yorick went out to meet Miss Rue," Troy explained.

"Are you okay, Clementine?" Mr. Rick finally asked.

I started to get up, but Haiden immediately tried to help me. I gently pushed his hand away and sat up in bed, giving him a small nod.

"Well, good then, because I remember the other day you had a punishment pending. I’m not talking about the Northern one. All of you are supposed to collect water in the buckets, fifty each. You’ll have to carry them to the top of the mountain," Mr. Rick stated, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Are you kidding me? What are we supposed to do there with the water?" Haiden questioned, sounding irritated.

I could tell Mr. Rick didn’t appreciate his tone.

"There hasn’t been any rain, and we have some herbs planted up there that need water, a lot of it," Mr. Rick explained.

He was talking about one of those rare herbs they always seemed to find.

That was their usual practice, discover something magical, plant it high on the mountain, and then demand endless buckets of water for it.

They couldn’t wait for the rain, and they refused to use easier methods. Why would they? They already had free labor.

"Well then, we’ll divide Clementine’s buckets. What do you say?" Haiden turned to Troy, asking him directly. Troy nodded.

"Sure, we can," he agreed.

The confidence in their voices didn’t just surprise me, it seemed to shock Oriana and Mr. Rick too.

"Why wouldn’t she do it? It’s her punishment," Mr. Rick snapped, and I noticed Oriana nodding vigorously behind him in support.

To think I would have done the same for her in the past, it made me furious with myself, with how blindly I had trusted her.

"Well, for starters, because she’s sick. And I hope you’re not suggesting that she goes out there and suffers when she needs to rest."

That was when real shock hit me, Troy had decided to stand up for me against Mr. Rick.

"Well, in that case, we’ll see," Mr. Rick said.

As soon as he spoke, Yorick walked in with Miss Rue leading the way.

"Clementine will not be doing any punishment today," Miss Rue announced.

For the first time, I heard real confidence in her voice, and it stunned me.

"She will rest, and that is my decision," she stated firmly, making Mr. Rick stare at her in shock.