29. Raven
Valen motioned me to follow and proceeded to lead me past a silent, and apparently irritated, Lucas and Neive in the outer hall, then down a corridor I’d not yet seen. “We’ll start with only one. Will that help alleviate some of your fear?”
I nodded, not trusting my voice to be stable enough for confident use. After General Beckett’s men pushed me into the pit of afflicteds and I had unintentionally healed six, I had slept for two days and remained exhausted on the third.
Granted, I’d taken a beating, and my body was trying to heal, but I suspected a lot of my fatigue could be contributed to the healing…the return of life energy to those in an undead state.
“You’re going to be fine.” Valen patted my back. “And I’ll be there this time to run interference. If you look like you’re straining too much, I’ll shut the test down.”
“Okay.” My voice croaked as Valen ushered me onward.
I wanted to say no but…I’d signed a contract with the queen.
Plus, few in my circle―Neive, Lucas, myself―could pull rank over the royal healer, and Winter… He wasn’t present.
Reaping hell.
Winter would be livid when he found out.
Valen opened a door on our left, and with a sweep of his arm, offered me entrance. “Stop stressing,” he said. “You’re going to be magnificent.”
A nervous chuckle slipped through my lips. Not do magnificently but be magnificent. What did that mean, and was I reading too much into the simple statement? I really needed to calm my irrational mind.
Our destination wasn’t much larger than my receiving room, sparsely furnished. Table with chairs set center stage. A line of chairs along one wall. A chalkboard filled much of the next. A door on the opposite side of the place, and that was about it. Valen closed the door and offered me a seat.
If Lucas and/or Neive managed to get word to Winter, would he come storming in to retrieve me?
I took a seat, and Valen settled into the chair beside me. “Because of the nature of what we’ll be doing, I chose a room where there wasn’t much one could hurt themselves with.”
His explanation made sense, but of the two afflicteds I’d spent time with, Earl and Myla, I hadn’t noticed them having many issues traversing a space or the obstacles within.
Valen shifted our chairs until we sat knee to knee. “I heard your concerns, how exhausted you were after Beckett’s experiment.”
He placed his hands on my thighs and stared intently into my eyes. I stiffened.
“That’s why we’re taking this at a much slower pace. Understand?”
He talked to me like I were a child. I was far past puberty, and yet I couldn’t muster the energy to get upset or even correct him, much less slap his hands away from my thighs.
“Understood,” I said.
“So…” He glanced toward the door on the other side of the room. “No attacks. We’ll just have you sit here with the test subject.”
“They’re living beings. Don’t forget that.”
“Of course. Apologies.” He rose from his seat. “We’ll bring him in here, and you’ll use your collector’s eye in combination with your blood and reaper’s grip. That trio is what appeared to work last time.”
“Yeah, but…” I lifted my bandaged hands. “I’m not really keen on the idea of tearing up my palms any more than they are already.”
Valen closed his eyes and shook his head. “Atrocious. That’s what that was. Simply atrocious.” He tapped a long finger on the table. “I suspect that the blood doesn’t need to come from your palms, so how about, for today, we try a small cut somewhere else and see if that works?”
“And if it does?” I countered. “You’ll what? Start slicing and dicing me all over the place?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” He scoffed. “If we find that it’s your blood and not the blood from your palms that is the key, then we needn’t cut you at all. We can draw the blood. A simple needle and a few vials and you should have enough blood to cure several afflicted, if not more.”
I sat back and blinked. That sounded reasonable. “Okay. Where do you suggest making the cut?”
“Your body. Your choice.” He handed me a small paring knife.
“You want me to use this?” My voice squealed a tad as I lifted the knife for close examination.
Clean and recently sharpened. Should get the job done. Even if it was mainly used to peel fruit.
“Would you like something larger?” He strode for the door. “Something big enough to slice off an arm?”
He grinned, humor coloring his expression. He opened the door and waved an unseen somebody in to join us.
The shuffle of feet revealed the approach of the afflicted. A man, based on the pronoun Valen had used earlier. I raised my gaze and…sucked back a sharp breath.
Earl scuffled across the room, straight for me. I jolted to my feet.
“Ray, ray,” he said.
“You know this man?” Surprise lifted Valen’s brow.
Surprise I suspected he was faking. He had to have known my connection to the afflicted prior to this moment. Had to have.
“I do, and I don’t want to hurt him.” I swallowed a hard lump in my throat.
Valen directed Earl to the nearest chair. “Then don’t. For his sake, make sure today’s attempt is a success.”
