Page 15 of Queen of Thorns
I push open the purple stone door and then pause the moment the cool air hits me. It’s quiet. Deadly still.
There are around a dozen people in the medical wing. Only three of the patient beds are occupied, but there are three healers and several visitors. The Queen of the Crystal Court is easy to pick out of the small crowd, with her glittering purple crown.
Her eyes narrow on me immediately, and I straighten my shoulders.
“Where is she?” Caelynn asks before anyone else reacts.
The Crystal Queen blinks, eyes shifting to Caelynn with a grimace. Several sets of angry and accusatory gazes shift to her. Two seated fae stand slowly, their fists clenched.
“Caelynn?” a soft voice croaks.
Cae’s breath catches just as I notice Kari lying beneath the white sheets of the bed at the farthest end of the room. She rushes forward, paying no mind to the sneers and shocked expressions of the fae around her. Every single one shows open disdain and accusations toward Caelynn.
An urge to keep Caelynn safe pulls at my gut, and I follow right on her heels. I glare openly at every fae that would dare threaten her, even only in expression.
“Are you okay?” Caelynn whispers.
Kari responds with a cough, and for the first time, I allow my attention to shift to our friend. Her curly hair is matted, her eyes sunken. “I’ll be alright,” she finally answers and then winces as she shifts.
“Show me the wound,” I demand.
Kari winces again as one of the healers leans from the other side of the bed to pull back the sheets, revealing an open grey wound on Kari’s stomach.
Caelynn frowns, but she gives away no other emotions.
“We’ve done what we can, but it keeps spreading,” the healer says in a near whisper.
“Caelynn had a similar wound in the Schorchedlands.” I suppress a shiver at the memory.
Kari and the healer both stare openly.
“It was less than pleasant,” Caelynn admits. “Rev healed me, though.”
The healer’s eyes brighten as he takes me in. “You can?”
I nod. I give one glance to Caelynn, noting her dark eyes and sad expression. With no effort, light flickers in my palm. When I focus on Kari’s injury, the light brightens. Her back arches at the first contact of her skin with my magic. Caelynn squeezes her hand tightly.
It’s always a strange feeling, to send one’s magic into another, and that’s certainly true now with Kari, but I realize how different it is, and has always been, with Caelynn. Before the trials, I wasn’t well versed in healing. Healing Caelynn’s arrow wound was my first time healing a serious injury in another fae, and I remember being shocked at how intimate it felt.
But now, now I wonder if that was because she is my mate. I didn’t know it then, but my magic did. With Kari, there’s a small sense of intimacy. I feel her magic and her essence in a way that’s unusual. But more like breathing in her scent. With Caelynn, it was like... bathing in her soul. As strange as that sounds, I was immersed in her.
Everyone crowds the bed, peering over Kari, staring at the now bright pink flesh of her wound. I remove my hand gently.
“That’s... incredible,” one of the fae with the queen whispers.
“You made that look so easy,” the healer says, voice full of awe.
Caelynn makes it easier to use my healing abilities, but I’m not sure how to explain that even if I could tell them she is my mate—which I can’t. Kari knows, but with the High Queen’s bargain that we never be publicly bound...
I just smile bashfully.
“How do you feel?” the Crystal Queen asks Kari, her eyes searching her daughter’s face.
Kari takes in a long breath. “All right,” she says. “But I’m tired.”
The queen’s shoulders relax. “You should rest.”
The healer nods in agreement. “The other healers will want to come and see. But yes, yes, I imagine you’ll need plenty of rest now. This... this look as if it will heal entirely within a day.”
