Page 4 of Blood of the Fallen
“I promise you’ll feel better. It’s a honeycomb.” That voice again, and I finally recognized it.
Bethel... the Wallagrass witch.
Yes, her honeycombs always made me feel better.
I opened my mouth. Bethel dropped a small piece in my mouth. It melted quickly. I swallowed laboriously. She coaxed another small piece past my lips. A moment later, I exhaled in relief as strength suffused my body. My breaths became deeper, and this time, fresh air filled my lungs. It was blissful and right and life-giving.
By degrees, my vision improved, and Ila and Bethel’s faces sharpened until their features cleared a little. They were both beautiful, even as their four heads furrowed in concerning concentration. Four pairs of hands moved over my body. Wait, four? I blinked and stopped seeing double.
Ila was a healer, and Bethel a witch.
They had come to save me. But how did they overpower the guards?
My ears were next to recover, and they offered the answer to my question. Growls, barks, and the din of battle filled the air. I turned my head to one side, following the sounds.
Boots and huge paws trampled the ground. An Academy guard fell flat on his back, his face bloody, his eyes vacant as he stared lifelessly into nothingness.
I tried to sit up, even as pain rippled through me, but Ila put a hand on my chest and held me down. “Stay down. We’re not done.”
“Cauldron! I’ve never seen anything like this. Look at her hands!” Bethel said breathlessly.
Panic surged through my veins. What was wrong with my hands?! I lifted them and stared at my fingers as I clenched and unclenched them to make sure they worked. There was nothing wrong with them. In fact, they looked perfect, the skin smooth like a child’s.
As I stared, the skin around my wrists and forearms knitted itself before my very eyes, turning from gruesome, raw flesh to soft silk.
“Keep going,” Ila said in a breathless tone filled with awe.
Their hands moved up and down my body, healing, repairing every inch of it. As they worked, I felt nothing. They had done something to numb me, to deliver me from the awful pain that had enveloped me in its cruel arms.
“We’re done,” Bethel announced, sounding incredulous
Suddenly, a cold breath of air lanced into my lungs, and my body tingled as if a million ants were sinking their pincers into me. I panted, hugging my legs to my naked chest and shivering.
“Here.” Ila stood and removed her jacket, a heavy piece lined with fur.
It made my skin itch in a strange way. Every inch of me felt new and tender, able to sense the slightest contact.
Of their own accord, tears started sliding down my face just as they’d done when I’d been tied to the tree, begging for a swift death. My gaze lifted to the very spot where I’d stood as they passed their awful sentence. The fire that had been an inferno was now reduced to a smoking pile of burned branches. The young tree was covered in soot, its bark black as charcoal.
My fists clenched as I swatted the tears from my face and rose to my feet, letting Ila’s jacket slide to the ground.
As I focused on the battle, its sounds registered once more. Five people were standing back to back, forming a circle. Their swords pointing outward as three massive werewolves paced around, their eyes glowing, their teeth bared. They seemed to grin in pleasure, to toy with them. The guards had no magic, so they stood no chance against the triad.
Captain Silex and Val were among them, alive and looking as hateful as ever. Two guards already lay dead on the ground.
Staring straight at the captain, I marched in her direction, hatred much deeper than what she could feel for me simmering in my veins. When the wolves noticed me, they stopped pacing and stared up at me, something like relief flashing across their green, yellow, and blue luminous eyes. The monsters who had condemned me to a slow death by fire also turned their attention in my direction.
Everyone stilled.
I stood naked, my newborn skin able to perceive the slightest touch of the wind. I saw myself as they must have seen me.
Whole. Alive. Remade.
“I lied,” I said, releasing a maniacal laugh. “Iama witch.”
I spread in my arms so they could see every inch of me, so they could fear me. They’d sought to destroy me when their lies had failed to do the job, but they had also failed, and now I was reborn, cleansed from their manipulative influence once and for all.
Bare feet padding over the ground, I approached Captain Silex. She aimed her sword straight at my heart, her face as fierce as ever under her cropped hair. I raised a hand, pressed my fingers to her blade, and pushed it out of the way.
