CHAPTER EIGHT #2
Her words weren’t as heartbroken as Thom thought they should be.
Suddenly, Rafferty cried out in exasperation. “Stop playing with me, Loxley!”
Twirling the practice blade in his hand, Ethenn gave the weasel an innocent expression. “I just wanted to make you feel good about yourself.”
“I don’t want to feel good about myself. I want to win!”
Evylin sniggered at their banter before turning back to Thom. Her voice was soft with peace. “It doesn’t hurt anymore, Thom,” she said. “I miss him. Desperately. But I can’t live in the past.”
Thom tried to hear the lie in her words. He stared deeply into her eyes and studied the rounds and angles of her face. But he couldn’t find deception anywhere. Not in the weight of her brow or the curve of her lips.
He drew in a long breath. “You’re sure?”
“Quite.”
Thom’s brow furrowed so tightly that it began to ache. He didn’t believe her. He couldn’t. Not when he knew how much her uncle meant to her. Not when he’d seen sorrow leach all the life from her soul over the past few weeks.
A loud crack and Rafferty’s howl of pain startled Thom out of his thoughts. He looked over to find Ethenn holding up his hands and backing away, even as he laughed. Rafferty hopped on one leg as he gripped his shin. Evylin pressed her hands to her mouth to quell her amusement.
“What’ve you lot done now?” Ilain called across the way, her lilting voice carrying only the most minor concern.
Face contorted with pain, Rafferty lowered his leg, glaring at Ethenn.
The kid held up a finger. “You said not to make you feel good.”
“I’m gonna kill you!” Rafferty bolted for Ethenn, setting them off on a chase.
They leaped over roots, ducked under branches, slid on the mud, and trampled over moss.
It all ended when Rafferty sprinted around a tree, cutting Ethenn off before whacking him on the face with the flat of the training blade.
“Ha-ha!” Rafferty exclaimed proudly. “Now, we’re even.”
“Men,” Ilain said with a huff. Then, spotting the welling red stripe on Ethenn’s cheek, she marched over, still grumbling under her breath, to grab the young man’s jacket and tug him toward the firepit.
Evylin scooped Ethenn’s discarded training sword from the mud. “All right, Rafferty,” she said. “How about you and I have a go?”
“I’m in a right foul mood, Eve,” he declared. “So you’d best watch yourself.”
While the two prepared to spar, Thom moved back to the camp. The mud caking the back of his coat had begun to clump, and he wanted to get it off before it could stain the wool. He began to shrug it off as he approached the fire.
Ethenn sat patiently while Ilain dipped a cloth in a bowl of water. Though the cut on his cheek wasn’t deep, a thin trickle of blood welled at the corners.
Thom smirked. “That’s not going to do you any favors with the ladies if it scars, kid.”
Ilain dabbed at the cut, and Ethenn grimaced. “You do realize I’m only two years younger than Rafferty, right?” he said.
“Don’t listen to him,” Ilain said, eyes on her task. “He wouldn’t know what a woman wanted if she handed him a notarized letter detailing her desires.”
“Oh, I have experience to the contrary,” Thom noted.
Ilain sent him a bland stare. “You sure she wasn’t protecting your ego?”
He held her glimmering green gaze like a dare. “I have stories that would make you blush, my lady.”
With a disbelieving snort, Ilain turned back to Ethenn. “I think it’ll bruise,” she said, studying the skin. “That was a solid wallop he gave you.”
“That’s all right,” Ethenn said. “I felt bad.”
Ilain drew back, appraising him. “You mean, you let him hit you?”
He shrugged.
“Don’t tell Raff that,” Thom warned.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” Ethenn replied.
Ilain dabbed the wet cloth to his cheek again, then dropped it into the bowl. “Either way, I think it’d be best not to leave a reminder on your face, hm?”
She moved to take his face in her hands, but Ethenn jerked back. “What are you doing?” he asked, his voice shaky.
Thom held in his urge to laugh. Ethenn’s crush on the Fire Mage had been blatant from the start, his youth making him impossibly bad at concealing his nerves around the highlady.
Thom couldn’t exactly blame him for his attraction.
Ilain was a beautiful woman—her fiery hair, lithe figure, and sharp features gave her a distinctly regal elegance that was practically unseen amongst the Ephrian women—if one could look past her obnoxious personality.
Ethenn’s panicked reaction to her more intimate touch made sense.
The worry that flashed across Ilain’s face did not.
But then she smirked, all trace of distress gone. “Well, we could wait for Auden to get back,” she replied, a teasing melody to her raspy voice. “Or I could heal you.”
“I thought healing was a Day magic thing,” Thom interjected.
Ilain and Ethenn looked over, eyes wide as though they’d forgotten he was there.
“It is,” she said.
“Aren’t Elemental and Existential magic mutually exclusive?” Thom pressed.
With a haughty lift to her chin, she said, “For the normal Mage, yes, they are. But I’m special.”
“And what makes you so special?”
“Beyond my dazzling personality?” She winked. “I’m the most powerful Mage—”
“Born in two centuries,” Thom completed with annoyance. “I get it.”
“Mm.” Ilain turned back to Ethenn. “Auden taught me enough Day magic to heal myself should I ever be in a dire situation. I’m not great at it, but a cut like this and a little light bruising is child’s play.”
The wariness still creased Ethenn’s brow, but he nodded, accepting her touch.
Ilain placed her hands on either side of his face, the right resting more gently over his wounded cheek.
Her thumb twitched in the smallest caress, and a flame-like burst of orange light licked between his skin and her palm.
Thom had begun to grow somewhat numb to the effects of magic, but he found himself continually surprised by the woman’s power. She drew back her hand, revealing Ethenn’s now blemish-free cheek. It looked as though Rafferty had never hit him at all.