Amber Eyes

by S. D. Grimm

  Lydia followed her out. The two women brushed by Miranda as if she wasn’t there.

  Serena cried out as if in pain.

  Ethan jumped toward her, but Miranda put her arm out to stop him. “You can go to her, but don’t touch her until she falls away. That will mean she is done.”

  “Falls?”

  “You must not break her concentration. She is absorbing the poison.”

  “She’s absorbing it? Snare me. She’ll die.”

  Miranda shook her head. “She is very strong.”

  Serena swayed visibly. Sweat beaded her forehead. Ethan dashed over to her, hovering behind her.

  Logan convulsed. His back arched and his whole body shook.

  Jayden pressed her hands to her mouth. Ryan thrashing on Anna’s couch, the black lion’s poison in his veins, returned to her memory. The pounding from Logan’s thrashing mimicked Jayden’s erratic heartbeats. She dropped beside Westwind and touched his shoulder. He leaned into her, and she pulsed emotion into him: sorrow, love, and hope. He turned his eyes onto her for a brief moment, and in his gaze she felt his sincere gratitude.

  At last Logan’s body fell against the bed with a lifeless thud.

  Serena trembled. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed. The only thing to hit the floor was her golden hair as Ethan caught her still, limp body in his arms.

  Chapter 40

  Relative Truths

  Jayden pressed her fingers over her mouth. She couldn’t tell if Logan was breathing.

  “Are they okay?” Panic edged Ethan’s voice as he held Serena’s limp form in his arms.

  Miranda placed her hand on Jayden’s shoulder and gently moved her aside. She then rested her fingers on Logan’s temples. “He’ll probably sleep for a week—black lion venom is very potent—but he’ll suffer no lasting effects.”

  Miranda then touched Serena’s temples. “She’ll also be fine. She’s even stronger than I thought.” The Healer motioned to one of the pallets. “Set her here.”

  Ethan complied, but he didn’t leave Serena’s side. A pang fluttered through Jayden’s chest. Was it his job to protect Serena now, too?

  Miranda picked up a blanket. “It usually takes at least two Healers for what she did. Serena is the strongest Healer I know.” Miranda brushed a hand over Serena’s golden hair and forehead, covering her with a blanket. “It’s why Tabitha and Lydia want to protect her. Sometimes I wonder if their protecting is more inhibiting.” She motioned to Logan. “Help me move him to a bed.”

  Ethan helped carry Logan to another pallet, and Miranda draped a blanket over him. Westwind jumped onto the bed next to his friend and placed his head across Logan’s chest. Aurora curled up on the floor near them.

  Miranda laced her fingers together. “The Circle will be in session soon, if they aren’t already. I’ll keep them out of here at least until Serena wakes, but once she does, there is no doubt that they will storm in here uninvited.”

  “What will they decide about Logan?” Jayden asked.

  “Logan has been a threat to Serena since the day she was put into hiding. They will at least banish him from here, along with the rest of you. Or they may hold him prisoner.”

  Heat flooded Jayden’s blood. Rage, but it wasn’t her anger. She grabbed Ethan’s arm. Heavens, he was tense. “She’s helping us.”

  “Is she?”

  Miranda straightened her spine and walked up to Ethan. “You and your sword don’t scare me. Your heart is pure and Serena trusts you, heaven knows why. Healers seldom trust men.”

  Ethan clenched his jaw. “I would keep Serena safe.”

  Miranda let out a deep breath. “When Serena came to us, her adoptive family sent her with a letter. It warned us that if Logan were to ever find her, he would turn her over to the queen. If you wish to protect her, you won’t let Logan get his hands on her.”

  “Who wrote the letter?”

  “Her mother.”

  The door to the tree opened, and Jayden slipped her hands onto the dagger hilts at her waist. The brown-haired, hazel-eyed young woman who had been standing watch with Miranda entered. She had to be no more than fourteen.

  Miranda faced her. “What is it, Rochelle?”

  “Dash would like to hear how Serena is.” Her voice was soft and meek. She bowed her head and clasped her hands in front of her. When Jayden looked at Rochelle, the young Healer’s worry churned her stomach.

