Dr. Elsie pulled an elven healing wand from her doctor’s bag and held it over me. I’d seen an elven healing one time. An elf came through town while traveling the perilous Narrow Strait, the small bit of neutral land in Nightfall territory that led from Embergate to Thorngate. One toe outside of the strait and the Nightfall warriors would stick an arrow in your back with legal right.
The elf had been traveling with a friend who’d strayed outside of the neutral portion of the Narrow Strait and he’d shown up to Cinder Village with an arrow in his back. When the healer had brought her healing wand out, I’d never forgotten the unearthly glow it held. It was a cross between blue and purple but also silver. It was like the stars in the sky were contained in that wand and…
Slap.
I gasped, my eyelids fluttering open.
“Stay with me!” Dr. Elsie bellowed.
“Stop slapping me,” I whimpered weakly, looking up at her.
“I need you conscious, Arwen. You’re going into shock and I don’t know why.”
Her words scared the life out of me.
She held the wand now, as small as a stick you would pick up to float downriver. It glowed that magical blueish purple and the light seemed to bathe my skin, wrapping around it and hugging my body. The light didn’t touch the sheets beneath me, it only seemed to search out and stick to that which was alive, the same way it had the fallen elf who’d been brought to my village.
My legs suddenly started to shake, and my teeth chattered violently.
Elsie gasped, looking at the light that bathed my skin as if it had just told her something. “Run a hot bath! She’s cold as ice. Organs shutting down. She used all of her fire to fight off the men and now she’s… freezing to death.”
King Valdren loomed over me now, eyes glowing with orange fire. “There’s no time for a bath. Move.”
Dr. Elsie glanced up at him with a frown. “My lord, she needs hea—”
“MOVE!” he bellowed and she leapt to her feet, stumbling backwards.
My entire body convulsed, the coldness creeping into my very heart and squeezing. I closed my eyes, ready to meet the Maker, then a searing heat washed over my skin. My eyelids snapped open just as the king lowered himself on top of me, flames shooting from his hands and encompassing my entire body.
It burned, but in a good way. His hands reached under me and then he pulled me to him, smooshing us together in this cocoon of heat. The flames danced around us and I smelled smoke as the bedding singed, but the king and I remained unharmed, as if this dragon fire were a healing balm and not the scorching heat it would be to someone else. I stared up into his eyes, feeling the weight of him on top of me as he looked down.
The realization hit me hard.
I’d fallen in love with him. I wanted him. I…
Emotion tightened my throat as I thought of Joslyn. Of Cal and how he wouldn’t kiss me. I was the backup—he didn’t choose me. I needed to remember that.
The heat thawed the deep cold that had taken over me and my body stopped its shivering. My teeth no longer chattered, and clarity returned to my mind. I took in a deep breath, no longer feeling only half in this world.
The fire around us died down and Regina and Dr. Elsie rushed forward, patting the sheets to put out the small fires that had erupted around us. The king pushed off of me, chest heaving, naked as the day he was born.
His eyes hooded as he gazed down at me. I peered at my body to see that the tunic had burned off and I was again completely naked as well.
“Keep her safe,” he told Dr. Elsie. “She doesn’t leave my room until I’m back.”
Dr. Elsie nodded and Drae crossed the room, grabbing a pair of trousers from the wardrobe. Regina sidled up beside him. “My king, how will you retaliate for this injustice? The queen of Nightfall just killed your betrothed and then tried to kill your backup.”
Backup.
She said backup. So Regina knew too? Was I the only one who truly thought I was here because he wanted me to be in his army? I rolled onto my side, away from them; the tears fell down my cheeks and onto the burnt sheets. Dr. Elsie spread a new blanket over me and began to scan me again with the elven wand.
“She took my opportunity of an heir, so now I’ll take one of hers.” The king’s voice could cut glass and I stiffened at his words.
“One of her sons?” Regina sounded pleased.
The king must have nodded, because then the door slammed and I was left in silence, bathed in the elven healing light and all alone.
The king was going to kill one of the Nightfall queen’s sons? I heard she had seven, and one daughter.