Page 46 of The Veil of Blood and Magic

He removes his hand, and I glance down. My torn flesh now knitted back together.

Zev grabs my ruined hand, repeating the process. Jagger is still singing softly in my ear.

My head spins from the sheer opposing sensations, and I part my lips to thank him?—

Zev releases me, leaving me to drop in an unceremonious heap on the ground before stalking off.

“Thanks, prick,” I snap at his back as I watch him walk toward the little boy and his mother.

Jagger helps me to my feet. My balance waivers a bit, still feeling the effects of blood loss, but no longer on the verge of dying, thankfully.

Jagger takes my healed hand, examining it as if to make sure Zev did his job properly. His thumb grazes over the tear in my shirt where a hole should be in my stomach, the sensation of his fingers on my newly healed skin sending shivers down my spine.

“You would’ve died,” Jagger says. “If Zev’s magic didn’t heal you…”

“Hecould have died,” I say, nodding toward the boy.

Zev is speaking to the two, his features softer than I've ever seen them before. He bends down to be at the boy's level, and I nearly faint from shock. He checks them over, then says something that makes the boylaugh.

My jaw nearly comes unhinged. I've never seen Zev makeanybodysmile like that, let alone be as tender.

“What is that about?” I ask Jagger as I watch Zev scoop the boy up and put him on his shoulders, walking with the mother down the street to a hut that must be theirs. He ensures they're inside safely before heading back toward us.

“That's not my story to tell,” he says, leaving me with a thousand more questions.

But by the time Zev makes it back to us, grunting that we need to move on before any more collector core show up, I don't have the strength to ask any of them.

The blood loss is taking its toll, and all I want to do is ride atop Rain and fall asleep as the horse carries me to where we need to go, but I won't give Zev the satisfaction of knowing just how exhausted I am.

I keep one foot in front of the other, focusing on the insurmountable task of walking in a straight line and not showing how dizzy I am or how erratic my heart is beating as we make it far away enough from the village to make camp in a wooded area that is just outside the edge of the town.

I'm more than happy when Zev barks at Jagger that he's going to hunt, and Jagger starts a fire as I settle against a tree trunk a few yards away, tucking my cloak tight against me.

Jagger gives me the space I need, thankfully, and I lean my head back, breathing deeply and willing my heart to return to its normal rhythm. I don’t want to waste any of my medicine if I can get it to even out naturally.

I ball my hands into fists, squeezing them as hard as I possibly can for ten seconds before releasing them, a trick Sirius taught me to get my heart to restart itself the right way.

My heart palpitates, stopping and starting a few times before it finally slows, and I sigh as I feel it go calm.

I take deep breaths, silently thanking it for cooperating for once, and then mentally chide myself for how close I came to losing my life.

What a waste that would’ve been, not being able to finish what I've set out to do, but I knew I’d make the same choice if it came down to my life or that little boy’s.

A tendril of warmth spirals over the underside of my forearm, and I find myself smiling softly as I look down at the golden script written there.

Weren't we just discussing something interesting?Six asks, and I shake my head as I close my eyes and respond, sending this line of script over the back of his hand.

We might’ve been. I can't remember. I think you disappeared on me.

Me? I'm pretty sure you’re the one who left the conversation.

I want to ask him where he went, but then that would open the door for him to ask me the same. I definitely can't tell him the truth, because honestly how would he react? Yeah, sorry about that, I had to run off to kill some collector core before they murdered an innocent boy.

Six maythinkhe has this undying loyalty to me because of fate pairing us as Matched, but I'm hearing the truth about me would be enough to scare him off.

Maybe I should tell him.

But I won't.

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