  Miranda nodded. “Serena will be fine. As will Logan. Any news from Tabitha or the Circle?”

  “Not yet.” Rochelle grabbed her white skirts in her fists. “Is it true? Has Logan come to take her?”

  Jayden gasped. “Serena is Logan’s daughter, isn’t she?”

  Miranda’s eyes narrowed. “You knew that when you came here.”

  “No.” Jayden shook her head. Miranda and Rochelle both stared at her, echoing one another’s shock so loudly, Jayden’s head hurt. She closed her eyes and turned off her talent. “You don’t believe me?”

  “They do.” Ethan didn’t take his eyes off the Healers.

  Rochelle’s smile was warm. “Healers can tell if you lie.”

  Oh. This changed everything. “Then you know Logan wouldn’t hurt her. He came here to find his daughter, to protect her. He’s her Protector.”

  Miranda sighed. “Whether or not Serena is permitted to go with you is a decision for the Circle.”

  Again the burn of anger fanned out across Jayden’s chest, but it wasn’t hers. She tried to catch Ethan’s arm again, but he shrugged her off. “Because she can’t choose for herself?”

  “If Serena is truly Logan’s daughter, she’ll choose to come with us. She won’t be able to resist the . . . connection,” Jayden said.

  “Connection?” Miranda raised her eyebrows. “To what?”

  “To whom.” Jayden bit her lip. “Deliverers feel connected to their Protectors. And apparently to one another. At least I do. If I were separated from my Protectors, I’d still be able to find them.”

  Rochelle gasped. “A bond to another person? Is that possible?”

  Miranda narrowed her eyes. “If there is truly a bond between a Deliverer and their Protectors, something in the Old Custom may change the Circle’s opinion of what is necessary. I’ll go to the library and see what I can find. Rochelle, you stay here. I’m not certain Dash will trust anyone else guarding the tree.”

  Miranda lifted her skirts, exposing the toes of her white boots. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at Ethan. “If you leave, you’ll be hunted.” She turned on her heel and opened the door. The outside wind pushed her auburn hair behind her as she strode out.

  The breeze reached Jayden’s face, and a tingle skittered over her skin. The storm. Currents of its power swirled in the air and brushed up against her. Filled her like a battle cry ready in her lungs. It would be over them soon. She closed her eyes and relished the fresh, outdoor air until the door sailed shut. These Healers wouldn’t contain her any longer than she wanted to be here. A whining creak sounded above them.

  Ethan looked up, but Rochelle didn’t seem to mind. She shot Jayden a warm smile. “The tree is quite safe.”

  The young Healer walked over to Serena with Ethan’s eyes tracking her. She touched Serena’s temple and smiled. “She’s so strong.”

  “How can you tell?” Jayden asked.

  Rochelle’s eyes sparkled when she smiled. “The temple radiates to Healers how the person feels. How tired or hungry they are, things like that. When I touch her, I can tell that she’s regained much of her strength. Like this.” Rochelle reached a hand toward Jayden’s temple. “You are weary as well as hungry and thirsty. I can get you some fruit.”

  “You can feel that?” Ethan asked.

  “Yes.”

  Rochelle held her hand out toward Ethan’s temple, but he backed away from her.

  “Could you heal it?” he asked.

  Rochelle’s eyebrows pinched together. “I could, to a degree. But I won’t. Using our
gift drains us and those we heal.” Rochelle walked over to the cupboard and returned with a couple apples and some bread. Jayden took some of both, but seeing as Ethan wouldn’t, she put the apple in his hand.

  Rochelle continued, “Serena is my friend. If she weren’t so young, I’d be her apprentice. The Circle has rules about how old you can be before you can take an apprentice. Miranda has taken me as hers, but Serena still teaches me things in secret.”

  Jayden pulled Ethan’s sleeve and sat on one of the pallets with her back against the tree.

  He followed her, sitting so close his arm touched hers. “Serena teaches you?” Scout curled up next to her and stared at her apple. She gave him a piece.

  Rochelle’s eyes grew round as she knelt near them. “Yes, she found me. You won’t tell the others she teaches me?”

  Jayden smiled. “Of course not.”

