Page 16 of Spark of the Everflame

My face turned hot, and I swung the broom at her legs. She leapt away with a hoot of laughter that I returned with a glare—but I quietly pocketed the tonic nevertheless.

A few of the apprentice healers soon arrived for the morning shift. I was prattling away with them when the door to the center slammed open with a foreboding crack.

A tall young man burst into the room. He wore a surcoat of deep purple velvet embroidered with delicate silver swirls, and jeweled rings glittered along his knuckles. His boyish face was pale, his features strained as he scanned the room with fear-struck eyes.

Blue eyes.

A Descended.

ChapterFour

“Auralie—I’m looking for Auralie Bellator,” he wheezed, chest heaving for breath. “Where is she?”

The sound of my mother’s name sent a sharp swell of grief surging through me. “She... unavailable.”

“I was told to get Auralie Bellator. It’s urgent—you have to hurry!”

His hands trembled, eyes bulging so wide I could see the whites surrounding his bright cobalt irises.

“She isn’t here, but I’m sure we can help. Can you tell me what’s happened?”

“The palace... there’s been an accident—children are hurt. Several. Please—please come with me.”

Calm settled over my bones as my training kicked in. “How many children?” I fired off. “Ages? Type of injuries? How severe?”

“Th-three children. Two are young—under ten, I think. The other is older, maybe sixteen. A stone roof collapsed. Please,hurry!”

Immediately, my eyes found Maura. An unspoken understanding passed between us, honed from years of working side by side. We nodded silently and each reached for a satchel, packing them with gauze, splints, and jars of various concoctions.

“You stay,” she said. “I’ll take some trainees with me.”

“I’m coming with you,” I cut in. “You can’t treat three injured children on your own.”

“Diem, it’s the palace.”

“They’rechildren, Maura.”

She hesitated, eying me nervously. “But your mother...”

“Isn’t here.” The words came out more bitter than I’d intended. “You can take it up with her when she comes back.”

Maura pursed her lips, but said nothing more.

“What’s your name?” I asked, turning back to the Descended boy, who looked as if he might empty the contents of his stomach at any moment. He seemed barely more than a child himself.

“El… Elric.”

“Elric, I’m Diem. This is Maura. Lana will be coming, as well.” I paused and motioned to one of the more experienced trainees, a petite blonde who was near me in age but had not yet advanced to full healer status. I walked over and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

I realized with a start that this was the first time I’d ever touched a Descended—certainly the closest I’d ever been to one. To feel his body heat under my hand, feel the thump of his racing pulse...

I’d been so sheltered from them, my perceptions fed on a strict diet of myth and gossip, that I had imagined them to be something monstrous. Cold-blooded, soulless, hypnotic. Ethereal beauty and wicked to the core.

But this boy, pale and shaking with terror, seemed utterly...normal.

“Thank you,” he breathed. Some of the tension in his features relaxed at my touch.

We finished gathering the supplies, and the four of us scurried outside and onto the long dirt path that led to the royal palace. Elric’s muscles twitched as we walked, and I could tell it was taking all of his self-control to keep from dragging us into a dead sprint. His eyes kept darting to Maura’s cane—his face twisting into a wince with each of her slow, limping steps.

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