Yeah, the selection of the “test subject” was clearly calculated to force my best performance. I held no doubt on that topic.
Every bone in my body felt taut, ready to crack. I had been excited about the idea of healing people, but now, testing that theory on Earl, I wanted to run the other way.
“What happens if I fail?” I bit my lip and studied Earl.
“You fail.” Valen shrugged. “Possibly make him worse. But would that really matter? Look at him.”
He raised his hand, indicating Earl. Sweet Earl, who’d made me breakfast and warmed my bathwater.
Earl stared back with glazed-over eyes, and yet I had the odd sense a silent plea was trapped on his lips. Did he want me to use him as my first intended healing attempt?
“Ray, ray. Heal?” Earl slapped the table.
My chest constricted. Reaping hell. He wanted this, and I…well… If it was what he wanted, I wouldn’t say no.
“Okay, Earl.” I pulled up a seat beside him and tore the bandages off my right hand. “Let’s do this.”
If I didn’t know better, I could have sworn a tiny smile snaked across his features. Earl was 100 percent in support of the trying. I only hoped the trying led to success.
Yanking back my sleeve, I used the paring knife to cut a thin line along the top of my left arm.
I pressed at the skin until beads of blood pooled along the slash.
I shifted my gaze briefly from Earl to Valen.
The royal healer leaned against the far wall, arms folded across his chest, overseeing.
I frowned and returned my focus to Earl.
“You touch here, okay?” I gently guided Earl’s hand to my slashed arm, wrapping his palm to the smear of blood.
“Ray, ray bleed.” He attempted to pull his hand away, but I held it steady.
“It’s all right, Earl. It doesn’t hurt. You want me to bleed, and for your sake, you want to touch my blood during this process.”
His eyes widened, but he allowed me to press his palm to my bleeding arm once again. Squeezing my arm, I increased the flow…just in case the amount of blood made a difference. Unsure of the necessary elements for success, I wouldn’t take chances.
“The rest is on me,” I said to him. “You just sit still, keep your hand on my arm, and focus on getting better.”
He made no hint of having heard, much less understood my words, but I barreled straight ahead. Embracing the belief that he wanted to be healed, I refused to disappoint him.
I pressed my right, still-healing palm to his shoulder and initiated my reaper’s grip.
My palm warmed, started to glow. The cut along my arm tingled, began to sting.
“Hot,” Earl said.
Energy thrummed, the temperature rose, and my attention shifted away from the room. But Earl… I needed to remain present enough to hold Earl to the task.
“Not too hot, right, Earl? Don’t move your hand. Keep it right where I placed it.”
He didn’t respond, nor did his weight shift. My collector’s eye ignited, and the world blew apart in a veil of white.
Somewhere within the sound of my moan, I registered Earl’s gasp, a moment before I collapsed forward onto the table.
Healing the afflicted was not instantaneous, as I had learned with my first successful attempt.
I had walked away from the woman, unaware of what I’d done. The reclaiming of the woman’s life energy had taken a few hours, and I hadn’t even learned about the healing I’d performed until the next day.
When I collapsed after my try with Earl, he was taken to another room for rest and observation.
“Please keep me apprised of Earl’s condition,” I mumbled over my shoulder, as unfamiliar palace personnel ushered me from the room.
“Indeed,” Valen said. “Should he be healed, someone will come get you immediately.”
The personnel carried me to my room and deposited me on the bed. That had been four hours ago. The experiment had started shortly after lunch. I’d slept through the remaining day, and dinner time soon approached. And yet I had no appetite for food. Only sleep. I wanted to sleep and sleep and sleep.
I lay on the bed, my flesh and blood, bones and muscles, nothing more than deadweight. I absorbed the buzz in the room and stared at the backs of my eyelids.
“I don’t know what they’re doing to her, but it’s not good. Just look at her.” Lucas likely thought he was whispering, but I heard every word.
The tiniest of sounds reverberated through my skull like a rubber mallet banging on a drum.
“Mm-hmm,” Neive agreed. “Can Winter do anything?”
“I don’t think he can. Not when the order comes down from the Crown. You should have heard him screaming at the queen after the last incident. The queen!”
With a shaking hand, I pulled the sheets tighter against my chin. “Can you two take it in the other room or shut up? You’re killing my head.”
“Oh, sweetness.” Lucas took a seat on the edge of the bed and began rubbing my temples. “Is there anything we can get you?”
“Maybe some hot tea and orange slices?” Neive suggested.