  Thunder rolled. Jayden breathed deep and let the sound relax her. Soon the tree was filled with the sound of gentle patters slapping against the protective bark. Ethan’s head touched her shoulder and she glanced over. Even during the thunder’s lullaby, Ethan was asleep.

  Rochelle giggled. “I knew he couldn’t stay awake much longer.” She sat on the pallet across from Jayden’s. “Still, Serena said he was very strong.”

  “When did she say that?”

  “He was Serena’s first heal. She told me all about it.”

  Jayden’s mouth fell open. “Serena never healed anyone before Ethan?”

  “No. When a Healer first heals, it is usually someone they love. Family, or a very close friend, or a lover.” Rochelle let the list spill off her tongue like it was common knowledge, but Jayden’s heartbeat hitched at the words love and lover.

  Rochelle continued, “I healed my younger brother first. He tripped over a log and broke his ankle. We were far from home, and I wanted to help him. It was like this ball of warmth filled me. I placed my hand over his ankle to tell him I’d get him home. But I felt the pain in my own ankle as if it were my own. It didn’t last long. My brother pried my hand from his ankle, and we both stared. The bruising was gone, and he could put weight on it with no pain. He asked me how I did it, but I didn’t know.”

  “You can feel what you are healing?” Jayden looked at Logan’s still body on the bed. The rise and fall of his chest was his only movement.

  “We take the pain or sickness and heal it in ourselves. When we stop feeling the pain or sickness, we know the healing is done.”

  “You must hate healing, then.”

  Rochelle shook her head. “It’s our duty, our purpose. That’s what Serena says. I agree. Knowing that you can take someone else’s pain from them—someone you love, so they don’t have to endure it anymore—makes everything else worth it.”

  The thunder rolled.

  “It’s not without cost.” Rochelle looked at Serena’s sleeping form. “Using our power drains us because our bodies overcome it. But we can take more than pain from those we heal. We take strength, too, if we need it, only for Healing purposes.”

  “That’s why you didn’t heal Ethan’s tiredness?”

  “You grasp this better than most non-Healers, but Serena says you are a ‘kin’ to her.”

  “What does that mean? And how do you know that?”

  Rochelle beamed. “Dash told me. He thinks Serena is right. As for what they mean by ‘kin,’ you’ll have to ask Serena.”

  “What does Serena teach you?”

  Rochelle paused and her eyes darted around the tree. “She does what many Healers won’t. She goes into cities. Healers are afraid to leave their forests because of the Imprisonment. But Serena says our people need us. We should stop being so afraid and go out and do what the Creator puts us here to do. War is coming again. All the signs point to it, and the Healers should be on the battlefield with the other Feravolk. I agree with Serena, and that’s why I mean to come with you when you leave.”

  Jayden stared at the young Healer; her glance flickered first to Logan, then Ethan. She’d almost lost both of them today. Maybe having a Healer around wouldn’t be a bad thing. “Imprisonment?”

  Rochelle shuddered. “Healers are considered valuable. We’ve been taken prisoner during times of war for armies to use not only to heal their soldiers but also as human shields, and even to breed other Healers.” She looked at her hands. “If war is coming, the Healers will hide even better than they do now. More of the old Healing houses will be abandoned. We will cease to serve our purpose.”

  Then Jayden had to stop Franco from starting a war. She felt it now more than ever. It was time to go after him. Before he came after her.

  Chapter 41

  Dutiful Penance

  Stretching arms of yellow contrasted with the still-lingering night sky. Light quietly overtook the dark, and it looked so effortless. One of the reasons Ryan loved sunrises.

  This morning, the beauty in the sky couldn’t banish the tug he felt in his chest. A strange sense of urgency. It had started last night. Woke him like a hammer hitting the lunch bell.

  “You should follow it.”

  The voice hissed in his mind. Seared his thoughts. He stared at the trees in the valley. Behind them, shadows stretched long against the dew-crystallized grass. Blackness on the land that the sun couldn’t quite reach. A stain.

  “You think I’m a stain in your mind?” Her laugh was always a hissing chuckle. “Wrong. The root is here in your heart. Dark as night and pulsing with each heartbeat. Your blood cannot escape my work. Soon I’ll begin the transformation again. Soon. No prison can hold me forever.”

