Page 53 of The Highseer's Mate

I return to Selvara, handing her the luminite. She reaches for a small pot and dips it into the water basin before tossing in the herbs and finally the luminite. With her own fingers, she crushes everything together until the water comes alive, shimmering and glistening.

Nicole’s eyes go wide as she watches the elderly healer. “What is that?”

I shake my head. “Of course.”

I reach for the scar on my forehead—the one that is barely visible thanks to the poultice Selvara used when I first arrived here.

“The luminite. It has healing properties.”

Nicole meets my gaze, her eyes dancing from mine to the place where I should still have a nasty cut. “Did she heal you too?”

“Yeah. When I first got here, she spread it across the cut and it seemed to heal overnight.”

“That’s amazing,” Nicole breathes. She scoots closer to Melina and as Selvara brings the cup of shimmering water to her mouth, Nicole lifts Melina’s neck to help her drink.

A small smile pulls across Selvara’s lips as the two help Melina swallow the serum. When the entire cup is gone, a little dribbling down Melina’s chin, Selvara finally speaks.

“It may not work. Her spirit is frail.”

“What did she say?” Nicole asks me.

I repeat Selvara’s message and Nicole hugs Melina closer, her eyes wet and dull.

“Is there anything else she can do?” Lara asks from behind me.

I translate to Selvara who shakes her head.

“No.”

Time feels like it slows as Selvara leaves us alone. All we can do is wait and hope that the luminite is strong enough to cure her. She’s too weak and that leg? Deep gashes slice down her leg from mid-thigh to her ankle. The wounds have festered with infection lines spreading across her skin like spiderwebs. She may never walk again.

But in the silence of the chamber, everything else hits me too. The heaviness settles over my shoulders and I sink to the soft ground, lacing Melina’s fingers with my own.

“Cristina,” I breathe. “She’s—”

Nicole sniffles.

Ryan and Lara make their way over and the four of us sit along the same furs, looking down at Melina. Perhaps we were all looking for a movement—a sign of life.

But the medicine needs time to work. For now, all we can do is wait.

Ryan reaches out and flips the cloth on Melina’s head, giving her the cool side. “Cristina is gone, isn’t she?” Ryan asks, but her voice doesn’t carry the usual bite.

I don’t know what to say. I don’t have the answers.

“I’ll talk to the council. They can send scouts, hunters out for her.”

Ryan tugs her knees to her chest and covers her face for a second, hiding the emotion choking through us all.

“They’ll find her,” I whisper.

But in my gut, I know she’s already gone.

“They’ll find her,” Nicole says softly. She clears her throat and gives us a quivery smile as tears spill over. “We will see her again.”

Lara nods. “We will.”

I’m expecting a brutal comment from Ryan, but it never comes. We all sit and soak up the pain of not knowing where our friend is.

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