Page 159 of Esperance

Unless she helped them.

She pulled their pain into her own body, and the power inside her swallowed it up.

One guard stood with her, a sentinel who’d volunteered to stay behind with his dying princess while the others continued after Tam and Argent.

Tam. Argent.

She searched for them, but her new power was overwhelming. It widened in a circle, rather than choosing a direct path. She felt Felinus, each beat of his heart heavier than the last.

She healed him, too.

A couple of guards who were slowly bleeding out in the hall . . . healed.

She didn’t have to touch them. With the amulet, she only had tofeelthem.

Her circle of awareness reached the ballroom, and she shuddered at the pain. Even with the buffering strength of the necklace, a hundred people were all dying from the poison inside them. And Samuel, who was on his last breaths. He’d only held on because Sadia was with him, and she was desperate for him to stay. He didn’t want to hurt her.

“Amryn?” Carver’s voice was pinched, and suddenlyhewas holdingherhand.

She was so focused on everyone in the ballroom, she could barely see Carver. He’d risen to his knees, and he clung to her.

The amulet inside her fist pulsed.

“Amryn!” Carver’s fingers dug into her upper arms as he shook her.

Her fingers loosened.

The power inside herscreamed.

The pulse of the gem had a voice now, and it threaded through her mind.

More. More. More.

“Amryn.” His hands were on her face, his thumbs skating over her cheeks. “Amryn, look at me. You need to stop. Whatever you’re doing—you need to stop.”

She couldn’t stop.Whywould she stop? She waspower. She wasunstoppable.

The poison from a hundred people rushed into her body, and the power burned it easily.

In the back of her mind, a thought niggled. She could feel everyone—but noteveryone. Who was missing?

Argent. Tam.

That was right. She’d been searching for them. She refocused.

While the healing in the ballroom continued, she widened her circle of awareness.

Yes. Yes. Yes.That pulsing voice said.More. More. More.

Beyond the temple, beyond the yard, an essence she knew at first brush.

Tam.

Her men were with her, but Argent . . .

She couldn’t feel him.

Argent was . . . gone.

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