  “Enough!”

  He pressed his palms against his ears, tried to make it—her—go away. But he couldn’t. Slowly he pulled the root from his pocket and turned it over in his hand. Such a small thing. But Thea was right. It helped. The problem was, it seemed to be helping less each time he took it. He’d started taking bigger chunks, and it seemed smaller sections took their place. It could be just his imagination. He broke off a piece and stared at it. There had to be a way to get rid of this voice.

  “There is. Cut out your heart.”

  He tossed it into his mouth. Quiet overtook his mind. It was his alone. For now.

  Good. He needed it. And one thing was certain: he wouldn’t go following that strange tug anywhere. Not if she—it—wanted him to. He’d wait for Logan and the others to return as promised.

  Time to head back. Ryan stood and stretched, making sure his sword was still secure, and headed back to the barn where he slept. And there was Chloe, making her way from the kitchen to the stable, mop in hand, scowling. Ryan rolled his eyes. If Chloe would just learn to stop talking back, she’d have much less penance.

  In the month he’d been here, he’d been the perfect student. He learned fast. Mastered the lessons. Practiced with every free minute. And everything he’d known about sword-fighting before One Eye had been what One Eye called “good form.” Plus, he was a pretty good dancer.

  He didn’t talk back like Chloe. Didn’t verbally challenge everything One Eye said like his fiery, redheaded sister. And he helped Estelle with supper without being asked. How on the Creator’s green soil could Chloe—flame-eyed, fiery tongued, hot-headed Chloe—be the easy one to train?

  Stag’s heavy baying announced One Eye’s departure from the house. The day was beginning. Ryan ran to the barn for some training before breakfast. Breakfast that Chloe was helping to make because of penance. Ryan greeted Stag, and a string of slime clung to his sleeve when the dog moved his head. Gross.

  “Up early again.” One Eye spoke in his gruff voice. He had a perpetually happy face, even though it was scarred.

  Ryan nodded.

  “You like the sunrise. I’m more of a sunset person myself.”

  Darkness was never better than light. Even in the dark Ryan would have a fire or full moon, if he could. Then those yellow-moon eyes, dark like the amber stones Norm Grotter used to sell, shot into his memory, and he stilled a shudder. On second thou
ght, fire trumped a full moon.

  One Eye chuckled. “You seem to be making quite the name for yourself at the tavern. All the girls want a dance, sure, but now you’re starting to be recognized by your talent.”

  Well, that was good news.

  One Eye’s eye narrowed. “You certainly have a lot of ambition.”

  He did have a brother who was always pushing him to give his best.

  One Eye scratched his chin. “You don’t say much.”

  What was he supposed to do with that? Agree? That wouldn’t be true. Disagree? That would just be disrespectful. Okay, there hadn’t been a lot of talking. Except for the cursed voice in his head, and no one needed to be tipped off about that.

  One Eye scratched his bristly chin and leaned against the gnarled apple tree outside the barn. “You’re a conundrum, you are.”

  Hardly. “I beg your pardon, sir?”

  He pointed a thick finger at Ryan. “You’re the most guarded human being I’ve ever met.”

  Guarded? Now wait just a minute. He talked all the time. Not during chores, maybe, and never during training. But dinner, sure. There should always be a solid conversation with that many people at the same table.

  And at the tavern. There were a lot of pretty faces there to engage in conversation with. He hardly shut up. In fact, Tessa, the tavern owner’s daughter, had told Ryan she wanted his sword-fighter name to be the Jester, not the Knight. Because the jester never stopped talking. Hardly behavior for one as guarded as One Eye claimed.

  “How do you mean, guarded? I believe I’ve been an open book, sir.”

  “Open, sure. Just not to the chapter I want to read.”

  Oh. Well, those chapters were likely private. “Ask me anything.”

  One Eye crossed his arms and stretched his spine along the tree. “Ethan. You call him brother?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s family to me. To my sisters. He would do anything to protect us.”

  “So you value loyalty.”

  “Of course.”

  The way One Eye stared as he shifted, like everything moved except his eye, made Ryan uneasy. Where was this going?