Page 45 of Soul Forge

“Did you leave that woman to burn?” Reiner demanded.

Sypher put the knife and stone aside, getting to his feet as well. He moved until the spikes of the mace touched his chest. “Lanthia,” he said quietly. “Her name was Lanthia. And yes, I left her to burn, and I took her son. What Edward told you is true.”

“You couldn’t save her? With all your magic and might as the Soul Forge, you couldn’t keep the boy’s mother alive as well?” Reiner asked, her fingers tightening around the handle of her weapon. Elda knew that meant the strike wouldn’t be far behind.

“Do you know how healing magic works?” Sypher asked, and the princess blinked when she realised the question was directed at her.

“Of course I do,” Reiner snapped.

“I’m not askingyou,” Sypher replied, the red in his eyes dimming.

“The injury healed reflects back on the healer,” Elda mumbled, her attention focussed on the sharp spike still touching his chest plate. She knew Reiner could easily flick the heavy mace upwards to bury it in the underside of his chin.

“Yes, it does.” He looked back at the captain. “I made the only move I could.”

“You saved the son,” Elda said quietly. Her mind worked over his words, picking out the important parts and piecing together the things Edward’s story hadn’t revealed. If he’d mentioned healing magic, that meant he’d at least considered using it on Abraxos’ mother. Why would he do that if he had no inclination to save her?

“I saved the son,” he agreed. He put a hand on the neck of the mace and pushed it aside. “I’m going to build a fire,Captain.” He made the title seem like an insult, pushing past her to disappear through the gap in the rock.

“I refuse to believe he couldn’t have saved them both,” Reiner growled.

“If you keep threatening to kill him, we’ll never know the truth,” Elda muttered back, standing up to follow him outside. “I’m going to get him to teach me how to build a fire. Just in case you were worried he might eat me.”

She ducked out of their shelter before Reiner could say anything else, finding Sypher stripping branches off a small, dead tree with his knife. His face was expressionless, but the glow in his eyes was almost gone, black leeching through the red.

Elda copied him, reaching out to pull one of the slimmer branches free with her hands. “Why do you think your wings come from your demon?” she asked conversationally, twisting the twig until it snapped off. “You could be part avian shifter.”

“I have no beast.”

“Is the demon not a beast?”

“Not exactly.”

“Part angel then?” she pressed.

He frowned beneath his hood, but the flames surrounding his pupils started to flicker back to life. “The angels went extinct before I even existed.”

“What other things fly?” she pondered, tearing another branch loose. “Dragons!”

His lips twitched. “Dragons had scales. My wings are feathered.” He held his hands out for the wood she’d gathered, taking them from her and tucking them under his arm. “You’re not asking me what the captain was talking about,” he noted.

“I don’t think you would have left Lanthia if you had a choice. If you thought about healing her, you never wanted to leave her there.” Her response was simply put, and he blinked like he wasn’t sure what to make of her. “Are you going to use magic to light the fire?”

“Why?”

“I don’t know how to do any of this.” She shrugged, relieved to see her distraction was working. The last thing she needed was him getting angry and running Reiner through with his wicked black sword. “I’m curious.”

The Soul Forge studied her. “Do you want to learn?” Elda nodded. “Alright. I’ll show you how to stack everything first. We need stones to circle the fire.”

She set about searching for loose rocks, tramping through a patch of shale to find an armful of thick shards as big as her palm. “Will these do?”

One of his dark brows lifted. “Are they hard and made of stone?”

“Maybe I should throw one at your head, just to make sure,” she retorted, approaching him again.

The corners of his lips turned upwards. “You’d miss.” He reached out to take them before she could launch one at his face.

“Coward,” she shot back, following him back into the shelter.

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