Page 4 of To Hunt a Ruby Remedy

I’d been fine with my solitude before she came to the cottage, I’d be fine once she left—if I didn’t let myself grow attached. She’d be nothing more than a distraction if I let her stay. A living, breathing, gorgeous distraction.

Still, my grandmother had tried to raise me to be somewhat less of a barbarian than I was naturally inclined to be. “The bread is delicious. Thank you for making it.”

She swallowed, and the look she gave me could have shamed the sun. “You’re welcome. I love baking. I wish I got the chance more often.”

I almost asked what she normally did. The words were on the tip of my tongue before I caught myself. I didn’t need to know. I didn’t want to know anything more about her. Taking another bite, I let the conversation fall.

Scarlette finished eating before me—probably because she limited herself to a single slice of bread. When she swallowed her last morsel, she rose from the table and began cleaning her dishes. I decided not to object and focused on finishing my third slice of bread. When I stood, I picked up the basket instead of my plate and carried it back to Scarlette.

“Thank you again for the bread. Also, for delivering these charms. I’ll see you in a week.”

She didn’t protest this time, taking the basket without meeting my gaze. I was careful not to allow so much as a fingertip brush her skin. Ward save me, I shouldn’t be having this hard of a time. I felt less of a pull toward women I had slept with than Scarlette.

I concentrated on the memory of watching my mother walk out of the cottage, the need to roam stronger than the need to watch her children grow into adults. She had stayed with us until we were five, but it had been a struggle for her. She had returned often at first, but over the years, her visits became shorter, with longer stretches in between.

The memories were enough to harden my resolve. Scarlette was a temporary nuisance, nothing more.

She stared at a button on my vest. “Thank you for everything. I’ll be careful and make sure the enchantments reach Wulfkin safely. I can never repay you enough for the charm you are making me, so I’ll say it once more. Thank you.”

She left the cottage, and I forced myself not to stand by the front window watching her go. I tried to convince myself that I had sent her away as much for her sake as my own. If she wanted a charm powerful enough to provide continual healing for years, then I needed to focus.

The quality of a charm depended on multiple factors. The materials needed to resonate with the power and the mage. For an active power, that meant glass or gemstones. The shape mattered, too. Rosalia had sent Scarlette with a glass cube because body-healing charms took to that shape best. Technically, I could make do with a sphere, but the further from the ideal the charm was, the less powerful it would be, no matter how talented the mage crafting it.

The node made my family the strongest healers in the kingdom. When we were within node lands. The magical well of power, fed by multiple ley lines, sat in the middle of the cottage, but we could tap into it over a far greater distance. I walked through it multiple times a day, the magic doing nothing until I harnessed my will. If I traveled a little less than a dozen miles from the node, no amount of will allowed me to channel that energy. I was a healer only because my ancestor had locked this node, tying it to his power and bloodline.

Beyond node lands, I only had access to my innate magic, which wasn’t healing at all, but its passive counterpart, body-reading. I had made the enchantment Rosalia used to diagnose Scarlette’s mother. I renewed it for her every time she visited. Without the node, I could not heal. Here in the cottage, however, I was more powerful than any healer who could rely only on their own inborn mage-talent.

I had access to the magic needed for Scarlette’s charm, but I couldn’t create it with a wave of my hand. She needed it to last. Not months, but years. I planned for decades. That meant a sustained effort. Pinprick focus.

I grabbed the base for the charm and cupped the cube in my hands. I pulled the power from the node, the blood-lock shaping it into healing power. It was my concentration that funneled the magic into the vessel shaped to receive it. My energy reserves that were used up even while the node’s power never diminished.

I could only do so much in one sitting. When I felt the first throbs of a headache forming, I put the charm aside. My exhaustion was mental, but it still took several moments to gather the energy to stand. Doing something physical would help me recover, I knew.

I stretched my hands over my head, curving my back and going up on tiptoe. Letting out a breath and lowering my arms, I glanced at the clock on the mantle. The dark wood was polished almost to a mirror shine, the gift from my mother a cherished possession of Grandmother’s.

I knew my grandmother missed her daughter and granddaughter, but she accepted why they couldn’t stay in Drakona Forest in a way I couldn’t. Like Grandmother, both my mother and sister were healers by birth. The node magnified their power, but they didn’t need it. Waiting in the cottage for an emergency to befall a villager, making charms and enchantments, didn’t suit their temperaments.

As soon as she came of age, Mother had left the forest to travel the world, healing those in need. She had returned when she was pregnant with me and Rosalia, but she wasn’t able to settle down the way Grandmother had. Then, a few years ago, Rosalia had set off on her own, too.

I didn’t understand their need to wander. Even if I could have healed people like they did outside of node lands, I wouldn’t want to travel the kingdom. I appreciated my ability to help others without having to speak to them. I could make magical talismans and sell them to the outside world through Thalia in Wulfkin.

Thinking about the charms and enchantments had me thinking of Scarlette. She had left about two hours ago, which meant she’d probably be a little less than halfway to the village now. So long as nothing had happened to her on the way.

I knew the path to Wulfkin was relatively safe. The odds of anything happening to Scarlette were minimal. But she was in an unfamiliar forest and worried about her mother. She was probably upset because of me.

I was out the back door of the cottage before I could think the better of my plan. It wasn’t even a plan so much as a need to make sure she was still safe. It only took a few minutes to walk to the banks of the river. I paused at the edge of the tree line and stripped, folding my clothes and placing them in a hollow I had created years ago for just that purpose. My clothes protected from the elements, I walked toward the river. I slipped the necklace holding two summons crystals and an unfinished charm over my head, letting it dangle from my wrist.

I shot a burst of node power into the charm, tying off the magic and activating it. I always carried an active charm with me if I might leave node lands. It was nothing like the one I was making for Scarlette, but it would last long enough if there was an emergency and a villager needed to be healed.

Once I was far enough from the trees, I called up the magic of the node. Power filled me. It should have been exhausting after the work I had done this morning, but this was different than making charms. I was no longer a conduit, but the vessel. I let the power saturate my bones and blood.

Then I shifted.

Scales covered my skin. My body grew, elongated. Wings spread from my shoulder blades and a tail extended from the base of my spine. In less than a heartbeat, I was done and let the power fade. The necklace fit snugly on my front ankle, where I could still see the crystals in case of a summons.

Once shifted, I didn’t need magic to maintain my shape. I could even leave node lands. I couldn’t shift back once I flew beyond the node’s reach, but that had never bothered me. When I shifted, I wanted the freedom to fly far and wide. I knew I’d always be able to come home and return to human form when I was ready.

Perhaps this was why my mother and sister needed to leave Drakona Forest. They had to work harder to get that sense of freedom. Neither of them could use the power of the node to become a dragon instead.

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