Page 118 of The Prison Healer

“Mirryn and my cousin Caldon both knew a little.” He paused, before explaining further, “My brother, Oriel, was meant to be meeting Mirry and me at the winter palace, but he decided to stay in Vallenia at the last minute. Cal came instead, arriving a few days before Eidran broke his leg, so both he and Mirry were there when I changed the plan. I told them as much as I dared, then swore them to secrecy.” Jaren’s gaze turned inward as he went on, “When I learned that my family was to witness the first Trial, I had Naari send a message to Cal, begging him to come and act as if he was me. We’ve done it before—we’re the same height and build, and the masks hide our faces. Plus, he owed me a favor.” A quick, quiet snort. “Multiple favors. People call me reckless, but Caldon is a menace.”

A menace, indeed. Kiva now realized it was Jaren’scousinwho had been on the gallows that day, and then had later come into the infirmary and flirted with her. She’d thought he was the one who had saved her. But it had never been him, never been Caldon.

“You saved me,” Kiva stated numbly, having already figured out the truth deep in the bowels of the Abyss but wanting to hear his confirmation, his admission. “In the Ordeals. All of them. Right from the first one, the Trial by Air.”

Jaren’s cheeks darkened slightly, barely discernible in the flamelight but enough to give him away. “I couldn’t stand to watch you die,” he said quietly. “I was just lucky that Mirry and Cal realized what I’d done and covered for me.” His tone filled with remorse as he continued, “I was so angry with myself afterward. Not for catching you,” he added quickly, “but for taking so long to decide to do it, which left you hitting the ground so hard ...” He trailed off, his eyes apologetic.

The prince should have caught you sooner,Jaren had said after the first Ordeal, his face tight with anger as he’d talked about himself, berated himself. But Kiva barely remembered the pain she’d felt, so his regret—forthat—was unnecessary.

“And the amulet? That was you, too?” she said, though she already knew the answer. “That was why you weren’t concerned about me before the fire Ordeal? Because you knew the magic,your magic,would protect me?”

Jaren looked even more uncomfortable, but he nodded.

“And then the water Ordeal ...Why,Jaren? Why save me?”

“Because you’regood,Kiva,” he said, as if that was all that mattered. “I’ve watched you with the other prisoners—even people like Cresta, who go out of their way to make your life miserable—and you treat all of them the same. Hell, you even treat the Rebel Queen like the rest of them. Better, even. And I know you’ve already told me why, just as I know I’ll never fully understand. But I don’t have to, because I can see your heart. You didn’t deserve to die, and it was within my power to keep you alive. So I did.”

The enormity of what he was sharing wasn’t lost on her. He’d interfered with the Trial by Ordeal, not once, not twice, but three times. He’d saved her life, over and over again.

“I don’t know what to do with that,” she admitted, her voice hoarse.

“You don’t have to do anything with it,” he said, sliding further down the limestone wall, sounding weaker by the second. “You once told me that the world needs people like Tipp out there in it, that he’s wasted in here. I’d argue that the same is true about you.” Quieter, he finished, “I don’t expect anything from you, Kiva. I just want you tolive. I want you to befree. And for that, you need to survive.”

Kiva closed her eyes at his words, at the longing she felt in her soul for them to be true. And they could be—right now, they were only just barely out of her reach. All she had to do was make it through this Trial, and she would have all of what Jaren wanted for her, all of what she wanted for herself.

“Then I guess we’d better find a way out of these tunnels,” Kiva said, emotion clogging her voice. She was sure everything she felt toward Jaren was shining in her eyes when she reopened them, so she looked away from him and into the dark passageway. “But we’re running out of time. And Rooke seemed pretty confident that we would die down here.”

“We’ll be out within the hour, easily,” Jaren said. At Kiva’s surprised look, he added, “Rooke made a mistake sending me. He all but guaranteed your success.”

Kiva raised an eyebrow.

“That sounded cockier than I intended,” Jaren said, his cheeks flushing again. “I just meant—” He shrugged slightly with his embarrassment, but the motion cost him, and he cut off with a groan, slipping even further down the wall, nearly on the ground again.

“What’s wrong with you?” Kiva finally found it in her to ask. “Is it your back?”

But she knew it wasn’t, not from the way he was holding himself.

“I’m fine,” Jaren panted, trying to reclaim the height he’d lost. “I just need a second.”

Kiva stepped toward him. “Let me see.”

“I’m fine, Kiva,” he repeated. “Really, it’s noth—”

“Let me see,”she interrupted, using her sternest healer voice.

Jaren didn’t protest again, but he did sink down until he was on the ground completely, his shoulder propped against the wall, keeping his back from it, but also keeping his front from it.

“What happened?” she asked, pushing aside the sea of emotion still swirling within her to focus on him.

“The Butcher decided to leave me with a parting gift,” Jaren shared, if reluctantly.

Kiva’s stomach hollowed out as she knelt before him. Slowly, carefully, she reached for the hem of his tunic, drawing it up above the waistline of his pants, her mind at war with her heart. Inch by inch, his torso was exposed, the muscles rippling as the firelight revealed what the Butcher had done.

Kiva sucked in a swift breath at the deep, multicolored bruises, her eyes flicking up to Jaren’s to find him watching her steadily, waiting for her verdict.

Don’t think of him as a prince,she told herself, knowing it was what her father would have said.Don’t even think of him as Jaren—and definitely don’t think of him as a Vallentis. Just think of him as a patient.

“Let’s see what we have to work with here,” she said, forcing lightness into her voice, before she gently pressed her hand to his flesh.

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