Page 131 of Elven Shadow

“Aha!” Zida thrust a glass vial high in the air after successfully pulling it from one of the cabinets. “Iknewyou were still here.”

Then she spun back toward Rebecca to return to her patient’s bedside, moving with remarkable speed and agility for someone so old and with such crooked bones.

“Here we go,” Zida repeated as she reached the side of Rebecca’s bed, the glass vial clamped tightly in her fingers.

“Isthatgonna make all this better?” Rebecca asked.

The healer gaped at her, eyes wider than normal in the infirmary’s sterile, blindingly bright light. “Now what in the world would make you say a thing like that?”

“You obviously found what you were looking for.”

Zida grunted. “Yes, well, before that, I specifically remember clicking my tongue in disappointment and saying, ‘Just as I feared.’”

“And then you went to findthat.” Rebecca nodded at the vial, her current migraine now strengthened by the overwhelming confusion of the conversation. Trying not to frown didn’t help. “So that’s what’s gonna help me, right? To fix this?”

A bitter bark of laughter ground out of the healer’s throat. “Absolutely not! At this point, I’m afraid even my vast skill set falls short in this specific scenario. That wound on your arm seems to be a bit beyond my healing abilities.”

“A bit?”

“Yes. And for someone with my level of experience, a bit is quite a lot, actually. In this case, it’s more than enough for me to feel quite confident when I tell you I can’t help you.”

“You don’t seem all that worried about it,” Rebecca replied through gritted teeth as the pounding in her skull merely intensified.

“What’s there for me to be worried about?I’mnot the one lying in the infirmary. Just because I can’t fully heal what remains of your injuries doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there who can. You just won’t find them in this building, I’m afraid.”

Of course not. That would just make this whole thing far too easy for her, wouldn’t it?

The healer couldn’t help her, but she was right about one thing. No one in this building was capable of giving Rebecca what she needed.

Her Bloodshadow magic would most likely undo most, if not all, of the damage caused by sucking up a homunculus’s nonexistent soul. But as long as Rebecca remained inside the compound, she sure as hell couldn’t use that part of her magic. Especially not now that the rest of the task force had held a huur-akíl without her and voted her in as the next commander.

Which meant until Rebecca could get out of here and put a safe enough distance between herself and the other Shade members now under her leadership, she would be stuck this way.

Rebecca sighed heavily, shook her head, then pointed at the vial clasped in Zida’s claw-like hand. “Then what’s that for?”

“This? This is just in case.”

“Of what?”

“We'll cross that fun little bridge when we get there. Which is what ‘just in case’ means.”

Rebecca had to get out of here. If she stuck around this woman any longer, she would lose it.

All she wanted right now was to return to her room, lie in her own bed, and wait for the right moment to sneak out again and heal herself. Instead, though, she decided it was better to use her time wisely—or more specifically to make do with what little energy she had right now and use it on clearing up as many misunderstandings and unfounded assumptions as possible before she passed out again for another two days.

Or maybe longer. Who knew?

Moving like she’d been dumped into a tub of molasses, Rebecca forced herself out of the infirmary bed and onto her feet. Her balance was unsteady as hell, but with one hand on the bed’s railing to balance herself, she managed to slide her jacket off the sheets before completing the long, painstaking process of putting it back on again.

The whole time, Zida watched her silently, refusing both to look away from her patient clearly not following instructions and to offer anything marginally resembling help.

Every muscle in Rebecca’s body ached with overwhelming fatigue by the time she finished pulling her jacket on over her shoulders, but she’d done it. When her gaze landed on the strappy black heels she had been wearing two days ago, though, the thought of trying to put those on her feet almost made her flop down onto the bed again in defeat.

Fuck shoes. She didn’t need them for what came next.

So she left them there and nodded at Zida before making her wobbling way toward the infirmary door. “Thanks for trying, anyway. I guess I’ll just have to look somewhere else for the rest of it.”

Only when it became clear that Rebecca was in fact going to make it to the door without falling flat on her face did Zida jump into action again.

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