His eyes flicking over me, the healer smiles like he knows he’s about to die and relishes it. “She killed my wife!” he snarls.
What?
“Belinda went to Ios.” He turns burning, hate-filled eyes on me. “She wanted to stop that healing center garbage.”
Ah, Gods. Talk about rotten luck. I had to grab this guy’s wife and then accidentally kill her?
A storm roars to life in Griffin’s eyes. Idiot healer. He’s about to read some sign language.
“Can you drain him?” Griffin asks me, his expression murderous. “Heal yourself?”
I shake my head. My eyes say the rest. I’m already too weak, and it wouldn’t matter anyway. Even healers can’t heal themselves.
“Heal her. That’s an order.” There’s steel in Griffin’s voice.
“You can rot in the fires of the Underworld,” the healer spits. “You and your Fisan whore.”
With a snarl, Griffin grabs the man’s head, snaps his neck, and then launches his body across the room. The healer thumps against the wall and then falls to the floor with the lemon rinds.
Kaia bleats like a frightened sheep and sits abruptly on the bed. Her face ashen, Nerissa wraps her arms around her daughter, but she doesn’t scold Griffin like I half expect her to.
Piers shoves the girl at me. She can’t be more than twelve, which means I’m as good as dead.
“I-I’m just an apprentice. I’m here with my parents. I’ve n-never fully healed anyone before.”
Griffin takes her by the shoulders, doing his best to appear calm and nonthreatening despite having just killed a man and tossed him across the room. “Just help her hold on until someone else gets here. Please. I know you can do it.”
She nods jerkily, shaking all over. “I’m strong. They always tell me I’m strong.”
“Good.” Griffin nudges her toward me. “We need you to be strong.”
With his next breath, Griffin sends Piers to the bathhouse. “Wash the blood off the floor. Drain the pool. Refill and drain again.”
Piers nods and leaves the room but not before I see a shadow flit through his eyes, making me wonder what he’s read in his scrolls about magic and blood.
The girl kneels next to me. She peels the blanket to my waist and then lays her hands on my stomach. I feel a tingle of magic, pure and strong, and hiss a breath through my teeth. The pain intensifies as torn things begin the slow, agonizing process of repairing themselves. When I can’t stand it anymore, I moan.
“What are you doing?” Griffin jerks the child off me.
She gasps. “I-I’m doing what you said.”
“You’re hurting her!”
“I know!” the girl cries.
“Keep going,” I croak. “You’re doing fine.”
She looks at me, wide brown eyes in a pale, oval face. I clench my fists until my nails sting my palms and nod in encouragement.
I suffer through the bite of magic and the misery of healing, so drained of blood I think my skin will collapse and mold to my bones, leaving bumps and hollows and sunken flesh. After a while, the feel of the girl’s magic changes. She’s drained her healing power. This is her life force.
“Stop,” I order sharply. “You’re giving too much.”
She pulls back, trembling with exhaustion.
I flop my head toward Egeria. “Wash her hands. She’s done everything she can without hurting herself.”
Egeria hurries over and half carries the healer child from the room.
I shift, wincing in pain but amazed I can move. The girl made a start at repairing the damage, although the gash is still open and oozing. “Rub the lemon rinds over it,” I say to anyone who’s listening.
Griffin leans over me, glowering. “There’s been too much blood already. Don’t hurt yourself for no reason.”
No reason? I’d cut off my own arm to keep Andromeda from finding me. I was going to be happy here. With Griffin. “Do it!” I grind out.
“No!”
I’m cursing at him when Flynn barrels through the door along with a stranger. “Met him at a tavern. Found him again,” he pants. “Not like the others. Supports the healing centers.”
Griffin sizes up the healer with a glance. So do I. His chest is heaving, and he’s so out of breath he looks like he’s about to throw up, but otherwise he doesn’t seem unwilling. He’s about thirty, so fully trained but not yet at the peak of his power. He has unpretentious eyes.
“Save her and you can have the new healing center in Ios,” Griffin says. “It’s yours.”