Page 69 of Rogue Familiar

After her initial outburst, Maya had settled into silent tears, through which she glared at Jadren, as if he’d deliberately ruined her life. Of the three, Liat recovered from the shock the fastest, settling into quizzing Jadren on the particulars of his ability. With Chaim’s weary permission, Liat soon took Seliah and him to the rooms where she practiced healing, so they could discuss in privacy, Liat drily commenting that the council chambers weren’t nearly so inviolate as they’d assumed. Jadren complied willingly enough, happy to put some distance between Chaim and Seliah, and also beyond glad he didn’t have to fight to keep Seliah with him.

With the way she still gripped his hand, or perhaps he was gripping hers that fiercely, it would’ve taken a pitched battle to separate them again.

Once in Liat’s private treatment rooms, the door firmly closed, Liat first undid the binding Chaim had put on Jadren, smiling at his exhalation of gratitude. He hadn’t realized how very constricting it had felt to have his magic bound against his skin like that, not unlike having his arms chained to his sides. Also, the sheer rush of the bond with Seliah flowing freely again nearly made him giddy. From the feel of her through the bond, and the glowing expression on her face, Seliah felt the same.

“Thank you,” he said to Liat, meaning it sincerely.

She tipped her head in wry acknowledgement. “You’re trusting us with this sensitive information. We can trust you to govern your behavior.” She cast a thoughtful glance at Seliah. “I believe you have strong reasons to comply with our laws and eschew violence.”

“Hey, I only murder people who try to murder me first,” Jadren replied lightly, then winced as he realized how much of a lie that was and began rapid mental backpedaling to dig himself out of that inadvertent confession.

To his surprise, instead of pouncing on the error, Liat cocked her head at him, her face creasing in sympathy. “So much pain,” she whispered. “What happened to you?”

A tremor rocked through his core self, an earthquake of emotion he felt completely unequal to holding under control. “I—” he croaked, that cold slime of sweat breaking out over his body again. “I… I can’t—”

“You don’t have to,” Seliah said calmly. She’d let go of his hand and held his face in her palms, standing between him and Liat, holding his gaze so all he could see were her compassionate amber eyes, thickly fringed in black, her oddly beautiful face full of solemn love. “Going to puke up your lunch?” she asked, the crisp question a contrast to the soft sympathy in her expression. He’d taught her this technique, he realized. It just figured she’d turn it around on him.

He narrowed his eyes and managed to extract a feeling of insulted indignation from the morass of emotion trying to drown him. “No,” he answered, his voice only a bit tremulous, fuck him. “But I might just have to spank a certain insolent familiar later.”

She fluttered those thick lashes. “Promises, promises.” Patting his cheek, she turned to Liat. “My trauma is nothing compared to Jadren’s. Tread carefully with your questions.”

“We can help with that,” Liat said, looking through him. “We have wizards here with Hanneil training in psychic healing. They can—”

“Let’s stick to information exchange for now,” Jadren interrupted. The thought of someone poking around in his head, seeing the things he’d done and that had been done to him, made him queasy. Well, queasier. “We don’t have the time to linger here.”

“No?” Liat raised her brows. “Did you have somewhere more important to be?”

Jadren opened his mouth to answer, then looked at Seliah. She met his gaze thoughtfully. “We have a number of interested parties chasing us,” he said, in part to Seliah.

“You would be safe and protected here,” Liat replied. “Earlier you asked about Lord Refoel, erm, ‘trotting out to the border every time someone crosses,’ is how I recall you phrased it. In truth, while our borders appear to be unguarded, we do have protections in place that detect when anyone with violent intentions sets foot on our lands.” She produced a thin smile. “It doesn’t happen often, so your concerns about Chaim’s time may be laid to rest.”

“I feel so much better now,” Jadren replied in a dry tone, eliciting a slightly warmer version of Liat’s smile.

“Something to bear in mind,” Liat said with a verbal shrug. “Now, we must discuss your mother.”

“Must we?”

“I’d heard, here and there,” Liat continued, unbothered, “that Katica El-Adrel and some of her scions display unusually rapid healing, a resistance to disease, and perhaps slower aging than most.

Seliah looked startled. “You don’t age?”

“Of course I age,” he answered with irritation. “Do you think I was born with a beard and pubes?” Though he had to admit his mother looked far younger than her years. “How did you ‘hear’ this?” he asked Liat.

“We have Refoel healers contracted to House El-Adrel.” Liat held up her palms. “All houses expect their wizards who go to work elsewhere to report back useful information. Healers are exceptionally well-positioned to discover what remains hidden to others.”

“And I thought House Elal had the best spy network,” he muttered.

“None of our people told us about you, however.”

“I am—was—a well-kept secret.”

“Why?”

A sarcastic reply hovering on his lips, Jadren pulled it back as Seliah caught his eye. She wasn’t glaring or giving him any sort of look, but the very placidity of her expression spoke volumes. This was what he’d wanted: help with his extraordinary and awful talent. To get that assistance, he was going to have to open up a few cracks in the wall he’d carefully built around himself over all these years. Seliah had started the assault with her naïve tenacity and he’d failed to extract himself from her feral claws. She’d sunk her hold deep enough into his heart that there appeared to be nothing he wouldn’t do to protect her. Including tearing that heart out of his rotten corpse and laying it bare on the table for the Refoel healers to dissect.

“Because I am my mother’s greatest creation,” he told Liat. “Here’s what I know.”

Selly soaked naked in the hottest pool on the terrace of her now fully unlocked chambers. She’d checked, just to be sure. Not that they could keep her confined, as she’d demonstrated to her intense satisfaction, but the principle mattered. They were at least going through the motions of trusting each other. So much so that she’d finally agreed to wait in her rooms while Liat and a few others took turns poking at his magic.

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